There is a game where I can play as the infamous Great White Shark? I am already sold on this before I even play it! Now unlike my previous posts this is one that I have played before, the items are already open so sadly you will not see what it is like when I first opened it, boooo!
Let us cover the basic information;
Players: 2 - 4
Ages: 12+
Time: 60 - 120
What is in the box?
Inside the box, you will get the following;
1 double-sided game board
1 shark meeple
2 boat meeples
3 crew meeples
16 shark ability cards
16 resurface cards
22 gear cards
16 amity event cards
3 dice
1 shark tracker pads
4 character boards
4 board clips
8 boat tiles (double-sided)
40 other tokens
1 set of rules
So yeah you get a lot of pieces for this game and guess what you are going to need them! So it is time to talk about setting up the game and what that entitles!
Setting up act 1
I bet you are sat there thinking setting up act 1? What is this madness? A play? Well no the game is played over two acts and that is where the game gets interesting!
Setting up act 1 is very easy and if you need a reference check out the photo at the top. It shows you how you should set up the first act of the game.
1: Get the game board and place it in the middle of the table and make sure you have put it to the island side. Place the extra barrels in the store space on the board.
2: Shuffle the Amity event cards and place them face down near the board.
3: Place the 16 swimmer tokens near the board also.
4: Decide who will play Jaws and then the other players pick the characters they want to play.
If there are two players one picks the shark and the other controls all other characters.
If there are three players one picks the shark, the other two pick a character each and share the third character.
If there are four then well it is easy really to figure it out.... One plays the shark and everyone else plays a character. I know right? Crazy how easy that one was....
5: Each player takes the character game boards they need, puts them on act 1 side and sets them up.
Now let's talk about how to set them up!
For the shark put a board clip on the 0 swimmer mark, collect the shark tracker sheet, finally the 4 shark bonus tokens that you can use. Wait and the shark meeple of course! That is a little bit important!
Now each of the characters in the game needs to set up their character boards.
Quint (Green board, green meeple & brown boat meeple):
Take two barrels (need these!)
Place the character in the boat and place this in space 8 on the board (the eastern dock)
Brody (Black board, black meeple and that's it!):
Take the beach closed token
Take the binoculars token
Place the character at the Amity P.D. space (7)
Hooper (Blue board, blue meeple and white boat meeple):
Take the fish finder token
Place the character in the boat and place this in space 5 on the board (the western dock)
Finally the shark player AKA Jaws needs to make a note of the starting position on the board (DO NOT PLACE THE TOKEN THERE).
So how do I win act 1?
Act 1 can finish in 1 or 2 ways, where do we begin? Oh yeah by telling you these ways!
Jaws: If the shark manages to eat 9 swimmers the game will move on to the next act. Why would they need to do this? The more sharks the swimmer eats the more shark abilities they get to use in the next act and the less crew equipment the other characters will get to use!
Characters: If the characters manage to tag the shark with two barrels this will end the round and we will move on to act 2. The crew need to prevent the shark from eating swimmers so they enter act 2 with equipment to F**k up that shark.
Playing act 1
Act 1 is played over several phases per turn that need to be played in order. It is important that you complete them in order or it will really make the game suck. You do not want the game to suck!
Phase 1:
Turn over the top Amity event card, First look at the locations of the swimmers and place them. If it says S NN EE this means you place 1 swimmer at the South Beach, 2 at the North Beach and 2 at the East Beach.
Finally, look at the event text on the card and action this event, you need to make sure this is used in the around.
Phase 2:
Now it is the sharks turn to go! The shark gets to take 3 actions and these actions are;
Move (1 space is an action)
Eat (eating 1 swimmer is an action)
This means that if you move two spaces and eat 1 swimmer this will be all 3 actions you can take.
You never tell your moves or actions to the other players you need to just track these on your shark tracker. Well this is not quite true you do tell them certain information and we will cover that next.
Eating swimmers:
If you eat any swimmers you must tell the other players how many you ate and at what beach. These tokens are then removed from the board, you do not tell them if you moved and ate the swimmers just the amount and location.
Motion sensors:
If you have passed through any ocean spaces with floating barrels you must inform the crew which ones you triggered. You do not tell them the order they were triggered or when, just that at some point that motion sensor was triggered.
Power token:
You must also inform them if you used a power token, you do not tell them which one or show them. They just need to know that one of them was used and you need to remember that these can only be used once! Once they are used they are gone! Also only 1 power token per turn!
Power tokens:
Feeding frenzy - eat all the swimmers in 1 space for 1 action!
Evasive moves - ignore all the floating barrels (motion sensors)!
Out of sight - ignore Brody's binoculars and Hooper's fish finder!
Speed burst - move 3 spaces for 1 action this turn!
When you are playing the shark you need to fill the tracker pad with all your actions. You make a note of the power token you used, where you finished your turn, any swimmers you ate and at what beach.
Phase 3:
The crew now get to have their turn and this is bad for the shark, run shark run, no wait swim!
Each crew member will get to take 4 actions, this means all of them will have completed a total of 12 actions, which does not seem fair to me.....
Quint;
Move - move 1 space adjacent to where you are, this is 1 action.
Rescue a swimmer - remove 1 swimmer for 1 action from the beach space you are in.
Pick up barrels - pick up all the barrels from the space you are in, barrels can be picked up from;
Dock
Floating in water
From Hopper
This is 1 action.
Launch a barrel - only once per turn can you fire a barrel into your space or an adjacent space. If the shark is where the barrel lands this tags to the shark. Now if you tag the shark with two barrels you end this act, so find that little devil and tag it twice! if you are the shark then swim away like there is no tomorrow! Shooting a barrel is 1 action.
Brody;
Move - move 1 space adjacent to where you are, this is 1 action.
Rescue a swimmer - remove 1 swimmer for 1 action from the beach space you are in.
Pick up 1 barrel - collect a barrel from the store and place it on your character board, you can only carry 1 at a time. This is 1 action.
Drop 1 barrel - if you are at the dock you can drop 1 barrel for collection. This is 1 action.
Use binoculars - if you are at one of 4 beach spaces you can use the binoculars to scan for the shark. If the shark is in that spot they must place their shark meeple in that space and say HEY I AM A NAUGHTY SHARK AND I AM HERE! This is 1 action and also can only be used once per turn.
Close a beach - if you are at the mayor's office or the Amity P.D. you can close a beach, however, there can not be any swimmers at this beach otherwise it can not be closed. This is 1 action and also can only be used once per turn. Now when the beach is closed if an Amity event card would place swimmers at this beach you change it to opening soon and do not place any swimmers. Then the next time any swimmers would appear on that beach do not place any and remove the token.
Hooper;
Move - move 2 space adjacent to where you are, this is 1 action.
Rescue a swimmer - remove 1 swimmer for 1 action from the beach space you are in.
Pick up barrels - pick up any number of barrels from the space you are in, this is 1 action, this is basically the same as Quint.
Give barrels to Quint - you can give all your barrels to quint for 1 action. You must of course be in the same space.
Use fish finder - this can only be used once per turn and takes 1 action. You place the fish finder in the space you are in and then do the following;
If the shark is in that space they must tell you so and place the shark meeple in that space.
If the shark is in an adjacent space they must say they are nearby BUT NOT TELL YOU WHICH SPACE THEY ARE IN.
If they do not match any of the above they tell you nothing! NOTHING!
Once the crew have taken all their actions this ends the turn and then it goes back to a new Amity event card and all goes around again.
The rule book explains this in great detail and contains really good examples for you to follow.
In this act, the shark is trying to avoid barrels, use the power tokens and eat swimmers.
The crew are trying to locate and tag two barrels onto the shark.
That is it! But it is not that simple, trust me, play it and you will see this is a very complex task for both the shark and crew!
Setting up act 2
Once act 1 is over it is time to set up act 2 and get ready for some action!
1: Shuffle the shark ability cards and then randomly give the shark player the number of cards they earned in act 1. This number is found on the shark card from the number of swimmers they ate. The shark can look at these cards but the crew must not see these cards.
2: Give each crew member their starting gear (2 cards each) and their tokens.
3: Shuffle the crew cards and then randomly give the crew the number of cards they earned in act 1. Check the shark card to see the number they will get from the swimmers the shark managed to devour! The crew then dishes out these cards to the crew in any order they want, this is up to them.
4: Next make sure all the character cards are on act 2 and the clips but in the right place to keep track. Put the equipment cards next to the cards to show which crew holds which equipment.
6: Flip the board over to the second size and build the orca boat using the tiles, these tiles have a damaged side so make sure the undamaged side is showing.
7: Shuffle the resurface deck and place it at the bottom of the board where it says deck.
8: Now each crew member places their character meeple on the boat where they wish to start.
9: The shark needs to collect his resurface tokens (A,B and C) and his shark meeple.
10: Place the other tokens and dice next to the side of the game board for the battle ahead!
The act is now set up and the game is ready to start, do you have what it takes to win? I did not..... spoiler!
How to win act 2?
Act 2 is where the winner matters, if you fail here you are a loser and suck!
Now there are a few ways this act will end;
1: If the shark gets 18 wounds, this will kill him off :( yes, this is what happened to me.
2: If the shark destroys all sections of the boat! Once all the boat sections are destroyed it is game over!
3: If the shark kills off all the crew! Each crew member can take 5 wounds but the 6th one will kill them off and they are gone from the game!
How to play act 2?
Act 2 just like act 1 is played over several phases that need to be played in order or it will ruin this game. It will ruin it trust me!
Phase 1: Resurface cards, place the top 3 cards from the deck in the A, B and C zones at the bottom of the game board. Now you need to place the red A, B and C tokens in the matching spaces on the cards.
These cards show you;
The location on the board the shark will appear if this spot is picked.
If the shark can use this zone to shake off any attached equipment, this is shown by a fishhook symbol.
The evade value is how many hits the shark evades, this is a number in a fin.
A number of attack dice that the shark will get to roll this round when attacking the boat.
Phase 2: Shark picks, firstly the shark can pick 1 of its shark abilities cards it wishes to use if it wants to use any. Then it must pick a resurface zone using one of its tokens. This will represent the zone it wishes to appear. Once they are picked place them all facedown so the crew have no idea about your moves, muwhahaha.
Phase 3: Crew now prepare for their turn they must do the following;
Move - if they wish to move, they can move 2 spaces that are adjacent together.
Choose a weapon - you must pick 1 weapon you wish to use this round.
Place target token - place the matching colour target token in the space the crew member plans to defend against the shark attack.
Pick accessory - if a card is not a weapon (chum, ammo or shark cage) these can also be selected to use along with the weapon.
Phase 4: Shark reveals, the shark shows the spot they picked to resurface and places their shark meeple in this location, they also reveal their shark ability card if they picked one this turn.
If this location contains a shake off symbol and you have some attached equipment it is removed now.
Phase 5: Crew now gets to attack, if the shark is in a zone with a crew member attack token the crew use their chosen weapon and roll to see if they injure the shark.
The weapon card will show you how many dice to roll if it causes any auto hits (a hit symbol on the card after the dice and the +).
Now the resurface card will show you how many hits the shark avoids, if you use the rifle and roll 3 hits on the dice the rifle also hits for 1 causing 4 wounds. If the resurface zone provides the shark 1 avoid it means you only cause the shark 3 wounds. This is simple. The rulebook shows a great example of this.
If the weapon is one that attaches this auto attaches to the shark (no need to roll) and it stays with the shark. Make sure each turns the shark player actions the event on the card until they shake it off.
Phase 6: Now the shark is mad and gets to attack back! The shark rolls the number of dice shown on the card and attacks the boat. The boat tile shows how many wounds it can take before it is damaged or destroyed. If a piece is damaged or destroyed the crew on that tile are knocked into the water.
When the shark attacks they must pick the boat tile they are attacking, it must be in the same space or an adjacent one (not diagonally).
If there are crew in the water already and they are in the same or adjacent space they can attack the crew directly.
Finally, if a crew member was on a boat tile and was knocked off that turn the shark gets a bonus attack on them and gets to roll one dice to cause wounds.
That ends this turn and then it all begins again to under one of the win conditions are met!
The rule book explains this all really well with examples and detailed rules, which makes the game so easy to play!
Final thoughts!
What to make of this game? Other than the fact it is brilliant and I do not mean that in any other way than it is bloody brilliant.
I have now played this game around 5 times and not once did it feel like it is just the same game getting played again, it is always different. I have played with 3 players, three players and four players. I have played as the crew and as the shark. It is complicated and brilliant at the same time, it felt like it should be very basic but there is a lot to this game.
Playing as the shark is hard, playing as the crew is hard each has good and bad points it is so difficult to plan your moves and know if you are making a good choice!
I enjoy the game, I love how stressful it can be picking your moves, I enjoy the planning, I love eating the swimmers and most of all I really enjoy this game.
If you have not played this game you need to get out there and play it because you will not be disappointed not one bit! If you are then you suck.
9/10
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