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‘You take on the role of investigators trying to discover ancient knowledge —secrets beyond the grasp of time … beyond the grasp of the human mind. You will contact mysterious cults, explore hidden locations, encounter horrific creatures, and learn unspeakable words. The horror of this knowledge may prove too much to bear for their weak minds, and some of you may be lost forever to madness!’
Tides of Madness is a micro game set in the world of H.P. Lovecraft, and built around card drafting and set collection mechanics. It is a sequel to the much-loved Tides of Time, also by Portal Games, and follows a very similar flow and structure (with a few key differences!). The game takes place over 3 rounds, with each round consisting of 3 phases: drafting, scoring, and refreshing (after the first and second round only). After scoring the third round, if neither player has succumbed to Madness, the player with the most Victory Points (VP) is the winner.
There are 3 cards for each of the 5 suits: Races, Locations, Outer Gods, Great Old Ones, and Manuscripts, as well as 3 cards without a suit. The art on these cards is simply stunning. The vivid renditions of Lovecraft's cosmic monstrosities and settings remind me of Michael Bukowski’s unsettling Mythos illustrations. The cards are made with high quality stock and their large size showcases the art superbly. The inclusion of a scorepad and a small, crazy golf-sized pencil is also a nice touch.
Victory points are earned by meeting the requirements displayed on each card. For example, the Azathoth card features ‘For each *Great Old One* gain 3 VP’, and so if you play this card, for each card you play that is part of the Great Old Ones set you would gain 3 VP during the next scoring phase. Another example: the Yog Sothoth card says ‘For majority in *Locations* gain 7 VP’, and so you would gain 7 VP during the next scoring phase if you have more cards of the Locations set in play than your opponent. In order to score high, players need to both play a complimentary combination of cards that interact to earn VP and be mindful of what their opponent needs to draft.
However, for every card you play that has tentacles down the left-hand side, you must take one Madness token. If at any point you reach a total of 9 or more Madness tokens, the cosmic horrors have driven you insane, the game ends, and you immediately lose. This mechanic both embeds the theme into the game and serves as an added element to factor in when selecting what cards to play and what sets to chase. Often, taking on Madness allows players to score higher, which adds a fun push-your-luck element to the gameplay. Madness also fits in well with the card drafting mechanic, as you can sometimes leave your opponent nothing but tentacle-filled cards to push them over the edge!
Here is a brief summary of each of the 3 phases:
1) Drafting phase: Each player is dealt 5 cards. They each choose 1 card to play, reveal them simultaneously, then pass the remaining cards to the other player (in the same way as you would in Sushi Go! and 7 Wonders). This process continues until all the cards are played (5 cards each).
2) Scoring phase: Players count up the number of cards they have just played that feature tentacles, and take that many Madness tokens. Anyone who has 9 Madness tokens immediately goes insane and loses the game. Then the VP are added up by working out which conditions were met on the cards that each player has played.
3) Refresh phase: If neither player succumbed to Madness, they each select a card they played during the Drafting Phase to keep in play, and 1 card to remove from the game. Each player is then dealt 2 more cards to bring their hands back up to 5 cards, and the next round begins with the Drafting Phase. This entire process is repeated 3 times, by which time all cards will have been played (there is no Refresh Phase the third time around).
For me this game's two biggest hits are the depth of strategy relative to its size, and the way that the Lovecraftian theme is woven into the mechanics. Whilst the former may not be as unique as it once was in a post-Love Letter micro game world, the latter is still surprisingly rare among tabletop games (particularly smaller ones).
In relation to the gameplay itself, there aren’t really any weaknesses; the game does what it does well, providing a tight, tactical experience for 2 players. However, an expansion or variant that allows more than 2 players to play would be welcome, as there is nothing inherent in the game that would suggest it has to be limited to 2 players. Also, the theme may be off putting for some, as there can be no doubt that tabletop gaming is saturated with Cthulhu content at the moment.
Having played the game over 30 times so far, I have found no issue with replayability, despite the small number of cards. Like its predecessor Tides of Time, Tides of Madness offers plenty of different ways to score VP and to usurp your opponent in a short space of time, meaning the game never outstays its welcome. On the whole, this is a wonderful little game, and represents great value for money if you're a fan of card drafting, the Cthulhu Mythos, set collection, or concise card games that challenge you to think strategically without draining your brain too much.
Cthulhu Reviews: 6 out of 8 tentacles 🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙
Designer: Kristian Čurla
Publisher: Portal Games
Players: 2
Age: 12+
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