Game 45: Survive - Escape from Atlantis!

The idea of a lost Island of Atlantis has intrigued me since childhood, so a game about surviving the catastrophe that sunk Atlantis was sure to appeal to me.  Thankfully it's not just an intriguing idea but also a very playable game.  The board is different each time you play because the terrain tiles (beach, forest and mountain) are set out randomly.  It also plays quite differently depending on whether you have 2 or 3 or 4 players.  My sense is that there's a pretty equal balance between luck and strategy, but with the use of decent strategy providing an edge in the game.
Players take turns placing their explorer tokens on terrain tiles.  Each explorer token has a point value on the bottom, and at the end of the game your score is the total number of points on all of your explorer tokens that you were able to get to safety.  After explorer tokens are placed, players taken turns placing boats to help get their explorers to safety.
 As play progresses the island gradually sinks - one terrain tile being removed on each turn.  Mountain tiles may not be removed before all of the forest tiles have sunk, and forest tiles may not be removed until all of the beach tiles have sunk.  If an explorer token is on a terrain tile that is removed, that token lands in the water on that spot; his movement is slowed, and he's vulnerable to shark attacks.
 On the back of each tile is an action, some of which are performed immediately (such as replacing the tile with a boat or a shark or a whale) and some of which can be saved to be played at a time when it would be helpful (for instance a dolphin to swim an explorer token 3 spaces - or shark or whale "repellent" that can save one of your explorers or a boat).
 Each corner is a safety zone - solid land.  Once an explorer token lands there he is safe and will count for points at the end.
 On the back of one of the mountain tiles is a volcano.  Once the volcano is turned up (i.e. erupts), the game is over immediately.  Tonight this happened to be the last tile we turned over; it was pretty cool to get to play every single tile before the end.

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