Review: Volcanic Isle (Arcane Wonders)

Let’s start with the basics: In Volcanic Isle from Arcane Wonders, the island you’re on will sink. Period. It’s up to you to score the most points before the seas roll in and the game ends.

You can’t stop the island from sinking. And if you try to slow down the sinking process, then your score will probably sink just like the island — and just like John’s score did when Isaac sank his entire section of the island the first time we tried the game. (Fellow parents out there, don’t let this happen to you.)

With that out of the way, let’s look at the top five things you need to know so that you (and your score) can survive in Volcanic Isle.

Digging into the Backstory

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The backstory of Volcanic Isle is built on a 19th century theory that tried to explain the similarities between cultures that seemed separated by distance and oceans. The theory suggested that a massive continent referred to as Mu once connected these disparate cultures, but because of volcanic activity, the continent sank beneath the ocean.

Although the theory was debunked many years ago, it provides a perfect backdrop for the game’s key mechanics of growing population, volcanic instability, and inevitable destruction.

Appeasing the Gods

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Players represent groups of ocean-traveling settlers who found their way to what will become Easter Island. (Insert ominous island-sinking music here.) The land contained large volcanos, many small craters, and plenty of raw material in the form of cooled lava.

Each turn, players get four action points. They use points to move their settlers and create new ones, build villages and sculpt Moai statues from the lava rocks in the shadow of a volcano, set up Moai over small craters, and collect a prayer token to use when things start going wrong.

Clustering Your Pieces to Multiply Points

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Players earn a few victory points for building villages and raising Moai, but the points begin multiplying if you have multiple Moai in the same area as two or more villages. Of course, the risk goes up as well.

Villages and Moai are built from the cooled lava flows next to volcanos. But when the volcano erupts again, the lava goes right back into those flows, destroying any villages and un-raised Moai statues (more about that in a moment) unless the players spend prayer tokens to save them.

But at the same time, players need the volcanos to erupt because otherwise they quickly run out of lava rock to build with. Eruptions also recycle game pieces back into each player’s supply so they can keep building and expanding. It’s a very cool tension in the game that adds a fun push-your-luck element.

Raising a Moai Raises the Stakes

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Every time a player raises a Moai over a small crater, two key things happen: they place a fissure marker along the edge of the tile next to the Moai, then they roll the volcano die to see if a volcano erupts. Since the 6-sided volcano die has four eruption faces and two blanks, eruptions happen a lot.

In case of an eruption, the affected volcano is picked randomly from a stack of tokens. The stack gets reset after every eruption, so nowhere on the island is completely safe. That keeps players guessing and enhances up the push-your-luck tension from clustering your builds.

Oops, I Sank Your Stuff

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As players keep raising Moai statues, they create new fissures in the island. Once a line of fissures complete surrounds a land area — even if it’s in the middle of the island — that area sinks into the sea. If the fissure splits the island, then the side with the fewest volcanos goes down.

If you sink part of the island on your turn, all of your settlers in that area escape safely, but other players only get to save one settler. All villages and Moai statues in the sinking area return to their player’s supply, and that part of the island board gets removed from play.

Verdict

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Volcanic Isle delivers a strong player experience with a really fun balance of thoughtful strategy and push-your-luck gambles. Because one of the game’s key drivers involves destroying parts of the board, the game has a definite “screw your neighbor” neighbor aspect.

Thanks to the board’s modular design and the random way volcano eruptions happen, Volcanic Isle has a very high replayability. Pay close attention to the instructions on how to build a custom board, though, because it might take you a couple of tries to fit everything together.

High quality components and 3D volcanos round out the player experience by creating a great visual effect during play.

If you like games with direct competition and enjoy balancing risks with rewards, then you’ll find a lot to like in Volcanic Isle. Have fun sinking the island!