Underwater Cities*
+2BGG Top 100
Sci-Fi
Worker Placement
Solo Mode
Route Building
Economy & Trade
+14 more
- Deutscher Spielepreis 2019🇩🇪
- Hunter & Cron Award 2019🇩🇪
- Hunter & Cron Award 2020🇩🇪
- Hunter & Cron Award 2021🇩🇪
- Spiel des Jahres 2020🇩🇪
- Hunter & Cron Award 2022🇩🇪
- Vladimír Suchý🇨🇿👨
- Statistical Start Player
- Alternating Start Player
- Turn order: statistics-based
- Goblin Magnifico🇮🇹
- Industry🏭
- Jogo do Ano🇵🇹
- Hunter & Cron 2019
Underwater Cities is a strategy board game where players become the world's brightest minds, tasked with creating the most livable underwater habitats. The game is notable for its card placement mechanism and offers a richly strategic experience that scales in duration with the number of players.
Gameplay Overview
- Futuristic Theme: Players work to build underwater cities due to Earth’s overpopulation.
- Card Placement Mechanism: Players place colored cards on the main board in matching colored slots to trigger actions and gain advantages.
- Resource Management: Collect raw materials to build and upgrade various structures like city domes, tunnels, and production buildings.
Special Features
- Varied Actions: Actions include resource intake, construction, advancing on the initiative track, activating special abilities, and collecting cards.
- Diverse Card Types: Nearly 220 cards are categorized into five types, offering different usage timings and strategies.
- Double-Sided Underwater Areas: This feature provides multiple opportunities for scoring victory points (VPs) and strategizing for victory.
- Player Initiative Track: The initiative track plays a significant role in determining player order, adding a layer of strategic planning.
Conclusion
Underwater Cities is perfect for players who enjoy complex strategies, resource management, and innovative game mechanics. The game’s blend of card placement with city-building elements makes for a deeply engaging and thought-provoking experience. It challenges players to think ahead and optimize their actions to efficiently build their underwater habitats. With a variety of cards and dual-sided game areas, Underwater Cities offers high replayability and strategic depth, appealing to seasoned gamers looking for a fulfilling and immersive gaming session.
Nominated for 11 awards and won 3.
- 👥 1 - 4 Players
- ⏱️ 80 - 150 Minutes
- 🧒 12+ years old
- 🧩 Hard to learn
Video reviews, ratings, Let's Plays and tests for Underwater Cities
We like Underwater Cities so much that we recommend it in the following board game recommendation lists 2026
- Position 8 in All "Deutscher Spielepreis🇩🇪 2019" game award winners & nominees in comparison
- Position 56 in All games from the Top100 "Hunter & Cron Award 2019" list 🇩🇪
- Position 63 in All games from the Top100 "Hunter & Cron Award 2020" list 🇩🇪
- Position 65 in All games from the Top100 "Hunter & Cron Award 2021" list 🇩🇪
- Position 23 in All "Spiel des Jahres🇩🇪 2020" game award winners & nominees in comparison
- Position 81 in All games aus der Top100-"Hunter & Cron Award 2022"-Liste 🇩🇪
- Position 2 in The best games by Vladimír Suchý 🇨🇿👨
- Position 19 in The Best Games Where the Start Player Is Determined Statistically
- Position 23 in The best games with dynamically changing start player
- Position 19 in The best games with statically determined starting player
- Position 20 in The best "Goblin Magnifico🇮🇹" winners and nominees
- Position 21 in The best industrial and manufacturing board, card & dice games 🏭
- Position 11 in The best "Jogo do Ano🇵🇹" winners and nominees
- Position 24 in The favorite games of Hunter and Cron in 2019
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