LogFAQs > #896559009

61. Turn the Tide
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1403/turn-tide

Genre/mechanics: Simultaneous bidding, hand management
Rules complexity: 3/10
Game length: 25-40 minutes
Player count: 3-5
Experience: 3-4 games with 4-5 players
First played: 2016

Turn the Tide features an attempt not to drown over the course of multiple rounds. You are dealt a hand of cards from a deck numbered 1 to 60.

At the beginning of a round, two flotation cards (numbered 1 to 12, with 2 of each) are posted to bid on, and if you have the highest card overall Each round, each player simultaneously chooses and reveals a card from their hand to see who gets those cards - the highest bidder gets the lowest card, while the second-highest bidder gets the higher card. Then, everyone compares the latest flotation card that they won, and the person with the highest number showing loses one drowning point (represented by flotation rings). A hand ends after every player's hand is depleted, 12 rounds.

In a cool twist, you play N hands of the game, where N is the number of players - and in each round, you pass the cards you were dealt at the beginning of the game - so it's a symmetric game.

Design: I admire this game a lot. There are lots of really neat design decisions that make this game really interesting.

For example, your health bar each round is determined by the quality of your hand. A really good hand contains lots of really high cards (ensuring you can always grab the lower of two flotation cards and thus never drown) and/or lots of really low cards (ensuring that you don't have to grab high-numbered flotation cards if both are higher than your current one). So if your hand is full of cards from the middle of the deck, then you'll get extra health to compensate.

And how about simultaneous bidding? I love when a game scales cleanly in time. You can't get that wrapped up in analysis paralysis because it's chaotic, but there's definitely a card-counting element that goes into it.

You can argue that even with the extra-health rule, some hands will be objectively better than others. It's hard to dispute this, but it's hard to blame the cards for the outcome of the game when by the end of it all, you've gotten a chance to play using each player's initial hand! The outcome is determined based off memory, deduction, and (perhaps most importantly of all) reading your opponents' intent. And it's all wrapped in a short, light time package with art that tells you, "Don't take this too seriously."

Enjoyment: Sadly, TtT hasn't always resonated super-well with the groups I've played it in. Whether it's people not grasping the simple rules or taking too long to agonize over their decisions, your experience of the game can sour a lot. There's nothing wrong with the game, but the experience needs to feel snappy and engaging. I liked my first game a lot, but subsequent tries haven't really replicated that magic. When you haven't been having a lot of fun during the first three hands in a five-player game, it doesn't make you want to play that fourth or fifth game.

Future: With the right people, absolutely. It seems like the type of game that could make regular appearances as a post-big-game cleanser.

Bonus question - Are there any games that you feel like you should like by all accounts, but hasn't always clicked?

Hint for #60 - D, C, C, A, A
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness