Aqualin

Designed by Marcello Bertocchi, Aqualin is an abstract and strategic tile-laying game for 2 players, ages 8 and up, that offers games lasting about 20 minutes. On a reef teeming with marine life, players compete to score the highest possible score by forming either groups of one color or schools of the same type of animal. In successive turns, the players will add and move the pieces to try to form the most favorable sets to their interests until there is no more space.

With just the right components, Aqualin offers a great game and a great experience for all types of players. The reef where the action takes place is a central board with 36 squares, arranged in 6 columns and 6 rows. Around it are the 36 marine life cards, in which we find starfish, crabs, turtles, jellyfish, seahorses and fish, all of them in different colors. No two tiles are the same underwater!

Before starting the game, a central market is formed revealing 6 tiles, which will be available to both players. Once decided who will score for the color and who for the type of animal, the game begins. On his turn, a player may move a reef token along a column or row until he meets an obstacle (ie another token or the edge of the board) and must add a new token from the central market. Finally, he randomly takes one of the remaining tokens to make it available on future turns.

In Aqualin the water currents are capricious… Marine life constantly forms new banks! However, as the reef fills up, there is less and less room to swim. Once all 36 spaces are occupied, victory points are tallied. Banks are made up of groups of two or more adjacent sea creatures of the same type or color, but diagonal tiles don't count! The bigger the bank, the more points it will report.

Puzzle lovers can't miss Aqualin, a title that promises very intense duels in which a single move can decide the entire game. Its simple rules make it ideal also for the little ones or for sporadic fans of board games. Dive into the reef and discover the rich diversity of marine life, while testing your ability to control their movements and form majorities.


Author Marcello Bertocchi
Illustrator Sophie Rekasowski
Mechanics Tile Laying, Connections, Pattern Building, Pattern Movement, Grid Movement
Player Type Hobbyist, Occasional, Regular
Duel Game Scenario, Less than an hour, Quickie