Tsuro of the Seas

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about tabletop games but my love of videogames hit hard recently and much of my focus has gone that way.  Though I haven’t played tabletop games in a while, I have been itching for a board game night and will likely pull out the beautiful Tsuro board.

I personally tend to avoid overly complicated games and usually wind down my board game nights with something simple that everyone can play together.  Tsuro has filled in this gap a lot and remains a favourite among my friends.  Simple and interactive, Tsuro is a perfect example of elegant design.  Players sail their ships onto a 7 x 7 square grid by laying tiles to set their path through the board.  As the board gets filled with these tiles, players will inevitably cross paths and mess with each other’s route.  Eventually, players will get eliminated as their boats get forced off the grid leaving the winner alone on the board.  For an added bit of tension, ‘Tsuro of the Seas’ introduces dragons that randomly move around the board eating up player boats.

Tsuro is a great board game that requires very little teaching.  Because it is so simple and interactive, it makes for the perfect game to introduce new people to designer board games or warming people up to more complex games.