Robinson Crusoe:
Adventures on the Cursed Island places players on a deserted island,
shipwrecked there and in dire need of food and shelter. Here I'll
talk about Solo mode using the beginner scenario Castaway, which
is a great introduction to the game.
The game is played over
12 rounds, with the aim being to build a log pile and light a fire
to signal a passing ship. The ship is scheduled to pass on rounds
10, 11 and 12 so time is of the essence. To further complicate
matters, the woodpile must be added to only once per turn, prior to
the Action phase, adding another level of complexity and difficulty.
This isn't even taking into account the day to day task of actually
surviving, which can be very challenging.
Each round is comprised
of 6 phases. The Event (skipped in round 1), Morale, Production,
Action, Weather and Night phases. The Action phase is, unsurprisingly,
where most of the key decisions are made. Do you explore your new
home and seek out resources? Do you try and build rudimentary tools
to aid your plight? Do you go hunting the local wildlife? Should you
gather wood and maybe fish? These decisions are not easy and will
have a huge impact on your game.
Another facet to these
decisions is how many people you commit to these tasks. Committing
two pawns guarantees success, but assigning one pawn leaves you open
to nasty card effects, wounds and failure. Each character comes with
two pawns, while in Solo play you also get companions in the form of a
dog and Friday. Friday acts as an additional pawn you can assign
anywhere, while the dog can only explore or hunt, which is very
thematic. Friday can also be wounded and die, which adds another
level of complexity when assigning actions.
As much as the need to
gather resources and create items to assist in your survival and to
attain the scenario goal, you also need shelter. Its essential you
construct a camp as soon as possible. You can then increase the roof
and palisade levels to protect you from the weather, which in the
first scenario will gradually worsen from round 4 onward. Trust me,
the weather can be brutal in this game. Snow and rain will destroy
resources and physically harm your character so again, a balance must
be found with protecting yourself and working towards your goal of
escaping the island. I had a round in my last game where the heavens opened on me
and I suffered lots of wounds due to insufficient shelter, almost killing my character.
The game also has
several decks of cards, the majority of which will cause you no end
of problems and throw bad weather, wild animals, disease, injury and
general misfortune your way that will severely test your survival
skills. Event cards which get drawn at the beginning if each round
are dual effect cards. The top half is resolved when its drawn, then
the mechanism to cycle these cards out of play can trigger the effect
at the bottom of the card, which is generally not a good thing. You
can take wounds, lose inventions and lose Determination tokens (which
are like an in-game currency). These cards can be mitigated by
committing the required resources e.g. 1 pawn and 1 wood, to discard
the card before the nasty effect is triggered.
There are also icons
on the Event cards which trigger an effect listed on the scenario
sheet. In Castaways the book icon is ignored but the question mark
results in the relevant coloured token being placed on the
appropriate action deck. The next time that action is undertaken the
top card is drawn and resolved, with the token discarded. These cards
represent adventures the players have while carrying out the action.
Sometimes they are good, but mostly they are bad. Each character also draws two random items which have limited uses but provide benefits. They also have their own personal invention, which once constructed can glean determination tokens. The game also has various tokens which are triggered from card effects or exploring tiles and can provide food, medicine, weapons and morale amongst other things.
Another key phase is
the Night phase, which is the final phase of the round. Here you must
eat, or suffer wounds. Sounds easy, but the game will cause you to
lose food, close off food sources on the map stifling production –
you get the idea. It should be noted that there are two types of food, perishable and non-perishable. During the night phase any excess perishable food is discarded. (Fear not though, you can create storage which makes all food non-perishable should you wish). The game wants to kick your butt and does it well.
You can also move camp to an adjacent tile which can be useful.
You'll also suffer damage if you have not constructed a shelter, and
your camp does not currently occupy a tile with natural shelter.
The game is pretty
tough, even in the introductory Castaways scenario. I have managed to
succeed but its been a close run thing. In my last game, my loyal
companion Friday actually died and I was caught in a storm that
almost killed me before I lit my fire and escaped. Every round throws
up a lot of decision points in what strategy to adopt. Do you explore
a lot early or do you build tools early to help achieve your goals.
There's good replayability here from the amount of cards available
versus the amount used in the first scenario. The game comes with 74
Event cards, of which only 12 are used in Castaways. There are 9 base
invention cards that remain constant each game, but there are 5
randomised from a total deck of 30 cards. There are treasures, traps
and 90 adventure cards split across the 3 main actions of build,
explore or gather. There's also a deck of 16 beasts that you can
hunt. There is a lot of variety here.
I want to mention
components here as well. There are a lot, but between the beautifully
designed board and cards there are all manner of dice, tokens and
pawns that are used in the game making it a great, tactile
experience. Not sure about you but I like a game with lots of
components that are moved around the board and different tracks that
are used to measure various game states. The game also comes with 4
characters to choose from and its a welcome touch that these each
have male and female options. The rule book is also fantastic. From a
design standpoint it's lovely to look at but more importantly its
very easy to read and follow making the game fairly straightforward
to pick up and learn. Special mention to Paul Grogan at Gaming Rules!
who
edited the rule book. It's beautifully laid out and really easy to follow, which is by no means a given in board games.
In
summary you should just buy this game. Its fantastic. You really get
invested in ensuring the survival of your character and companions.
The decision making in the game is a tense affair once you realise
you are in constant danger from accidents, local wildlife and the
weather and time is running out to escape. There are a further 6
scenarios in the box, each with a different theme and goal, with an
expansion planned for Q4 2018.
Full
disclosure. This is my personal copy of the copy of the game. I
have no connection with game designer Ignacy Trzewiczek or Portal
Games. I am a Patreon supporter of We're Not Wizards and Gaming
Rules!
Details:
Designer/Publisher: Ignacy Trzewiczek/Portal Games
1-4 Players
Play time 60-120 minutes
Links: