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It’s the age of discovery! The British Empire needs to find new naval trade routes to Asia, and thus launches many expeditions to the Arctic in order to find The Northwest Passage. In Through Ice and Snow you and your friends journey through the Arctic and vie to become the most prestigious explorer by documenting species, mapping treacherous lands and discovering the elusive Northwest passage.
As the expedition progresses new map pieces and routes will be revealed and added to the modular board. Each player is in charge of their own ship, and the crews include three officers with individual abilities:
The Carpenter, a craftsman that provides improvements and structures
The Scientist, a scholar that provides invention and research
The Captain, an officer that provides leadership and organization
You can also recruit Inuit - exceptional guides who are experts in finding fuel, improving sleds and leading vital hunting parties.
Each voyage brings unique challenges and events for your crews to face: Those Arctic journeys faced many tragedies, since finding food was extremely hard, the overworked crews were prone to mutiny, and the weather was merciless. Succeed and become immortalised. Fail and be lost to the ice….forever.
—description from the publisher
- Thematic brutality felt authentic and immersive
- Semi-cooperative with shared fate, encouraging cooperation
- Strong action economy due to limited crew and role restrictions
- Modular board provides replayability
- Clear sense of progression through navigation, action, and boarding phases
- Can be brutal and punishing; learning curve can be steep
- Requires planning and group coordination; may feel long for some players
- Potentially heavy component/rule overhead for new players
- survival, exploration, expedition leadership
- 19th century Arctic exploration, Northwest Passage
- documentary-like with player-driven story
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Cooperative/competitive dynamic — Mutual dependency with potential consequences for all if conditions fail.
- Modular board — Board is assembled from modules, increasing replayability.
- Modular board / variable setup — Board is assembled from modules, increasing replayability.
- Narrative objectives and scoring via prestige — End-game scoring based on personal objectives and overall prestige.
- Point to Point Movement — Travel along a map with directional choices during navigation.
- point-to-point movement — Travel along a map with directional choices during navigation.
- Resource management — Track food, fuel, health, and morale to survive phases.
- Seasonal/officer constraints — Limitations on actions due to officer roles create tension and planning.
- worker placement — Assign officers and sailors to actions to gather resources and perform tasks.
- Worker placement with officers — Assign officers and sailors to actions to gather resources and perform tasks.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the biggest thing that struck me when i first played through ice and snow is how thematic everything felt
- it's almost like a documentary but you get to make the story this time
- i think through eisenstowe does a great job with action economy because of the limited amount of crew members and the limitations to what each officer can do
- the board is modularly put together and it makes it feel like every game has a little bit more variation
- through ice and snow