Hello friends! We will be getting a little more regular with our posts starting this week – the plan is to have at least 3 posts a week (Monday, Wed, Friday) and sometimes a weekend post, as we get going here. That being said, let’s jump into our ~500 review on Tsuro!

Game: Tsuro: The Game of the Path
Publisher: Calliope Games
Designer: Tom McMurchie
Main Game Mechanisms: Tile laying, hand management
Number of Players: 2 to 8
Game Time: 10 to 20 minutes

Description: Tsuro is an abstract tile-laying game where you are laying down tiles that will always be able to connect (8 entrances/exits on each tile). Every turn, you lay down a tile that forces you to move to a new location based on the path that is created by your tile. 

Your player piece is twisting and turning as a Chinese dragon would, but you don’t want to run into other dragons or run off of the board. The last person(s) left on the board is the winner.

Review:  I love tile-laying games, which I’ve shared in previous posts that I have done in the past. I also get a big kick out of Asian art – and let me tell you, this is one of the most gorgeous games that I currently own. The art is beautiful, the components are spot on, and they even put a print of the cover  inside of the game. 

Another thing that I love about this game is that it works with ANY number. We got it as a result of seeing it on Tabletop, and we mainly played it together until recently. During my birthday weekend, we played at 3, and the other night we played with 5. I really want to try at 8 to see how it plays. It’s a little more chaotic, but it doesn’t lose the feel of being super zen.

It’s amazing for gamers and non-gamers alike. People get the hang of it quite quickly and, after watching a few turns, everyone knows what is going on. We used it at our monthly game night with friends as a way to wind down the night, and it was the perfect way to do so.

The only issue that I see with the game is the fact that it can get a little confusing to figure out what happens when the tiles run out (but let me tell you, this is minor). What happens is this: you play until all of the tiles in the pile have been used. Then, the first person that would have gotten a tile after the pile disappears gets the dragon tile to represent that fact. As people get eliminated, the tiles they had left then get redistributed, starting with the person with the dragon tile and working to their left. The dragon tile then gets passed to the next player who didn’t get a tile as a result of that.

Buy, Try, Deny: Buy it, buy it right now. This game is perfect for those nights that you just want to feel very zen while you are gaming. It’s competitive to a point, but you don’t feel like you’re going after everyone else. No matter how many people that you play with regularly, it’s going to work, and it’s the perfect filler game. 

Game On!
Marti, The Fluffy Meeple