Hi
I have a question. When you think that you are stuck with one of your explorers (for instance the last one) can you instead of taking a turn „teleport” him back to any space in Alaska?
Or even when you are not stuck, buy instead of taking a turn you prefere to "teleport" back to Alaska, can you do it?
Thanks for help!

Hello Mateusz,

You may be thinking of this game:


:-)

No, you can't 'teleport' back to Alaska. You have to make sure that you manage your resources effectively: that's the point of the game. The Hints section at the end of the rules do warn: "The last explorer is the hardest to get home, mainly because it becomes harder to collect fish and rope..."

Actually, in an earlier version of ICE FLOW there were some very tricky sea areas, to the north-east and south-west, where explorers could easily get stuck. This resulted in very long games. We introduced a 'Rescue Flare' card to enable players to summon a helicopter and get out of trouble just once in the game (a 'teleport', if you will). This is the mock-up card we used:



However, as you might imagine, this lasted just one play-test session. When a problem occurs in a game design, the answer is not to add epicycles, but rather to simplify the system. Therefore, we removed the cul-de-sac areas on the board and opened up the peninsulas. The result is a slicker game - with no teleport!

D.

Lol - if the game had teleports, It'd be over rather fast , as I'd just port all my explorers over to the other side - making being the 1st player rather important...

Thanks for clearing this up Dean! I was almost sure you can't, but wanted to double check

PS. Grate feeling to receive answers straight from designer ^^

I'm sure the rules still talk about a "rescue helicopter"... in the same paragraph as the sentiment that "no-one dies in Ice Flow"... Actually, I think it has to do with fleeing from a bear and not having any fish for swimming.

Clever thinking! There are plenty of people out there who believe that the solution to every problem, or every special situation, is to add an extra rule. I really admire a designer who uses a problem like this as a reason to *simplify* an aspect of the game's design.

Thanks Richard. Working with Martin Wallace, you will see this quite a bit, I should imagine. And that's a direction we're happy to move in.

D.