The game comes with a clear, well-illustrated rulebook that provides examples of gameplay, making it even more accessible for first-time players. There are no convoluted exceptions or complex rules to memorize, which contributes to a smoother learning process. You have a hand limit of four cards, but a smart player will draft cards that will work in tandem. So I want to play card A, which gives me two yellow pieces, that I can use next turn to play card B to score points, and the pieces from card B help me score points for card C and so on. Rarely do you want to waste a turn just gaining pieces from a card unless it sets you up for a big score later. Each of your top pieces can only count towards one completion of the pattern. Therefore, to have a pattern appear multiple times throughout your reef, each of its completions cannot share any pieces. Some special rules at the end of the game required forward planning right from the start to improve your score. In particular, the Blue Whale, if played, requires players to turn over an adjacent card before scoring. The turned card cannot be used in any scoring calculations but enables the Blue Whale to be counted (it gains points relative to the number of Krill in the ecosystem)! Turtles and Octopuses are scored after everything else, but importantly the Octopus has an additional power which allows players to move any card to a new location or swap two cards when it is placed in the ecosystem.

Once you throw in the full player count of four, the market can change a lot between turns and having any form of multiple turn strategy becomes much harder. I would go so far as to say that the game weight actually changes, becoming lower with more players. This could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your group. Every collection deserves a little bit of Matsuuchi, and if your tastes lean towards the abstract, then this is a great low stakes addition. More and more I’m becoming a fan of the abstract strategy game genre and Reef is a great addition to that lineup. It does well to scratch that itch of a game that we can jump right into and start playing, and also can be as thinky as we want to make it. Abstract strategy games seem to be on the rise in our hobby. Where they were once ignored due to their themeless nature and usually bland components, games like Azul, Santorini, and Onitama have reinvigorated the genre.

Game Play

Attention: You have a hand limit of 4 cards. If you already have 4 cards in your hand, you cannot take another card. You must perform action B instead. B. Play a card from your hand to grow your reef and (if possible) score a pattern But the game itself? It’s classic Emerson Matsuuchi simplicity in an abstract strategy game. Reef is a pattern making, score card claiming game in 3D, using sweetie-like coral blobs in various colours to represent the growing life in the reef itself. The result is a novel combination of a geographic puzzle and a card sequencing challenge. You need to set up cunning patterns ready for your next Reef cards while also carefully managing your hand to play them at just the right time. It is an easy game to learn but has a real depth of strategy, so it may take you some time to become master of the oceans.

All cards are divided into two halves and are resolved from top to bottom when played. The top half shows what two reef pieces you’ll add to your reef board when you play it, while the bottom half shows how you can score this turn. You score by having your reef match the pattern on the card. For example, if the card shows 3 purple reef pieces in a row, you need 3 purple reef pieces in a row on your reef board. You can also score multiple times if you have different reef pieces matching the pattern. Each piece can only count towards being part of one pattern. (No double-dipping.) If you can match the pattern shown at the bottom of the card, you score points. In this case it’s 6 points for the green pattern. This leads me to mention player count. This chess-like feel is much more present when playing Reef with only two players. When a player plays a card from their hand, it lets them both add more coral to their reef as well as score points if they also match the pattern shown on the card. To do so, they place the card they’re playing into their personal discard pile and take the 2 coral pieces shown on the top of the card. When played, I take the coral pieces shown at the top of the card and add them to my reef. The thing is that you shouldn’t let that lightness fool you. Reef is one of those deceptively easy to learn but difficult to master games. One of the first places you will notice this is with the timing rules for when you play a card.Sort the 112 coral pieces by color to form 4 separate supplies A. Depending on the number of players, each of these 4 supplies must comprise a certain number ofcoral pieces: Diversify your reef. Focusing too much on one type of coral might limit your scoring options later on. Pay attention to the cards your opponents are taking. Anticipating their moves could help you make smarter decisions in your own strategy. This also means that if a pattern on a card shows pieces with no printed numbers within them, your top pieces' heights do not matter when completing that pattern.

Be flexible in your strategy. The card draft is unpredictable, and the best-laid plans may need adjusting on the fly. In this episode, we each share the top ten items from our 2023 Holiday Wishlists. Some practical and others, not so much.

Then the player may score for the pattern shown on the bottom of the card they played. If that pattern exists on their board (from a top-down view), they score the number of points shown in the bottom corner of the card as many times as the pattern appears. Personally, I thinkReefmight have the edge for me. It's slightly less cut-throat thanAzul, especially at the two-player count we frequently play at. It also scratches a bit of an engine-building itch, although it's not strictly in that style of game.Reeflooks great and plays really smoothly, and is really rewarding when you execute a brilliant sequence of turns.It’s certainly a game that I highly recommend. Reef is a really simple to learn game that is both easy to teach and play. There are only two actions you have to learn, draw a card or play a card. I am a big fan of the Azul games (my favourite of which you can read about in my Azul Summer Pavilion review) which are also from Plan B games. Compared to that series, Reef feels significantly lighter. That's really where the similarities end.Reefis an abstract game that stands on its own as a family weight 2-4 player game. The colours might fool you into thinking the game is aimed at children, but there's actually a really neat card drafting, puzzly, three-dimensional game in Reef that we believe rivals its award winning predecessor. Let's take a closer look! Reef Gameplay

The player aids could be improved to include a summary of possible actions and examples of scoring patterns. The first thing players notice about Reef is the fantastic coral pieces. The chunky and colorful pieces are the centerpiece of the game. Not only do they present a great tactile experience with the game, but they’re also very functional. While each color is uniquely shaped, they all nest on top of each other very well. We love seeing our colorful coral reefs grow. The cards in Reef are well designed so that they are easy to read and clear, even from across the table. An added bonus in Reef is the plastic box insert that not only holds everything when on the shelf but also works to keep everything sorted during play. This creates a neat tension between grabbing cards that give you coral to build towards bigger scores, and potentially wasting the scoring potential of those cards, and trying to choose cards that will score every time you play them.Yet, despite the strengths in component quality, the artwork is where Reef might fall short for some. It’s undeniably clean and easy to understand, but it doesn’t quite capture the teeming biodiversity of a real coral reef. Sure, the vivid colors and shapes hint at the wonder beneath the waves, but there’s a lost opportunity for richer thematic art here. For those who favor a more illustrative approach to board game art, the functional design might come off as somewhat sterile. Despite this, the components and artwork work cohesively to create an engaging and visually appealing tabletop experience. Gameplay Experience Diving deeper into the game, the components of Reef are where the game truly shines, invoking the vibrancy of a coral reef in full bloom. This isn’t a game of muted tones and drab tiles, it’s a visual feast, boasting chunky coral pieces in a multitude of vibrant hues. The game’s coral pieces are durable and visually pleasing, with four different colors – yellow, purple, green, and red – and unique shapes for each. If a pattern shows printed numbers with a "+" next to them, all of your top pieces of the right color and with a height equal to or higher than the printed number count.