Tsuro of the Seas

Today Kage, Hector and I ventured into the world of sea dragons in Tsuro of the Seas in game 2 of 3 for today. Tsuro of the Seas is a slightly more advanced and heavier game than the original Tsuro, though both could be considered fairly light and around the same general complexity as something like Monopoly, though this has more depth and theme. In Tsuro you have a ship that you are charted a course across the board for, but you have to be wary of sea dragons/monsters popping up and attacking you, and eating tiles you’ve placed out.

As you pick your pieces to decide your path across the board, you may also come into possession of a bomb card, which will let you blow up the monster if it a) lands on you or b) you only have cards that allow you to move to where the dragon is– otherwise, the dragon/monster eats you, and you lose. Additionally, both people lose if someone charts a course that makes them run into each other, and an individual can also lose if the only actions they can take lead them off the board. During setup, after rolling dice to determine where, 6 sea monsters are placed on the board. Afterwards, you decide where to start your ship, trying to keep away from the monsters and possible disaster.

The artwork in this is really neat, bright, vivid colours, and cutesy cartoon style. You don’t see the art of the board very much once you start placing tiles, as it tends to get filled rather fast, even in a two player game. The course pieces are hard cardboard, and have been durable thus far for us, and the game has seen a lot of play, having been borrowed for people to bring to holiday parties as an easy one to get casual/new gamers in on. The boats themselves are hard plastic, but detailed and pretty, and I really like the various colours they used as they are not the standard red, yellow, green, blue, but slightly different shades (and more options given that many can play this game). The gold is my favourite.

All in all this is a quick, easy, and very fun game that isn’t super competitive or thought provoking that most casual people could get into, and I greatly recommend it to people. If you’re going for a super easy game, you can also play original Tsuro by simply removing the sea monsters and just playing with the ships and tiles.

One of the best parts of Tsuro of the Seas is that you can just play the original Tsuro with it if you like. I find Tsuro of the seas is better for smaller player counts. The random factor of the kaiju gets players right into the action, where in regular Tsuro smaller games usually begin with players orbiting their corner for the first few turns until forced to the center. For larger player counts, the game gets moving quickly enough that I prefer to play without the monsters. It’s worthy of note that the canon cards are a module for the small expansion pack for this game, and I always play with them, even for new players.

The Teal Dear

Game: Tsuro of the Seas
Designer: Tom McMurchie, Jordan Weisman
Price: $33
Players: 2-8
2 player Scaling: Quite good, quick, fast, fun
Playtime: 20-40 minutes
Estimated Lifespan: Permanent collection, quick filler game
Average Play Frequency: Every couple of months
Complexity: 2
Components: 5
Bang for Buck: 5
Value for Time: 4.5
Fun Factor: 4.5
Overall: 4.5