The basic game play of Tsuro of the Seas resembles that of Tom McMurchie's Tsuro: Players each have a ship that they want to sail — that is, keep on the game board — as long as possible. Whoever stays on the board the longest wins the game.
Each turn players add "wake" tiles to the 7×7 game board; each tile has two "wake connections" on each edge, and as the tiles are placed on the board, they create a connected network of paths. If a wake is placed in front of a ship, that ship then sails to the end of the wake. If the ship goes off the board, that player is out of the game.
What's new in Tsuro of the Seas are daikaiju tiles, representing sea monsters and other creatures of the deep. Notably, daikaiju can move: each tile has five arrows, four for moving in each of the cardinal directions and another one for rotation. On the active player's turn, he rolls two six-sided dice; on a sum of 6, 7, or 8, the daikaiju will move, while on any other sum they'll stay in place. To determine which direction the daikaiju tiles move, the player then makes a second roll, this time with a single die. On 1-5 in the second roll, each daikaiju moves according to its matching arrow. On a 6 in the second roll, a new daikaiju tile is added to the board.
If a daikaiju tile hits a wake tile, a ship, or another daikaiju tile, the object hit is removed from the game. Another way to be ousted! The more daikaiju tiles on the game board, the faster players will find themselves trying to breathe water...
Tsuro Of The Seas - How To Play
Images
- Suro
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — The game is won by the last remaining ship on the board. Filling the entire board with tiles can also lead to a shared victory if multiple players remain.
- Dice rolling — Dice are rolled to determine Daiju movement. A combined result of six, seven, or eight on gold and blue dice triggers Daiju movement. A single die roll determines how all Daiju move.
- player elimination — Players are eliminated if their ship is forced off the board, into a Daiju, or if they are unable to place a Wake tile when adjacent to a Daiju. If a player is eliminated, they give their tiles to the player who eliminated them.
- set collection — Players hold a hand of Wake tiles and draw new ones to maintain a hand total of three.
- tile placement — Players place tiles in front of their ship to create paths, with restrictions on placing tiles that would lead off the board, into a daiju, or create an infinite loop. Tiles can connect to other tiles, and placing a tile can move another player's ship.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
References (from this video)
- The expansion adds new elements to the game play.
- The portal can be used to avoid elimination.
- The tsunami tile adds a threat that advances and increases in strength.
- The whirlpool tile destroys everything it moves onto.
- Cannons can be used to destroy Daikaiju directly or to prevent elimination.
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — The tsunami tile represents a massive tidal wave that includes the space it is in and all spaces extending from it in a full row. The strength of the tsunami increases over time.
- card drafting — The mystical portal is shuffled into the Wake deck. The tsunami tile is shuffled into the Wake stack. The whirlpool tile is shuffled into the Da Kaiju deck. The cannons are shuffled into the Wake deck.
- Deck building — When a player draws the gold tsunami tile, they must place it face up on the board. If a player draws a cannon, they can keep it secretly in their hand or reveal and permanently remove it to draw a new wake tile.
- Dice rolling — Ships or Daikaiju that move into the mystical portal will be transported to a new space, and two dice will be rolled for each piece separately to determine where they are moved. Players must roll a single die matching or beating the tsunami's strength to avoid their ship capsizing. The whirlpool moves anytime a player fails to roll a six, seven, or eight when checking to see if the Daikaiju move. The whirlpool's movement is determined by rolling a single die, and it does not move if a five or six is rolled.
- player elimination — Players can use the mystical portal if they are faced with elimination, even by another player. Players can use a cannon to avoid elimination by a Daikaiju instead of their ship being destroyed.
- tile placement — The mystical portal tile is placed following normal tile rules. The tsunami tile is placed on the board in a random orientation using typical dice placement rules. The whirlpool tile is placed on the board using the standard die rolling method.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- in this video we're going to learn how to use these tiles that are in expansion called Veterans of the Seas for Soro of the Seas published by kopy games
- Basically, this means when moving to this space you can still activate the effect of the portal and avoid the tsunami and Whirlpool tiles even though they're on that space covering it up.
- The whirlpool destroys everything, so when it moves onto a tile or a ship they're removed from play. If it moves onto a Daikaiju it's removed from play and if a Daikaiju lands on top of a Whirlpool the whirlpool survives but the monster goes.