Board Game Spotlight is where we take a look at games that we have come across. We share a bit about the game and our thoughts are on it. This week we are looking at
Tides of Madness from Portal Games
Players: 2 players | Playing Time: 20 min | Age: 10+
Designer: Kristian Curla | Publisher:Portal Games
Players will be playing cards in order to score points against their opponents. The player at the end of the game with the highest score wins. Players will have to watch that they don’t gain too much madness and go insane causing them to lose the game.
The game has a draft mechanic where players play a card, pass the cards to the next player. Once each player has 5 cards revealed the end of the round begins. Players gain madness tokens for each card with tentacles on them. The player with majority of madness tokens from the round may gain 4 points or discard 1 madness token back to the supply. Each card has a scoring ability across the top. For each card that has it’s scoring satisfied players gain points listed on the card. Typically these cards deal with the suits that the cards have. After scoring if anyone has 9 or more madness tokens they lose the game. It is possible for both players to lose the game. Play continues through two more rounds as long as a player doesn’t go insane with madness tokens.
The game has a draft mechanic where players play a card, pass the cards to the next player. Once each player has 5 cards revealed the end of the round begins. Players gain madness tokens for each card with tentacles on them. The player with majority of madness tokens from the round may gain 4 points or discard 1 madness token back to the supply. Each card has a scoring ability across the top. For each card that has it’s scoring satisfied players gain points listed on the card. Typically these cards deal with the suits that the cards have. After scoring if anyone has 9 or more madness tokens they lose the game. It is possible for both players to lose the game. Play continues through two more rounds as long as a player doesn’t go insane with madness tokens.
This is a quick fun little game. If you have about 30 minutes this is a fun one to pick up. The artwork is very much lovecraft. It is well designed and easy to read. The symbols for scoring could have been made just a bit bigger for ease of seeing. The cards are tarot sized so there is a lot of room for play. Gameplay wise the game is very simple. It can be difficult to know what scoring method to go after as your cards will change through each draft phase. If an opponent gets wind of what you are looking for and are ignoring their own scoring they might try to thwart your gameplay.
Game or Developer Games - https://portalgamesus.com/
Board Game Geek - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/195544/tides-madness
Game or Developer Games - https://portalgamesus.com/
Board Game Geek - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/195544/tides-madness
 | Joseph William DeMarcoAuthor: Joe DeMarco a single father, freelance writer, game designer, quality assurance software tester, and business analyst. I am a big-time gamer, and really enjoy checking out all kinds of games available. Putting my curiosity to the app store I find random games to check out. If you have a game you'd like me to review, contact me and let us see how we can work together. Follow Joe on Twitter @shad0fx that’s S H A D ZERO F X |
RSS Feed
