Tsuro of the Seas

This morning at the coffee shop we played Tsuro of the Seas, which I picked up by funding them on Kickstarter.  After some false starts - Eryn clearly understands the game, but like most smart kids just blows past parts of the rules that she thinks we obviously understand, which is probably how Sean feels about me when I try to explain a game - we figured it out and got down to playing.  The difference between this version and the regular version, beyond that you have boats instead of dragon stones for pieces, is that there are a number of dragons lurking in the middle of the board.  When they run into you, or you run into them, you're dead.  When they run into a piece, it's removed (e.g. a path/wake piece or another dragon) with the rule that there can't be fewer than three dragons on the board.  They potentially move during each players turn if a 6, 7 or 8 is rolled, the direction they moved determined by a follow up roll, a 6 bringing yet another dragon onto the board.  Here we are starting out.

At first the dragons made me very nervous.  I just knew one was going to eat me.  But it's more likely you'll run into one as there's only a 1 in 6 chance after a 6, 7, or 8 that a particular dragon will move.  You're taking your chances if you're next to them, no doubt.  But when you combine the odds for any dragon moving at all, with the odds for a particular dragon moving, for the odds they'll then move in your particular direction, you feel a bit safer.  At least with three people.  Throw eight on the board, and I suspect the dragons frequently get a meal.

Here we are sailing around the board.  My wife has a bad sense of direction and is now in the belly of the beast.

In this particular game, Eryn and I tied for first, or last, trying to both sail around the edge past this angry fellow.  We got a whirlpool tile, Uzushio, that we didn't quite understand how to use.  But I think, now that I've ruminated on it, that if you EVER roll a gold 1, 2, 3 or 4, it moves and eliminates anything in its path.  We'll have to play that way next time.  That'll change the game a bit.  Eryn thought we could just call it Gold 6 because there wasn't a gold 6 dragon, but based on the layout of the card, I think the omnipresent whirlpool makes more sense.