Aqualin Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Aqualin, an abstract game published by Thames and Kosmos. In Aqualin, you will draw tiles and add them to a grid, hoping to create patterns to score you points.

One of the biggest hits in terms of games I’ve introduced to my family has been Qwirkle, the 2011 Spiel des Jahres winner. It combines elements of sudoku, crosswords, and pattern recognition into a fun game for all ages. While the game scales quite well, I don’t feel like it is best with just two players.

But this is a review of Aqualin, another entry in the well-regarded Kosmos 2-Player line, being published in 2020 and designed by Marcello Bertocchi. How does it connect to Qwirkle? Really it’s just the fact that the components are black tiles with different colors and shapes. But any game that gives off Qwirkle vibes, I have to at least try with my wife, who loves tile laying and breezy games in general.

In Aqualin, one player is scoring connections of the same color, and the other scores for connections of the same ocean dwellers. There are 36 tiles, one of each of the six creatures in the six different colors. You start by mixing up the tiles face down and placing six of them face up for both players to draft from. The board is a 6×6 grid that will fill up after all the tiles are placed.

Turns are incredibly simple. A player may first move a single tile in a straight horizontal or vertical line until it hits another tile or the edge of the grid. Then, they draft one of the six face up tiles and place it in any of the empty spots on the board. A new tile is drawn to replace the drafted one and the opponent then takes a turn. The game continues until the board is completely filled.

Scoring is based on the size of the largest groups in the six