Trails of Tucana is a flip-and-write game from the creators of Avenue and Doodle City that is quick and easy to play, but has enough depth to entertain gamers.
Each player is given a map of the island Tucana, showing its villages and important sights. The positions of the villages are randomized for each player, so every game will provide a unique puzzle.
Each turn, one player flips over two terrain cards. Each player must draw — on their own map — a trail between two neighboring spaces of the shown terrains. Gradually, the trails will grow into a network of roads. Players score points by connecting matching harbors, and by connecting sights to harbors. Being the first to connect a pair of harbors provides bonus points.
To add depth to the game, there are varying distribution of the different terrain cards. Mountain cards are for instance rarer than desert cards, so it would be harder to build a trail through a mountain range or over water than through desert or forest. Players need to take this into account when planning their routes. And they should maximize the probability that they will be able to make use of any combination of terrain cards that may come up.
—description from designer
AWARDS AND HONORS:
2021 Finnish Game of the Year (family) WINNER
2020 Norwegian Game of the Year WINNER
2020 Norwegian Game of the Year NOMINEE
2019 The Dice Tower SEAL OF EXCELLENCE
- Good pedigree designers; accessible roll-and-write
- Speaker notes limited familiarity; rules unknown
- Adventure, exploration; light roll-and-write
- Hex-based, tropical archipelago exploration
- flowing, game-arc driven
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- roll-and-write — simple roll-and-write with hex-grid connections
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- "Caesar sees Rome in 20 minutes"
- "this is like the spiritual successor or at least a sister game or a partner game to paulo maurice blitzkrieg"
- "I believe you're investing in these companies these companies can merge with each other so it's just all about making profit"
- "Detective Club and the expansion"
References (from this video)
- Toucan on front
- Network building
- Tropical island
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Flip writing — Flipping right to create the most efficient network on the island of Tucana
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- We love trick taking games
- This game is so much freaking fun
- I adore GMT games, they are becoming one of my favorite game publishers
- If you remember Vast Crystal Caverns is in my top five games of all time
- We bloody love it
- We can't stop playing
- It's a blimp game not a train game
- That's just work
- I don't think I want to play it
- I'll get it eventually
References (from this video)
- high variability between plays
- well-suited to streaming with chat interaction
- visually appealing components
- availability and ongoing cost may be a concern
- teaching can be challenging for new players
- abstract route drafting and lines-based scoring
- fictional island landscape used for route-building and scoring
- strategic abstraction
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- line-based scoring — points are earned by creating specific line connections across the board
- tile-drafting — players draft tiles to place on a personal board, influencing scoring lines
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- The spiel was different for me and yet felt familiar because it is not a playing con.
- Code Names is such a great team game where you create teams and then you have a spy master going to give codes that has to do with this spread of words on the table.
- Isle of Cats was a game that we were able to play through that I would put a grid on the table where people would draft a column or a row
- Trails of Tucana is a great game and a friend of mine introduced me and I really enjoy it.
- White Castle Duel from Dier for two players only, designed by Isra and Sh.