Nautilion

RRP: £24.99
Now £19.44(SAVE 22%)
RRP £24.99
Success! We will let you know when this product is available again.
Your email address has been unsubscribed!
Your email address has been unsubscribed!
Notify me when this product is available to purchase!
This email address is already subscribed to this product!
Nexy Day Delivery

You could earn

1944 Victory Points

with this purchase

Nautilion is a dice game in the Oniverse series! Take the helm of a Nautilion submarine and recruit a heroic crew to vanquish the treacherous Darkhouse that lurks in the oceanic depths. You must get to the Abyss, lair of the Darkhouse, before the Phantom Submarine (his henchman) reaches your homeland, the Happy Isles — but to defeat the Darkhouse, not only must you be faster than t…
Read More
Category Tags , SKU ZBG-ZMG49003 Availability Out of stock
Share
Share this

Awards

Stunning Artwork

Rating

  • Artwork
  • Complexity
  • Replayability
  • Player Interaction
  • Component Quality

You Might Like

  • Simple to learn with hidden depth
  • Great replayability
  • Specifically tailored to solo play
  • Quick set up and play
  • Nicely tightening game arc

Might Not Like

  • Co-op mode not as good (better solo)
  • Roll and move
Find out more about our blog & how to become a member of the blogging team by clicking here

Related Products

Description

Nautilion is a dice game in the Oniverse series!

Take the helm of a Nautilion submarine and recruit a heroic crew to vanquish the treacherous Darkhouse that lurks in the oceanic depths. You must get to the Abyss, lair of the Darkhouse, before the Phantom Submarine (his henchman) reaches your homeland, the Happy Isles — but to defeat the Darkhouse, not only must you be faster than the Phantom Submarine, you must also assemble the submarine's crew along the way.

Each turn, you roll three dice and give one to each of these figures: the Nautilion, the Phantom Submarine, and the Darkhouse. The dice of the Nautilion and the Phantom Submarine move those figures along a path formed by Crew tokens: the Nautilion from the Happy Isles towards the Abyss; the Phantom Submarine in the opposite direction. The crew token on which your Nautilion ends its move joins your submarine, the one the Phantom Submarine reaches is lost!

Only four copies exist of each of the nine different tokens, so you have to decide carefully which die you need and which you can leave to your enemies. (The Darkhouse doesn't move, but inflicts damage to you each time he gets a die with a high value.) To win, you need to reach the Abyss with a full crew of nine different tokens.

Five expansions are included with the game, adding new crew members, powers, treacheries and challenges.

 

As an avid solo gamer, even before many of us unihabitors were forced to be by COVID-19, I relished any opportunity to tell people how much I love Shadi Torbey’s Oniverse. Onirim (O-NEE-rim? O-NYE-rim?) was the first proper solo game I bought. Aerion (AIR-EON? ERRI-UN?) was my first review for Zatu. Then there is Castellion (Cast-ELL-eon? Castle Ian?) and Sylvion (Sil-VEE-on? SILV-yon?), both great games.

Navigating the correct pronunciation of each of Torbey’s solo/two player co-op games is just the first puzzle you encounter in these deceptively whimsical, tense battles between the forces of light and dark. Nautilion (Naughty Lion) takes that enigmatic mix of charm and pressure, packs it aboard a kooky ship and launches it onto the high seas. So, did I get seasick or find my ship legs with ease?

Naughty Lion

I really admire how Shadi Torbey has managed to create a coherent series of games in the Oniverse while basing each title on a different game mechanism. Onirim is a set collecting hand management game. Aerion, a solo Yahtzee. Sylvion, a critter fuelled tower defence game.

Nautilion brings to this compendium of mechanisms a classic roll and move.
Gameplay is simple. Each game, you create a unique track by shuffling the crew tokens and creating a chain between your start base, the Happy Isles, to The Abyss. This is where your nemesis, The Darkhouse, dwells. To play, you roll three dice and assign one to your ship (The Nautilion), one to the enemy ship (The Phantom) and one to The Darkhouse, which may trigger nasty things happening to your boat and crew. The enemy moves. You move. First to the opposing island wins.

Not quite.

Not only must you reach The Abyss before The Phantom reaches the Happy Isles, you must also collect and assemble a crew strong enough to defeat The Darkhouse when you get there. Each step of the track is a numbered crew token and you must collect all nine before the end of the game to win. To make things harder, you will need to collect them in a certain order depending on which of the six available Nautilions you choose to commandeer. And on top of this, The Phantom will steal tokens it lands on, removing them from the game and sometimes making it impossible to complete your crew.

Not a Lion

I’ll confess to being tricked by Nautilion the first time I played it. Its roll and race element meant I didn’t give the puzzle the respect it deserved and I soon found my Nautilion beached with no hope of assembling a crew before it reached The Abyss.

The real core of Nautilion is in how you assign your rolls and how you manipulate them using bonus tokens. While you need to beat The Phantom in the race, giving yourself the highest die is not always the best strategy if it means The Phantom movement will take out a piece you might need later. Having to collect tokens in a particular order creates further challenge. You have to look further up the track to plan what you might need and when. then work out what you can afford to sacrifice and skip now.

As with all the Oniverse games, Nautilion starts open but quickly tightens the thumbscrews in a satisfyingly fiendish game arc. Decisions feel important and tough with increasingly little room for error. Though it is a roll and move, the game gives you enough scope to manipulate and mitigate your luck with tactics and strategy. In particular, you can choose to add crew tokens to your ship or flip them and use them as bonus tiles that allow you to manipulate rolls or provide a shield to The Darkhouse’s rays which will otherwise destroy your crew.

Nutty Lion

Once you have mastered the base puzzle, Nautilion comes with the array of trademark Oniverse mini-expansions and modules included. I will say that, of all the Oniverse games, the expansions in Nautilion felt easier to assimilate into base play. Some of the expansions provide an entirely different feeling game while others provide an enhanced challenge. The Darkhouse, for example, expands the role and powers of this mysterious enemy, while The Mercenaries expansion throws in a battle when the two ships cross. You can mix the expansions, but I prefer to just chuck one in at a time depending on my mood. This modular approach adds a ton of replayability.

My first impression of Nautilion was that it was Torbey’s first fail in the series. A simplistic roll and move and not much else, I thought. I was wrong. The simple shallows of its exterior belie hidden depths of strategy. Like its brothers and sisters, Nautilion transported me fully to its watery world. This is done through gameplay and art (I accept that the artwork is Marmite, but I’m firmly in the LOVE IT camp). It’s a game I often take from the shelf if I want a quick play with a cup of coffee. Or even to keep my brain ticking over on a lunch break. Nautilion is also a welcome addition to the evenings when I have a go at all the Oniverse games in succession. It’s a big thumbs up from me for Naughty/Not a/Nutty Lion!

Zatu Score

Rating

  • Artwork
  • Complexity
  • Replayability
  • Player Interaction
  • Component Quality

You might like

  • Simple to learn with hidden depth
  • Great replayability
  • Specifically tailored to solo play
  • Quick set up and play
  • Nicely tightening game arc

Might not like

  • Co-op mode not as good (better solo)
  • Roll and move