Latitude Preview
Advert: this game was loaned by Radical 8 Games, this has not affected our preview in any way.
Latitude sounds so much cooler than Longitude. I’m not entirely sure why, but it does. Maybe it’s because it always comes first when you say the two together so Longitude on its own sounds like it’s missing something. Perhaps, I shouldn’t worry about it and get on with telling you about the new board game Latitude!
As a prototype, artwork, components and aspects of the game are likely to change, just bear that in mind when looking at the images.
How it plays
Latitude is a game for 1-5 players. As cartographers you are collectively creating a map, the thing is, none of you can remember quite how the landscape looked.
That translates to players drawing one of three types of tile on their turn and placing it on the board, along with a prediction of how big that region was. The only placement rule is that a region cannot ever have the same number in it.
This continues until a region is complete either by being land-locked by other regions or because it becomes a five tile region (the largest possible). At this point all tokens of the incorrect size prediction are flipped leaving one or none correct predictions face up. Face up tokens will be points for that player at the end of the game. Most points wins!
It is being crowdfunded on Kickstarter by Radical 8 Games, who successfully crowdfunded Spokes, a game I was excited for at the 2024 UK Games Expo and subsequently backed.
More about the game
Latitude is a breeze to learn, but the strategy of the game soon reveals itself. During your first play you may not notice it, but the tricky decisions start from your very first tile. Placing a ‘one’ early on means someone else will place their ‘two’ right beside it and instantly control the region. Place your ‘five’ and no one else will place beside it and you will have to contribute more of your own tokens to complete it. If the other players even allow you to.
You see, defensive play is as important as offensive. You will have opportunities to block opponents and close their regions in (encouraged). My favourite move is to place a number near a region that is already in that region which hinders expansion.
What unfolds is a cat and mouse game of not wanting to help anyone else at the table but through necessity giving points away and just hoping or planning so that you have more points at the end.
At two players it is a bit more back and forth and it unsurprisingly slows down a bit at five. I therefore like it best at three or four. I haven’t tried the solo mode as that isn’t my thing!
Final thoughts on Latitude
In terms of gameplay, it reminded me of a more accessible Skyrise, but for some reason my head kept comparing it to Rebirth. In the sense that it was easy to learn, but the strategy grows over the course of the game and develops further with more plays. Of course, neither are bad games to be following in the footsteps of!
Latitude is an interesting abstract strategy game that is well-hidden beneath a whimsical premise and delightful artwork. I hasten to add the art is all artist drawn – no AI here. If that sounds like your sort of thing, be sure to follow the campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/radical8games/latitude
