Advert: We received a loaned copy of this game to review from Weast Coast Games via the UK Board Game Review Circle. All opinions are ours and our reviews are always honest.

With all this heat lately, it feels like the perfect time to talk about Desperate Oasis!

👥 2 players
⌛ 15-25 minutes
🧠 8 years+

Gameplay overview:

Desperate Oasis is a 2-player ‘lane-battler’ with players tussling for control over the lush desert oases. Place animals with varying strengths (from 0 to 5) on either side of Oasis cards – your side or your opponent’s! – and at the end of the round the player with the highest total strength under each card wins that oasis. But beware! While some life-giving Oases give you points, others are arid mirages that take points away.

On your turn, you have 3 choices, you either place:

• 2 animals on your side face up
• 1 animal on your side face down, or
• 1 animal on your opponent’s side face up.

Each side of an Oasis has space for three animals, and each animal type has a different power that can swing the game in your favour. The Egyptian jerboa scares elephants sharing the same oasis, making the usually hefty elephant’s strength go from 5 to 0. The deathstalker scorpion destroys the weakest animal on each side of the Oasis it’s played on. If 3 golden jackals are placed in the same column, you can place a fourth animal with them. The camels have extra strength if you place 3 together. And the chameleon takes on the strength of a neighbouring animal. The only exception is the Scimitar Oryx – they’re just happy being themselves, the little cuties.

Not only do the animals have powers, but animals of the same kind like to hang out in herds. So, whenever you place an animal, it attracts the same animals from adjacent ‘columns’ to join it (if there’s space for them to move to). When you place an animal at a ‘portal’ Oasis card, it attracts animals from the opponent’s side of the oasis as well!

Once per round, if you manage to fill your side of an oasis with 3 of the same animals, you can place a palm tree token on any oasis of your choice – this is worth a bonus point at the end, so ideally you’re betting on an oasis you think you’re going to win!

After 3 rounds, players add up their points from Oasis cards and bonus palm trees, and the player with the most points wins!

Our thoughts:

The striking vintage vibes of the Desperate Oasis artwork instantly hooked us in – it just exudes cool! As the round progresses, the cards build up a bold and colourful Saharan landscape. The oasis cards have slightly different designs depending on the type (positive, negative, portals) and some of the animals included on the cards were completely new to me, which I loved. Of course my fave was the self-confident scimitar oryx!

We love a lane battler, and there’s more to Desperate Oasis than ones we’ve played before. Combining animal powers with the ability to place cards on your side OR your opponents, and to even place cards secretly, adds an extra layer of tactics. (Is my facedown card an elephant, or just a distraction?) The spatial migration of animals from adjacent columns – or from your opponent’s side through portals – feels novel and adds an extra layer of thinkiness to you placements. And fighting to LOSE the least appealing Oases adds a layer of tension. It keeps you interested in what the other player is up to, and what you can do to stop them. So many layers and in such a small box!

And you might think betting the odd palm tree token for a measly point would be of little consequence, but those points can make or break winning the game.

Combining animal powers with the ability to place cards on your side OR your opponents, and to even place cards secretly, adds an extra layer of tactics.

Randomly drawing 5 Oasis cards for each round adds some variability to the game and can lead to some interesting scenarios – we’ve had games where it was mostly negative Oasis cards in play, so we were fighting to win the least worst option! And having a mischievous back-and-forth animal thievery through portals gave us some laughs.

We love Desperate Oasis! And can’t think of a single negative with the game. The only consideration worth noting is that there isn’t UK/European distribution for it, so you have to order directly from Weast Coast in the US. We love being able to support publishers directly, but this does drive up the price for us and is so is something to take into consideration when buying. But the game is well worth the £15 RRP (price at time of posting).

What we like:

• Gorgeous bold, colourful artwork and striking design.

• Each animal type has a unique power that can be used to help you or hinder your opponent.

• The spatial animal attraction rule feels unique and gives more choice on how best to place them.

• I love the tactics of playing directly into your opponents columns and the mind games of playing a secret card in yours – it really adds a satisfying layer onto the tactics, working well with the animal powers and animal attraction rule.

• The various positive and negative points across the Oasis cards means you’re not just battling to win the best, you’re also fighting to lose the worst!

• Betting a palm tree on what an oasis you think you’ll win is fun – even if you aren’t always right!

• Travel friendly – and you can layer cards a bit to reduce table size requirements.

• There’s a lot of competitive and satisfying gameplay here, and in a cute little box. And did we say the art was amazing? The art is amazing.

Considerations:

• There isn’t a UK distributor so you need to buy it directly from Weast Coast and that means the P&P and Taxes can add up.

Final verdict:

It was the unique artwork that first attracted us to the Desperate Oasis, but what really quenched our thirst was the tactical gameplay.

It was the unique artwork that first attracted us to the Desperate Oasis, but what really quenched our thirst was the quick, tactical gameplay. We’ve played a few lane battlers in our time, and this one is absolutely brilliant! So much so that Desperate Oasis is a strong contender for our favourite 2-player game of the year. We’re definitely adding it to our collection soon and Weast Coast Games is staying firmly on our radar.

Looking for a 2-player game and like lane battlers? Then you’ll love Desperate Oasis!