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Nautilion

#2088BGG ↗

2016 · 1-2 players · 30min · weight 1.87 · 1,860 ratings

port: no portdifficulty: Easy
BGGv4 widev4v4 deep5Sources3Rules cardCandidate0.648Deep dive
Bayes
6.24
Users rated
1,860
Owned
4,531
Wishing
935

At a glance — v4 wide

Controlled-vocabulary primitives + 8-axis MDA aesthetic vector. Vocab v1.

Core loop (micro)

Roll three dice, assign one each to Nautilion, Phantom Submarine, and Darkhouse; collect crew tokens while racing to the Abyss.

MDA aesthetic vector (0–3)
Sensation
1
Fantasy
2
Narrative
1
Challenge
2
Fellowship
0
Discovery
1
Expression
1
Submission
2
Mechanic-interaction primitives (4)
  • [3]dice_mitigation— “decide carefully which die you need and which you can leave to your enemies — only four copies of each token
  • [2]attrition_clock— “must get to the Abyss before the Phantom Submarine reaches your homeland, the Happy Isles
  • [2]set_collection_concentrating— “must assemble the submarine's crew along the way — nine different crew tokens
  • [2]escalating_threat— “Darkhouse inflicts damage each time he gets a die with crew token on which Nautilion rests is lost
discovery_score: 0.157

Archetype fits — v4 deep

How well this game shape maps to mobile archetype templates. Composite is a weighted sum of the 10 fit dimensions.

ArchetypeCompositeLTFSessionComboArcShare5inOnboard
Balatro
Solo dice-puzzle with escalating_threat (advancing ghost track) and tight 30-min arc maps onto StS run-shape; dice_drafting + token_progression give mild combo stacking. Fixed track and modules cap procgen against StS.
5.608.0847476
Coop
Genuine coop with shared ghost-ship fail-state; small footprint helps 5-inch legibility (rare for coop). But open-information dice means bluff_info_asymmetry — the strongest coop signal — is weak; closer to parallel-solo than Hanabi-shape coordination.
5.307.0757376
Cozy
Coop-or-Solo tier — no cap, scored against tone. But escalating_threat (ghost ship advance) + time_pressure breaks no-fail cozy tone. Mid-tier cozy fit despite small footprint.
4.606.0536376
Wordle
Solo dice-puzzle is Wordle-shape adjacent — single satisfying arc, friendly loss — but 30-min sessions are 20× Wordle's 60-90s frame. Could be reformatted as daily-puzzle but loop scale is wrong as designed.
4.207.0326465
Snap
Solo/coop dice-puzzle has no PvP, no factional decks, no hidden-card reveal. Snap pillars structurally absent.
4.007.0335365

Translation candidate

Composite fit_score = bayes×0.30 + wish×0.18 + compress×0.17 + difficulty×0.20 + headroom×0.15.

bayes_norm×0.300.049
wish_norm×0.180.630
compress_norm×0.171.000
diff_norm×0.201.000
port_headroom×0.151.000
fit_score (total)0.648= 0.648
Difficulty reasoning

Solo/2-player dice-allocation puzzle from the Oniverse series is a perfect mobile format; small footprint and engaging decisions.

Closest loop translation
none yet

Sources (3)

Inputs to rules-card synthesis. Click any pill with ↗ to open the original source.