Aquamarine Preview

Aquamarine Preview

Dive deep into the ocean and discover sunken pirate ships, beautiful sea life, and remnants from other divers in Aquamarine from Postmark Games. This print and play roll and write drew me in with its visuals. Whether you’re playing with friends, or playing Aquamarine as a solo game, there are some real challenges on this one-sheet, ocean themed game.

Just Keep Swimming

Aquamarine takes place over a period of 24 hours (rounds). Each round starts with a roll of 2 six sided dice. Players have to take one of the die to move their diver through the watery depths. To move through the water, the player will draw a square or rectangle representing the number of pips on the die that they chose. The next move has to start adjacent to the previous block.

Aquamarine dive one

Taking the low number is the safest option, while taking the high number means that you’ll have to spend air in your dive tank. For instance, if the dice show a 3 and a 5, players won’t spend any air when taking the 3. If a player takes the 5, they have to spend air equal to the difference on the rolled dice. In this case, taking a 5 means the player has to spend 2 air in their dive tank. Filling up a dive tank means that particular dive has finished. Your next turn will be the start of a new dive off a different ship across the top of the page.

In a perfect world, the dice will come up as doubles! When doubles are rolled, players will take the number and up to 2 additional squares for that turn. When doubles are rolled, players are not restricted to a square or rectangle shape. This allows players to draw a more organic shape and explore the nooks and crannies of the ocean.

Aquamarine rolling doubles

Time is Running Out

During your dive, you’ll experience both day and night in the ocean. During the 12 daylight hours you can find stingrays, and during the 12 hours of night you’ll want to find cuddle fish to score points. Your dive being broken up into day and night is a fun way to incentivize exploring different areas of the map. Beacon icons award 15 points for a pair. The trick is that one beacon must be found during the day and one at night.

Aquamarine round tracker

Players can go on up to 3 dives during the 24 rounds. Ending a dive before running out of air might be a good idea to cover more of the map during the game. Players who shoot for the bottom of the ocean floor will use more air but find more rewarding sights and wildlife.

A Deep Sea Adventure

Aquamarine has a fun theme and there’s quite a bit of challenge on this single sheet of paper. Earning bonuses for discovering pirate ships is rewarding and players are always excited to see double die faces.

I’ve only experienced one map in Aquamarine, but I know more maps will be revealed during the Kickstarter campaign. While I’m not a huge fan of print and play games (mostly because I have a crap printer), this is one that I’m so glad I dug into. The rules are straight-forward and the design of the page works really well.

Aquamarine ocean floor

There are plenty of objectives on a single map to keep you coming back for a challenge. Whether you’re a fan of Postmarks previous game Voyages or if you’re just looking for a fun game to dive into, Aquamarine is definitely worth checking out.

Check out the Aquamarine Kickstarter campaign now through July 31, 2022.

A prototype of the game was provided for this coverage. Components and rules covered in this preview are not finalized. Read more about our preview policies at One Board Family.

Ryan Gutowski

I'm a huge fan of strategy games and pretty much anything that involves "city building". My love of board games goes back to my childhood and passion for building relationships with others.

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