SURVIVE: ESCAPE FROM ATLANTIS! MAY BE THE MOST MISNAMED GAME IN EXISTENCE. When I play, “survive” is the last thing I do. Maybe it’s the fact the RockyMountainNavy Boys take great pleasure in beating up on me. So, in a game that already raises “take that” to a legendary artform, why would I want more?
Cute meeples; or in this case, little meeple dolphins and squids.
Survive: Escape from Atlantis! (Stronghold Games, 2012) has several expansions available. I own the Dolphin & Dive Dice Mini Expansion (Stronghold Games, 2013) which takes the Dolphin tiles in the base game and makes them a meeple with a different set of powers. Using the expansion, dolphins are very protective of swimmers and a powerful ally. Alas, evil gets their own expansion with The Giant Squid Mini Expansion (Stronghold Games, 2013) which introduces, what else, giant squids that like to grab explorers from land or on boats.
Survive: Escape from Atlantis!, with both expansions, landed on the RockyMountainNavy Game Night table recently. The expansions were easy to incorporate and the Dive Dice makes for a nice element of randomness in creature movement that lacks in the base game. The game didn’t last any longer nor did the scores seem to suffer. That said, the strategy of moving creatures was elevated to a new level and became the major feature of the game.
I still lost as the RMN Boys conspired against me. Eventually, they turned against each other but not until I was far out of the game. RockyMountainNavy T got a runaway win as Youngest RMN realized, too late, that he had spent a whole lot of effort beating up on me while his brother quietly slipped explorers away. Final Score: 24-15-10.
Both expansions for Survive: Escape from Atlantis! were so easy to integrate I can’t foresee not playing with them in any future game. Maybe my luck will change and I will actually survive and win.
Then again, maybe not.
Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 