Board Game Spotlight - Core Connection: Rise of Atlantis
Core Connection: Rise of Atlantis
Players: 2-4 Players
Playing Time: 60 - 90 min (Source)
Age: 12+
Designer: Ken Rose
Project Director: Hideshi Komatsu
Illustrators: Nanatise7, Osiori, Yumolism, Reji, KarashiCracker, Jiki, Magariya, Tachibana, Inami
Publisher: Japanime Games, Keep Dry
Core Connection: Rise of Atlantis is a deck building game where the players are fighting against an enemy deck in order to gain 20 energy. Players start off with the same cards in their deck. They have a prototype mech and “Mysterious figure” pilot. Players will generate resources by placing cards face down. Players will then take their turn buying cards, upgrading their mech, and playing tactic cards. Players can choose to face the enemy deck. Drawing the top card of the enemy deck reveals your challenge. Encounter events that come up, or face an enemy. Have more attack value than the defense value of the enemy revealed. If you fail to defeat the enemy your mech goes into breakdown mode which has to be repaired during your next turn. If you defeat the enemy it goes into your player area. Most enemies have an energy value. Once a player has reached 20 energy they have until their next main phase to be declared a winner. If another player reaches higher energy play continues until you get to 30 energy for the winner.
I really enjoyed this game. We played with the base game. We had the Titans Unleashed expansion. We made the mistake of combining the mechs and pilots from the expansion into the game we played. Which didn’t change the game too much.
I liked the story element of the “Mysterious Figures” and then during the game the mysterious figure becomes a named pilot. Not only does this play into some story elements, but gameplay wise it allows for you to set yourself up for a certain pilot and mech to help the end game.
The game is good but it does have some elements in presentation. The rule book could use some polish as questions came up that weren’t easily answered. Since the game is fairly new the resources to answer these questions were not available that we could find. The insert in the game is kind of awkward to use with organizing the game. There is definitely room for expansions.
The game has one expansion so far the Titans Unleashed. This provides more monster cards, mechs, pilots, upgrades, and tactics to the base game. It also provides story cards that act like global events when drawn from the player deck.
The game has a nice player mat that makes the table easily organized when playing.
Board Game Geek -
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/267036/core-connection-rise-atlantis
Japanime Games -
https://japanimegames.com/collections/core-connection
Who am I?
Joe DeMarco a single father, freelance writer, game designer, quality assurance software tester, and business analyst. I am a big-time gamer, and really enjoy checking out all kinds of games available. Putting my curiosity to the app store I find random games to check out.
If you have a game you'd like me to review, contact me and let us see how we can work together.
