While I’m familiar with designer Scott Allen Czysz’s small games Count of Nine and Forest Sky, he’s mostly known for the quick and simple solo dice game Pocket Landship. His latest design, Pocket Nautilus, expands on Landship with new mechanics while also exploring a theme that I’m personally even more interested in: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
For anyone unfamiliar with its predecessor, Pocket Nautilus’ gameplay is very easy to pick up, and there’s precious little fiddly upkeep. The latter is a huge deal for me in solo games, so I was already a fan of this one. Each round has two turns: the Enemy Turn followed by the Nautilus Turn, both resolved by simply rolling dice. For the Enemy Turn, just roll three dice and arrange them in ascending order, then activate enemies with the corresponding die (i.e., the left enemy gets the smallest die and the right one takes the largest die). On the Nautilus Turn, you’ll typically roll three dice, then choose how you want to assign a die to each of your Prow, Hull, and Diving Team.
While the dice can be as cruel as they are kind, they’re at least impartial to either side. Enemies might go several rounds doing nothing just as much as you’ll be left with unusable results. Normally, I strongly dislike any time dice are rolled without any way for the player to manipulate or mitigate them, but in a game as light as this, I’m perfectly fine with it. The different options available from your three Nautilus cards usually mean that you won’t be splashing about aimlessly for more than one or two rough rolls.
Lighter solo games live and die by their replayability, so this is crucial. Luckily, there are several things Pocket Nautilus does to help with that. Aside from a decent variety in enemy cards—which, beyond your typical Weaker and Stronger enemies, also includes Timed enemies that can’t be stopped, only outlasted—there are several features that really help with replayability. There are three variations for each of the three Nautilus cards, so each game you’re free to mix and match to fit your preferred strategy (or go against it for a bit of a challenge). I personally like the Sappers Diving Team since they’ve got the unique ability to speed up Timed enemies. In addition, the player gets one Nemo and one Crew card each game, which provide strong one-time benefits. With a decent amount of options for each, combined with the customized Nautilus, you can change each game without needing to mess with the Enemy deck too much. Though you’re free to make them easier or harder as well, thanks to the difficulty rating on each card.
And if you’re still not satisfied with increasing the difficulty of the normal enemies, you can choose to face off against the Kraken immediately after you win the game. And why wouldn’t you? It’s a mechanically interesting and climactic finale to your voyage!
If that’s still not enough to satisfy you, there are two extra gameplay modes. The first turns the game into a two-player co-op game where each player has their own Diving Team while sharing control over the rest of the Nautilus. The second is a scenario-based campaign mode in which upgrades carry over between scenarios. Both are nice to have when you want something a bit more involved than the quick pickup solo game.
I’d mentioned that there were some new developments from Pocket Landship. These come in two forms: upgrades and explorations. Upgrades are pretty simple; defeating enemies allows you to use their cards to either repair your own cards or upgrade them. An upgraded card is flipped over and features improved abilities so you can fend off the remaining enemies more effectively. The explorations are a bit more involved, functioning as a separate requirement for victory. You’ll need to divert your Diving Team away from the fight at hand to go on perilous adventures both above and below the water, hopefully coming back with a Discovery or even a permanent Breakthrough once they’re finished. You’ll need to complete at least one exploration to be eligible for victory, but if you can complete three of them, then you can win without defeating all the enemies!
For being so simple, Pocket Nautilus is a lot of fun. After my initial learning game, I was able to play games in under 20 minutes, including setup and teardown. I’m always happy to have small solo games that I can take travelling, so I’m looking forward to seeing the final version of this one.
Pocket Nautilus will be hitting Kickstarter August 27th, but you can follow the project here so you don't miss out.
