Game summary
đź‘Ą A game for 1 – 4 players
⏳ Play time around 45 – 90 minutes
🏢 Publisher is 2 Tomatoes Games
Introduction
Are you ready to take on the role of an admiral on a 19th-century Arctic expedition? During the expedition, which is composed of several ships, each player will be in charge of one of them. Your common goal is to traverse the Northwest Passage. During the voyage, you will seize the opportunity to increase your reputation by charting new territories, studying Arctic animals, and building shelters for future expeditions. Each player also has some objectives given to them by the investor who financed their expedition. Once the Northwest Passage has been traversed, the player with the most Prestige Points wins the game.
The Arctic is an unforgiving and relentless environment—expeditions are not prepared for its rigors. If you fail to manage your crews and your ships, your expedition may become another victim trapped in the frozen grip of the Arctic. So, get ready for the adventure to sail through the Ice & Snow!
Let’s get it on the table
Place the sections of the Action board in the centre of the table with Scoreboard A visible. Depending on the number of players, add either the three sections with icon B or the three sections with no icon.
Place the ‘East’ section of the Map board to the left of the Action board, leaving room to place the Event cards. Leave the rest of the sections in the box for the moment.
Place the Fleet token on the start point.
Place the Ship Upgrade tiles, separated by type, beside the Action board.
Shuffle the Species cards into a deck and place it face down below the Ship Upgrade tiles.
Shuffle the Hunt cards into a deck and place it face down below the Species cards.
Select the Cabotage Event cards numbered 1 to 12 and the Off-shore Event cards numbered 13 to 24, shuffle them separately, and place both decks face down between the Action board and the Map board. Shuffle the Investor cards into a deck and place it face down on one side of the table.
Shuffle the Cartography cards in a deck and place them face down on one side of the table. Place the Cartography, Resources, Cabin tokens, and the Inuit pawns in a common area within reach of the players.
Each player chooses a color and takes one individual board along with the corresponding score tokens and cylinders. Each player places one of their score tokens on each of the following spaces of the action board:
– Space 10 on the scoreboard.
– Space 0 on the tow track.
Each player places one of their cylinders on each of the following spaces on their board:
-Space 25 of the Food track
-Space 4 of the Health track
-Space 5 of the Morale track
-Space 10 of the Fuel track
-Space 1 of the Sled track
-Space 0 of the Inuit track
Each player receives and places the resources on their player board, related to the player count. Each player receives and places the following pawns on their player board:
-1 Officer pawn of each type,
-3 Sailor pawns of their color.
Each player receives 2 Investor cards and 2 Cartography cards and chooses one of each in secret, placing them face down in front of them. The unchosen cards are returned to the box face down. Once you have all selected your cards, you must all turn over your Investor card at the same time and receive the number of resources indicated. The Cartography cards remain hidden until the end of the game.
Through the Ice & Snow will be played in a series of 7 and 12 rounds, depending on the route players take through the Arctic. Each round will be divided into the following phases:
Phase A, Sailing
1. Leadership: The player with the Helm token and at least one dynamite will be the expedition leader until the next anchor point.
2. Destination: The expedition leader will set course to the next anchor point. This will always be from the anchor point the expedition is currently at to one of the next anchor points. If the next anchor point is not visible on the current map, a new map section needs to be placed to reach the next point.
3. To break the ice floe and reach the new anchor point, dynamite is needed to get through the thick layers of ice. When the expedition leader doesn’t have dynamite, the player needs to supply it; if nobody can, the game ends, and the expedition fails. So keep up with that dynamite.
4. Attrition: all players will reduce their Morale and Health levels by one.
5. Sailing: the expedition leader chooses the type of sailing: Cabotage sailing or Off-Shore sailing.
Cabotage sailing can only be taken if there is enough fuel. This is because all players need to reduce their fuel level after taking this type. Then, the expedition leader charts the territory by placing a Cartography token on the reached anchor point territory and scores one Prestige point. After that, the Cabotage sailing card will be turned, and the event on the card will be applied along with its effects.
Offshore sailing can only be undertaken if there is enough fuel, but less fuel is needed for this type of sailing. Therefore, every player reduces their fuel level by one, turns over the offshore sailing card, and applies its effect.
6. Setting up the cards, depending on the player count, hunt cards are revealed. Additionally, species cards, which are related to the indicated icons in each territory, are also revealed.
Phase B, Action
In this phase, each player, starting with the expedition leader, will perform actions from the action board or the sailing event.
In turn order, when a player meets the requirements, such as paying resources and/or placing crew members, they can fulfil an action. When everybody passes, it’s time to enter the next phase.
Phase C, Embarking
1. Take back the crew members a player used in the previous phase. If someone recruited an Inuit, they must pick that corresponding Inuk.
2. It’s time to check who will be the leader in the next round. This will be determined by a player who has chosen the lead action in the previous phase or the player who has the most dynamite.
3. Feeding time: all players reduce their food level by the number of crew members they have. So, if a player doesn’t have enough to feed everybody, they need to check if they can discard a species card, discard a dog, discard a sailor, or if a player still has not fed everybody, this player will lose 5 prestige points for each food level they cannot feed.
4. Clean up by removing the hunt and species cards that have not been acquired and discard the used sailing event card.
The end of the game is triggered when the final anchor point is reached, and phase C is completed; the final sail phase will start.
So, from phase A, steps 1, 2, 3, and 4 will be executed as described earlier. Step 5: Sailing can only be chosen for offshore sailing and does not take any sailing event cards. The expedition leader will also score prestige points as indicated on the board. Step 6 will no longer be applicable, and the final scoring will begin.
After everybody has walked through the final scorings, the player with the most Prestige Points has been the best player and wins Through the Ice & Snow.
Final Conclusion & rating
Weight: 3.14/ 5
Replayability: 7
Our rating: 7,5 out of 10 dices
It’s nice to play these types of exploring games once in a while. Shifting between exploring leaders and not completely being able to decide which way to sail makes it already interesting. And if you really want to sail out for your goals, you will still be shaken when the fuel starts running out and all other players need to bend in; the balance needs to be maintained to make a safe and good passage through the ice and snow.
So, the interaction between all players is fun, interesting, and sometimes frustrating. Trying to set up your own strategies but needing to adjust them for the general goal of the expedition team.
For me, I sometimes missed an action spot on the board where you can get fuel or goods like wood without needing one of the officers. But on the other hand, in the Arctic, there will be no second-hand store for sailors.
Some actions do feel a bit too heavy for what they achieve. But on the other hand, there are aspects like the way you can use wood from your ship or need to give up a dog to get enough food.
The solo plays are not that fun to play, maybe because it’s not an added value in these types of exploring games and will be at its best with real players. A two-player count is good and provides a great experience. When you are with three players and up, the game will show its true form and deliver the ultimate gameplay.
Also, the quality of the materials used is very nice. The player tokens and player boards are good. The graphic design and the colors used bring the theme to life and give a good vibe.
Nevertheless, the diversity in creating the main board gives a lot of replayability. When we are ready again to pack our bags and explore the Arctic and find the Northwest Passage, this makes us play “Through the Ice & Snow” once in a while.
Thanks to 2 Tomatoes Games for this review copy and the opportunity to write about it.
