Game of the Path

Both paragraphs accurately describe the gameplay of Tsuro: The Game of the Path.  Each player has a token and three tiles, and on their turn, a tile will be placed that will create a path for the token to follow.

With luck, you will continue to journey and be the last dragon happily navigating the board.  But occasionally you will have no choice but to fly into other dragons or off the board, ending your run for the game.

And that is it – that’s almost all there is to tactics and objectives in Tsuro.  Be the last dragon on the board, and you win – job done!

Playing Tsuro

Tsuro is incredibly easy to teach and pick up.

To begin, each player starts at a marker on the outside of the board.  This is where your dragon will start the game.  Technically, you can start on the same square but the second marker next to another player, but maybe not while you are learning the game 🙂

The oldest player going first, you then place a tile in an empty square adjacent to their marker.  The idea of the placement is to continue the natural path you have started on.

Once the marker is placed, the player then moves their token to the end of the natural path.  At the start of the game this is usually to the edge of the tile that was placed, but later in the game these paths can go quite a ways!

Once this is done, any other markers that may have had paths put before them are now moved.  Then the player takes a tile so that they always have three tiles, and the next player clockwise has their turn, following the same rules.

A common way of being eliminated is if you make two markers meet, both of those markers will be eliminated.  At the start of Tsuro it’s pretty easy to see this coming, but as the number of tiles on the board increases, you can get caught out!

If you place a path that guides you off the board, there is a small reprieve.  You may not willingly do this, so there is room to take back the tile for a mistake.  But be careful – if you have no choice but to eliminate yourself in this fashion, then the elimination is final.

Once a player is eliminated, their tiles are shuffled back into the draw pile, and play continues.

Once there is only one marker left on the board, that player wins!

There are some other rules in terms of the draw pile being empty and multiple final players being eliminated on the same turn, but this is all you need to know to play Tsuro.

Once you have the basics down, there are even some variant rules like being able to swap some of your tiles with those of a player you eliminated.

Who would play Tsuro?

Honestly, most people that I have introduced to Tsuro have thoroughly enjoyed it and all for different reasons.

Some people enjoy the maximisation factor of laying the ‘perfect’ path early game to reap the benefits later.  Others enjoy moving their marker towards other players and messing with others as soon as possible.

If you start a game and another player puts their token right next to yours – expect shenanigans the entire time.

But that is part of the beauty of Tsuro – the game is so simple it can be the sort of game you want it to be.

Yes, there is strategy involved, but you can ignore it.  There is luck in the cards you pull, but the game is so quick a bad draw doesn’t hurt too much and three cards to play helps as well.

Moving a piece along a line is easy to do, so even adding younger players into a game will work well.  To play Tsuro a lot though, like the main game on a game night, players will usually need a little bit more – but I will get to that in a minute.

The Game Itself

The components are fine for what they are. Essentially it’s a baseboard and thick cardboard tiles, so there isn’t much to rave about.  The markers for the dragons are solid plastic pieces and are nice to move around the board.

One day I will get around to painting mine.  Golden dragons in the imprint with colouring on the outer marker.  One day 🙂

But the art.  Heavily influenced by the Asian dragons, the art in Tsuro is as elegant and understated as the gameplay mechanics, and works so well.

A big part of my attraction to Tsuro is its simplicity – but this is also its downfall.  Tsuro is a game that is great for 30-40 minutes at a time, but not all afternoon/evening/whenever.

Luckily, this is where Tsuro of the Seas comes into play, and I will be reviewing that next week.  Same basic gameplay, but with added mechanics making it more ‘gamey’ or a bit heavier for people that are looking for it.

And the sales pitch (well, as close as I get anyway)

On Kickstarter right now is the third game in the Tsuro legacy – Tsuro: Phoenix Rising.

Taking the same base gameplay described here and adding some twists and refinements, more ‘game’ is added while at the same time remaining accessible and fun.

I will be doing a more formal write up on Tsuro: Phoenix Rising soon, but if Tsuro looks interesting to you I would highly recommend checking out Tsuro: Pheonix Rising.  Kickstarter ends Sunday, February 10 at 5 am AEST!