Advert/Gifted: This game was kindly gifted by Rio Grande Games. All opinions are ours and our reviews are always honest.

The days are getting longer and we’re dreaming of our next holiday. And what could be more relaxing than a luxurious yacht voyage? Sure, there might be the odd peril ahead – fog, icebergs, whirlpools, the odd kraken – but I’m sure we can avoid the hazards and have a lovely vacay. Let’s explore the Seas of Strife!

👥 3 to 6 players
⌛ 45 minutes
🧠 10 years+

Gameplay overview:

In trick taking games, the general rules are that each person plays a card from their hand to try and win the turn (the trick). Usually the first card played sets the suit for that round, and everyone else has to ‘follow’ the suit and play a card from that suit if they have one. Otherwise, they can play any other card. And usually the highest card in the leading suit wins the trick.

Linking a game of avoiding tricks to a theme of avoiding sea perils is very clever.

In Seas of Strife, the cards represent various hazards at sea, and you’re trying to AVOID winning the tricks instead. And whilst you still have to follow suit, you can follow any suit already in play. So, if one person played a red card, and another person played a green card, you have to play either a red or a green card (if you can). After everyone has played a card, the suit with the most cards in play is the ‘active’ suit, and the person who played the highest card in that suit wins. The person who wins the trick goes first next turn, unless the trick included the highest card of any suit – then they pick who goes first.

The round continues until all cards have been played. Everyone gets 1 penalty point for each trick they won. Then the cards are shuffled and re-dealt out for a new round. If at the end of a round, someone has 15 or more penalty points, the game ends and whoever has the fewest points wins and sails off into the relaxing sunset!

Our first impressions:

• We liked the switch up of needing to lose tricks instead of win them and the active suit determined at the end of the turn – but it can take some people time to get their heads around the concepts and how the different suits/numbers work.

• Linking the game of avoiding tricks to a theme of avoiding sea perils is very clever. The artwork is nice too, and the additional art in the box was a nice touch.

• Being able to follow any suit in play was a fun twist and there were some interesting choices in what suit to play to manipulate the active suit in your favour (or to target another player). We played with 3 players, and I really enjoyed the occasions I could decide which other player should win the trick – do I pick the player with the most penalty points to try and end the game, or the other player who has similar points to me to put me strongly in the lead?

• The box says a game is 45 minutes – that may be true for a 6 player game, but with 3 players it took nowhere near that long, especially when we were familiar with the rules.

Final thoughts:

Seas of Strife is a great balance of trick taking with some twists, but not too many extra rules or powers to detract from the simplicity of the game.

Before we played Seas of Strife (and Holly Oak – post coming soon!), we didn’t think we enjoyed trick taking games. Turns out we just don’t like Fox and the Forest!

Seas of Strife is a great balance of trick taking with some twists, but not too many extra rules or powers to detract from the simplicity of the game. I found it really more-ish and wanted to play multiple games, which is always a good sign!

We’re looking forward to trying it at bigger numbers – I feel like dynamics of the different suits in play will get more exciting with more players.