DIE CREW – Mission Tiefsee

Tiefsee statt Deep Space

„Die Crew – Reist gemeinsam zum 9. Planeten“ has received a multitude of awards. It is one of those little card games powered by an ingenious idea. Bohnanza and Hanabi are other examples of that type of game, as is Der Fuchs im Wald. In the space-themed original game, players hat to cooperatively complete 50 missions in continually rising levels of difficulty. Die Crew is a trick-taking game. If you do not like such games, you need not go on reading, because you also take trick in the deep seas.

The game mechanics of the original are used  completely unchanged and if you like the original, you feel at home immediately in the diving suit instead of the space suit. Cards are dealt evenly to all players, task according to the logbook are displayed and the commander - who is determined by the submarine of strength 4 instead of a rocked - begins the task selection.

New tasks are needed in the water

The degree of difficulty in the only 32 deep sea missions in the logbook increases continually. The number of tasks connected to a mission is not the same for each missions, but there are tasks revealed until their value equals the level of difficulty. The back sides of the tasks show their complexity, which varies for different numbers of players. For instance, there is a task which has a value of two for three players, but a value of six in case of five players. Contrary to the original the order in which tasks are resolved does not matter. Variability comes from 94 different tasks, the range of which span “I win the 3 in pink”  or “I win three tricks in a row” to “I take a trick with a 3”, the range showing the overflowing creativity of designer and editors. Not as innovative, but adapted to the story, the radio dead spot in space has turned into an underwater current and the radio disturbance into rapture of the deep, both very similar in function to the original.

Realtime or communcation restrictions

Some missions need to be completed in given Realtime - 2:30 minutes for the relatively simple mission #16 is acceptable, but 5:00 for mission 26 is a lot harder to achieve. If the crews does not want to be stressed, you must forgo communication in M16 and a rise of difficulty from 10 to 12 in M26. This can get really tough.

The final Mission M32 prescribes four tasks cards. As “I win no tricks“ is included and the other three tasks demand a certain number of tricks taken, you must in a game of two players - a variant that has been kept and works very well - and also for three players take note not only of your personal hand when selecting tasks. The ability to complete the task is already decided by the choice of task by the commander. He cannot select „0 tricks“ as he holds the highest card, and he receives a second task, too ....

Be it in deep empty space or deep under the see, in some missions the crew runs out of air and the mission must be repeated. I myself do not know any crew that really logs failures in the logbook, but this is a nice option all the same. Mission Tiefsee does not improve the original in any way - how could this be possible, after all? - but there are enough changes to create new allure. And it gives off a feeling of being more difficult than the original. A third edition, e.g. „Operation Jungle“, however, I will not really heed, however. Or that’s what I believe now ...

Jörg Domberger

Players: 2-5

Age: 8+

Time: 20+

Designer: Thomas Sing

Artist: Marco Armbruster, Sensit

Publisher: Kosmos Verlag 2021

Web: www.kosmos.de

Genre: Cooperative tricking card game

Users: With friends

Version: de

Rules: de en fr it nl pl

In-game text: no

My rating: 7

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 1

Communication (red): 1

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0