The East Australian Current (EAC) is an underwater superhighway where sea turtles travel! Along the way, you’ll also encounter reefs to settle coral, and schools of fish that need food. Will you prove to be the swiftest turtle in the current? Let’s find out!

What Is It?

Drafting – Players draft a die each turn which determines what action they can do – place coral, move their sea turtle, collect fish, or take advantage cards. If the red die is drafted, which is the best combat die, it gives them 1st player for the next round, but does not give them another action

Area Control – Players are trying to have the majority of coral in reefs in order to score points

Dice Rolling – Each round ends with dice combat where players roll any combat dice they drafted, and all dice that rolled the lowest number are eliminated. Player re-roll until 1 player wins and gets choice of the competition tiles, with the 2nd place player getting the other

Who Is It For?

  • 2 to 4 Players – It scales fine since the number of dice is adjusted, but I do think it is a little more interesting with more players because you have more choice of die faces in earlier rounds and can strategize around them a bit more
  • Ages 10 & Up – It’s pretty light as far as mechanisms go, so it is very approachable, but there is light strategy in what actions you take, especially once you have some advantage cards
  • Fans of drafting, dice rolling, and a bit of area control

PROS

  • Aesthetics – Very pretty game, good graphic design
  • Components – Nice quality across the board, no issues
  • Setup is quick
  • Lots of options turn to turn, especially early in each round
  • Turns are quick and smooth
  • I think it’s approachable for a wide range of gamers

CONS

  • Dice Battles – There’s luck of what the action dice roll every round, but that seemed to balance out fine. The dice battles just felt kind of out of place to me, and added an element of luck that felt unnecessary.
  • Replay Value – I don’t think it feels super different play to play
  • Scoring in the middle of the rounds felt a little clunky to me
    • Round reference cards would have been handy

Final Thoughts

I thought this was a decent family-weight game. It was fine at 2, but I think at 3-4 it was a bit more interesting because you had more choice in earlier turns, and weren’t immediately down to 1 die of a color after the very first pick. I felt like you could build more of a strategy when playing with more players.

I didn’t care for the dice battles and I wish it was more about all the other elements of the game. I felt like everything outside of the dice battles worked well together, and there was plenty going on without it, which was enjoyable (drafting, building up advantage cards, moving your turtle on the track, collecting fish, area majority in reefs). As long as you don’t mind that little bit of luck at the end of each round, you might want to check this one out!

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 6/10

Designers – Leo Colovini, Alessandro Zucchini
Artist – Fiore GmbH
Publisher – KOSMOS
MSRP – $39.95
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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