Underwater Cities – a solo review

Climate change, while being vehemently denied by some, was the among one of the chief factors our planet flooded and we needed to find a sustainable future. Building a successful space colony was still too far away, both literally and figuratively. It turns out the future was beneath what was gonna kill us – the water.

Name: Underwater Cities (2018)
Designer: Vladimír Suchý
Publisher: Delicious Games
Play type: worker placement, network building, hand management

What the game is about

When Underwater Cities debuted at Essen 2018, it was a surprise hit, which was an extraordinary accomplishment for the small company Delicious Games, which is basically Vladimír Suchý (this game’s designer) and his wife. Underwater Cities was initially heralded as Terraforming Mars 2.0 – using cards to build an engine – but most found out that the game was actually quite different. Despite this, it still managed to not get lost in Terraforming Mars’ shadow.

The basic idea of Underwater Cities is that you use cards to select an action in order to create a network of, well, underwater cities – filling it with biodomes and various buildings that produce resources. At the end of the game, you tally up your points and check to see if you have the requisites for a solo victory: at least 7 cities and 100 points.

How the game works

Underwater Cities is a game where you play cards to take actions. Cards come in three different colors; if the card you played matches the color of the action you want to take, you get to do the action on the card too. The game is played over 10 rounds (with production phases after rounds 4/7/10) in which you have 3 actions each.

The actions you can take are depicted around the border of the game board: four each of green, red and yellow (which I think is orange but hey, who am I). You have your own player board besides that where you are building your underwater city. You can build (symbiotic) cities that you can connect to other cities and also three metropolis tiles – drawn at random at the beginning of the game – that give you bigger rewards. Furthermore, small buildings give you much-needed resources during production phases. Each player board has a identical basic side and a varied advanced side – offering building bonuses, extra building costs, and even bonuses for production.

Each turn, one action in every color is blocked by the action tokens of another (inactive) player. At the end of the round, those tokens shift one space to the left. The game also comes with a Federation track that is used in the multiplayer mode to determine player order for next round. The solo implementation of that is rather neat; if you haven’t taken any federate actions during a round, a fourth action slot will get blocked for the next round. If you did advance on the Federation track, nothing happens. It’s an interesting use of a mechanism that’s usually preordained for multiplayer.

The only aspect of the regular game that’s not used in the solitaire mode are the government contracts.

The game ends after the production phase after the tenth round. You tally up your score to see if you scored 100 points or more. If you did, and you’ve also built at least 7 cities, you have won Underwater Cities.

Theme, art & flavor

The game comes with a vibrant color pallette for such a relatively dry euro game. From what I saw before I got the game, it had some nice artwork; now that I own the game, I think the artwork is just okay. Soma art is recycled for different cards, which is a con for me, but nothing too serious.

Flavor-wise, as you might expect from such a game, the theme is more pasted on rather than emergent. You’d probably be able to turn this game into a farming game, or something about trading in the mediterranean. Still, I like the feel of the game – how I’m building up my underwater domain, expanding with new domes and new tunnels, and how I’m supplying each with various installations. It’s pretty to look at during the game.

How does it play?

Underwater Cities is a tight puzzle game with lots of tactical decisions, starting with the most basic ones: which cards to play, in what order and of what color?

In an ideal world you’d think that each round you play three cards that match the action you’re taking, but that’s assuming a) you always have the right colored cards, b) you can always take the best option for you and c) the cards you play are relevant too. That’s not always the case, which makes each turn and interesting and at times very crunchy puzzle.

You see, you don’t produce at the beginning of each round, but rather only three times during the game. Unlike Terraforming Mars, resources are scarce and everything you have to spend needs to be considered. Cards that let you break the mold – either gaining resources, converting resources, or letting you take free or discounted actions – are very attractive. For example, you can do buy special action cards that have unique and powerful abilities, but cost you 1, 2 or 3 credits (and that’s a lot). They grant you immediate bonuses or end-game scoring conditions (for example, letting you exchange resources for points for a more interesting rate) – but they cost both valuable credits and actions, both of which you never seem to have enough of.

Every decision matters – again comparing this to Terraforming Mars, I feel Underwater Cities has a lot less wiggle room. Whereas in Terraforming Mars you can often ‘durdle around’ and just do the things you’d like to do, Underwater Cities takes more time to play because you want to make the most out of your three actions each round. There is more downtime, so to say – which is why this is an excellent, thinky game that’s very well suited for solo play.

To qualify for a win, you need both 7 connected cities as well as at least 100 points. The closest I have come to winning was with a score of 80-something. Perhaps surprisingly so, this does not diminish my appreciation for this game. Yes, it is hard to achieve that, and you have little room for error, but this is a game for me where winning is secondary to playing it. Just like Terraforming Mars, just like A Feast for Odin, it’s all about the journey rather than the destination.

Expansion

The game has one big box expansion called New Discoveries, which has various modules you can add to your game. Unfortunately, not all of those work for solo play right away. The biggest pro of this expansion is the dual-layered player boards that prevent table bumps from messing up your tableau. Just like Terraforming Mars, you’re using a simple piece of cardboard to place everything on and that’s just not enough. Right now the expansion doesn’t feel worthwhile for solo play, but I do hope I can get those deluxe player boards somewhere.

What I like

• Every turn is a puzzle of optimizing your three actions
• The engine you’re building starts humming relatively soon, giving you visual confirmation that you are building something (unlike Terraforming Mars, which has a slow start)
• The growth of your underwater domain is visual and immediate; you see the consequences of your actions immediately
• Just the right amount of brain burn for both a challenging and relaxing solo gaming experience

What I didn’t like

• The solo mode win condition is rather high and really tough to accomplish (in this, I like Terraforming Mars better), although not frustratingly so
• Player boards are just pieces of paper and not table-bump-proof

Conclusion

Let’s start with the elephant in the room – do you need this if you already have Terraforming Mars, or vice versa? Honestly, if you’d ask me to pick one, my answer would be ‘next question please’. I like them both for what they are, and they are different enough to both warrant a place in my collection.

Underwater Cities has tight decision space and shows immediate results of your actions. Your underwater empire starts growing immediately while you try to maximize your three-action puzzle each turn. When do I build another city/ What metropolis should I focus on? Should I buy a special card now? Are my facilities built optimally for both points and resources? Winning this game is not easy, and I will surely cherish my first victory once I achieve it – until then, and thereafter, I plan to thoroughly enjoy each and every play of this game.

Rating: ★★★★★

Thank you for reading! If you like my content, please consider buying me a coffee.