Surviving the apocalypse on raft cities

🌊 Kalypso is an upcoming tile-laying game from @insideupgames .

The world has been swallowed by the sea, and it is up to the survivors to cobble together platforms and buildings from the materials they can salvage to stay alive. You lead some of these survivors, cleverly using this salvage to build up your raft-city.

First up I want to cover something: 🧐 Kalypso uses a new technology called “Holdfast”, which is a kind of felt-like coating for the cardboard tiles. Thanks to this tiles cannot slide away, so even if you bump your board, everything stays in place. 😉 A real game changer for tile-layers, though as a trade-off colors might be a bit muted (but this should be improved until the final production).

The game can be played competitively or cooperatively. For this post I’ll focus on the competitive aspect. ⚔️

Each round you all draw 5 T-shaped tiles, drafting one each and passing the remaining tiles around. These tiles all show 4 different material types (and plastic 🗑️, which is useless). Whenever you assemble a 2x2 area with at least 3 of the same material, you get to place a building of the same color on top, activating its ability. Each color has 2 building types with different effects.

During the round you also have to deal with an objective card chosen by an opponent, assigning valuable components to it, or facing the penalty. There are also 2 public objectives that add bonus points at the end of the game which you also shouldn’t disregard. ☝️

There are some fun nuances, like catching fish 🐟, either by sending out boats and deploying nets, or by enclosing areas depicting fish symbols. As you play you can also collect barrels that act as wild resources, and lifebuoys that provide survivors. By creating 3x3 areas with at least 5 of the same materials you can also make monuments 🗽 for big points. 

💬We really enjoy the gameplay. It’s quick and smooth, but with a fun decision space. How do you place your tiles and which building types should you place? I also like how your little ramshackle towns look at the end! And the co-op mode might be even better, so stay tuned for that!