Escape from Atlantis

Hasbro International 1996 version

Transferred to electronic media by Carl-Gustaf Samuelsson <[email protected]>

with thanks to the designer Julian Courtland-Smith <[email protected]>;
augmented by Daniel U. Thibault <D.U.Thibault@*0DLO.com>

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CONTENTS
• 1 game board • 2 special dice (1, 1, 2, 2, 3, Dive) and
• 48 Atlanteans in four colours (12 each) (Dolphin, Dolphin, Dolphin, Sea
• 6 octopodes Monster, Shark, Octopus)
• 6 sea monsters • 1 Acropolis centrepiece (in 2 parts)
• 6 shark fins • 6 citadel pieces
• 6 dolphins • 12 land pieces
• 10 ships • 18 rock pieces
• 10 ships' sails • This rule book

THE FIRST TIME YOU PLAY

Carefully twist all the plastic
parts from their frames. If you have
difficulty, use safety scissors.
Discard waste plastic. Assemble the
Acropolis centrepiece and the ships
as shown in Figures 1 and 2.
IMPORTANT! Make sure that the
bases of the Atlantean figures are
smooth and do not wobble when
placed on a flat surface.

Figures 1 & 2
SETTING UP THE GAME
1. Place the Acropolis in the centre of the game board.
2. Place all other island pieces on the board without looking at the symbols underneath their
bases. Shuffle them and then, starting from the Acropolis at the centre, build out rings of
citadel pieces, followed by land pieces and finally the rock pieces. See Figure 3.
3. For a two-player game, place two ships as shown in Figure 4. For more than two players, use
all four ships, as shown in Figure 5.
4. Each player chooses a colour set of Atlantean figures. Keep all the other pieces safely in the
box for now.

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Figure 3 - A: Acropolis; B: Citadel piece; C: Land piece; D: Rock piece

Figure 4 - Two-player setup Figure 5: Three- and four-player setup.

OBJECT OF THE GAME
To lead your tribe of Atlanteans in their escape from the doomed island of Atlantis to the
safety of the coral islands at the four corners of the game board. The game ends when the last of
the surviving Atlanteans makes it ashore. The winner is the player with the most surviving
Atlanteans.

PLAYING THE GAME

Starting with the youngest player, each player in turn places one of his Atlanteans on the
island. Each island piece can hold up to three Atlanteans. Keep taking it in turns to place one of
your Atlanteans until all 12 of your tribe are on the island. (After a couple of games, see
"Strategy Hints" below)

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ON YOUR TURN
The youngest player starts the game. Play then continues clockwise (to the left). Each
player's turn is in three parts:
1. Move your Atlanteans and/or ships.
2. Sink an island piece.
3. Roll the dice.

STEP 1: Move your Atlanteans and/or ships

Start your turn by making a total of up to three moves by:
• moving one Atlantean three spaces; or
• moving more than one Atlantean up to a combined total of three spaces; or
• moving one ship up to three spaces; or
• moving more than one ship up to a combined total of three spaces; or
• a combination of the above, but remember, never move more than a combined total of
three spaces!
Example: You could move one Atlantean two spaces and a ship one space. See Figure 6.
Read the section called "Ship-Shape" for more rules about ship movement —there are some
important crewing restrictions. Also read the "Atlantean Swimmers" section for the rules about
swimmer movement —swimmers can only move one sea space per turn.

Figure 6 - Example move (the Atlantean moves across land pieces, not shown for clarity)

STEP 2: Sink an island piece

Once you've completed your three moves, remove ONE of the island pieces and place it out
of play.
The island sinks region by region: finish taking all the rock pieces away before you take
away any land pieces. Likewise, don’t remove any citadel pieces before you and the other
players have finished removing all the land pieces. (The only exception is if you reveal a
whirlpool symbol. See below.) Turn the island piece over and show all the players the symbol
on the underside. If any of the symbols shown below appear, replace the island piece with the
matching playing piece.

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Dolphin Octopus Sea Monster Shark Ship

When you remove an island piece with any of the above symbols, any Atlanteans that were
standing on the island piece are left swimming in the sea space just vacated by the island piece.
Hint: don't pick an island piece with one of your Atlanteans on it!

Whirlpools
If the island piece you remove reveals a whirlpool, all Atlanteans,
sea monsters, sharks, octopodes, dolphins and ships (manned and
unmanned) as well as any island pieces in the six spaces immediately
surrounding the whirlpool are all destroyed! See Figure 7.

Figure 7 - You revealed a whirlpool symbol.

All the shaded pieces are immediately destroyed and removed from the game!
As the game goes on, there will eventually be no island pieces left to remove. Keep playing,
but skip straight from Step 1 to Step 3.

STEP 3: Roll the dice

Roll both dice to move the creatures around the board. One die shows which creature you
should move and the other tells you how far you can move (1, 2 or 3 spaces) or that you can dive
(see "Diving" below). If there is no creature on the board that matches what you rolled on the
creature die, end your turn. You do not have to use the creature's full movement allowance.

FOLLOW THE FOOD CHAIN

Which way you move depends on the dangers you face and the tactics you want to use to get
as many of your Atlanteans to the safety of the coral islands.

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1. ATLANTEAN SWIMMERS
Sadly, these guys are at the bottom of the food
chain and are the most vulnerable. Atlanteans
become swimmers in one of the following ways:
• By diving from an island piece into an adjacent sea space.
• By jumping overboard from a ship onto the same sea space whenever a ship is sunk.
• By being left in the sea whenever an island piece sinks.

Atlanteans who have just dived or jumped into the sea become known as swimmers. They
cannot move to another sea space until the next turn. Swimmers can only move ONE space on
any turn. Swimmers cannot climb back onto an island piece. They can, however, jump aboard a
passing ship, so long as they are on the same space as the ship. Jumping aboard counts as one
move. Once aboard, the ship can be moved, as the Atlantean is no longer a swimmer.

2. SHARKS
When a shark moves into a sea space occupied by
one or more swimmers, all the swimmers (unless
protected by dolphins; see below) are devoured and
removed from play. A shark cannot attack a ship, but
may share a space with a ship.

3. OCTOPODES
When an octopus moves into a sea space occupied
by a manned ship, the crew are tossed overboard and
become swimmers. The ship, however, is sunk by the
octopus and removed from play. The octopus does not
harm swimmers.
If a shark also occupies that space, the swimmers are immediately devoured and removed
from play (unless a dolphin awaits them in the water; see below). An octopus cannot sink an
unmanned ship but may share a space with such a ship. Should a swimmer climb aboard an
unmanned ship sharing a space with an octopus, the octopus immediately sinks the ship and
tosses the Atlantean back overboard.

4. SEA MONSTERS
Next up in the food chain, sea monsters moving
into a sea space devour swimmers (unless protected
by dolphins; see below) and any ship (manned or
unmanned) in that space. These are removed from
play. Sea Monsters may share spaces with other sea
creatures (sharks, octopodes, dolphins).

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5. DOLPHINS
As the smile on their faces suggests, these are the good
guys! When a dolphin moves onto a sea space occupied
by a swimmer (or vice versa), the swimmer is safe from
any attack. A dolphin, however, can only protect one
swimmer at a time.

Normally, the first swimmer to join the dolphin is the protected one; if you move a dolphin
into a space occupied by several swimmers, you choose the protected one (place the protected
swimmer right against the dolphin to make this as obvious as possible). Several dolphins could
be in the same space, each protecting a different swimmer. It's a good idea to use as many of
your moves on your turn as possible to make your way to the coral islands while enjoying the
protection of a dolphin…
Beware! If a shark or sea monster is on the same space as the dolphin and one of your
swimmers, another player rolling the dolphin on the die could move the dolphin away and leave
your swimmer to fall into the creature's clutches! If this happens, your swimmer is immediately
removed from play. A dolphin can share the same space as a ship.

Remember: A dolphin/swimmer combination can only move ONE space per turn and must
do so during the "Move" part of your turn. If you throw the dolphin symbol during the die-
rolling step of your turn, you can only move the dolphin on its own. If the dolphin is in a space
with several swimmers, you could use that move to switch the dolphin's protection to another
swimmer without moving the dolphin to another space.

Important! Sea creatures may all share spaces with each other, but none of them can move
onto land. You may not move more than one sea creature on your turn.

DIVING
If you roll the dive symbol on the movement die during your turn,
you can move the creature you rolled to any sea space on the game
board. Take a good look at how your opponents are doing and don't
forget to check whether any of your Atlanteans are in any danger!

SHIP-SHAPE
Ships may not move onto or pass through a sea
space occupied by another ship, an octopus or a sea
monster. However, they can share a space with
swimmers, sharks and dolphins. There are three
spaces for Atlanteans on each ship. Atlanteans can
hop from ship to ship, so long as these are in adjacent
spaces and there are free spaces on board.

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You can move one of your Atlanteans onto any ship so long as there is a free space on board
and it is moored in a sea space directly next to the island piece on which your Atlantean is. A
swimmer can also clamber aboard a ship if it is in the same space. For example, you could move
a ship into a space occupied by one of your swimmers, have the swimmer climb aboard and
move the ship again. You could NOT, however, move a swimmer into a space occupied by a
ship and then have the swimmer climb aboard, since swimmers are only allowed one move per
turn.

Any player can move an unmanned ship. If a ship is manned by just one Atlantean, only the
player whose Atlantean is on board can move that ship. If the majority of the crew on a ship
belongs to one player, that player has control of the ship and is the only one who can move it.
When a ship is crewed by two or three Atlanteans, each of a different colour, control of the ship
is shared between the players concerned, and each of them can move it.

REACHING THE SAFETY OF THE CORAL ISLANDS

Once you set sail from Atlantis, the object is to reach one of the coral islands located at each
corner of the game board.

To land on an island, a ship or a swimmer must first reach the red harbour space (see Figure
8). On your turn you can then make one more, final move to get your Atlantean ashore.

Figure 8 - A harbour space Figure 9 - Hopping ashore

Note: If one of your swimmers reaches the red space with a dolphin and walks ashore, the
dolphin stays on the red space until moved on your or another player's next turn. Remember that
Atlanteans can hop from ship to ship, so if there is already a ship on the red space, another ship
can moor in an adjacent space and the Atlantean(s) can then hop to shore. See Figure 9†.

STRATEGY HINTS

• After a couple of games, you will discover that there are different ways of placing your
Atlanteans around the island at the beginning of the game. It all depends on what turns-
up when island pieces are removed…For instance, placing lots of Atlanteans near the
ships may be a good way of getting them on board quickly, but grouping too many in one
place might mean having them all wiped out if a nearby island piece turned out to conceal
a whirlpool.

†
The figure is misleading as it apparently shows a swimmer moving three spaces. To correct this, imagine the
Atlantean starts on a third ship.

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• It might also be a good idea to keep a couple of Atlanteans in reserve by placing them
well inside the island.

• If you have to remove an island piece with some of your Atlanteans on it, pick one that's
nearest to a dolphin.

• You'll also need to decide whether you want to put as many Atlanteans on board one ship
as you can to get them ashore in one go but risk meeting a sea monster and losing all
three at once. You might prefer the safer, but slower option of spreading your Atlanteans
among many ships if these are available and within reach. It's up to you!

WINNING THE GAME

The game ends when all players have got their surviving Atlanteans to the safety of the coral
islands. The winner is the player with the most surviving Atlanteans!

FOR A SHORTER GAME

In this version of the game, play only continues until the Citadel part of the island sinks. At
that point, the player with the most Atlanteans on the coral islands wins the game.

STORING THE GAME

It's best to separate the sails from the ships when packing the game away.

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