Artwork by the unparalleled <PERSON> and <PERSON>.
Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef is a game I acquired for its visuals and components alone. Shocking, I know; shouldn't you only buy games you INTEND to play? To provide some background on my tastes as a gamer, I am not a frequent backer of games on Kickstarter: only five titles are backed under my name in the past five years. I don't need a game to have stunning visuals to love it; Lancasterand Concordiaare both in my Top 10 games of all time (you can read the full list of my Top 100 Games of 2020 here). That being said, visuals can certainly pull me in to enjoying a game more, from the woodlands of Rootto the bombastic world of Mechs vs. Minions. But as a rule of thumb, I am more of a "mechanisms first, theme second" kind of guy.
So when it came to making the decision to purchase Tidal Blades: Deluxe Edition, it was an item I knew I wanted to have in my collection. I've played plenty of worker placement games with mechanisms that excite me, like Calimala's fantastic double activation, or the madcap wackiness of Argent: The Consortiumand its multi-talented wizards. Nothing about the worker placement in Tidal Blades excited me from the Kickstarter. I certainly hoped that its mechanisms would reveal itself to me upon play, and that it would be a game that I would grow to love the gameplay of on top of its brilliant world-building and artwork. I feel that many backers and potential buyers may be in the same boat as me, so let me help you navigate the waters of this massive ocean.
I'm not here to talk about the visuals of Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef. It is the nicest box of components I own, and the presentation is even better than that of Mechs vs Minions, Everdell, and Scythe, in my opinion. If you're reading this review, I bet that the world created here drew you in. Again, there's nothing wrong with that, in my book. As board gamers, we're allowed to like nice things!
So, let's talk about the mechanisms in Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef. I'll start with two positives, and go into a few misgivings I've developed over my few plays.
The sense of character progression and growth is tangible and forefront in your journey in Tidal Blades. 504
Through completing quests and fighting monsters, you're going to find yourself jumping up all four of your dials. All of them feel worthwhile and will give you a great sense of variety from game to game. While getting better stunts and bringing more dice to challenges feels accomplishing, I have to highlight my personal favorite traits to upgrade: Resilience and Synergy. The former allows you to engage with the tremendous dice upgrading mechanism (like a tech tree), and its empowering to upgrade so many dice at the end of each day. In another vein, Synergy lets you customize your character, and it's always a joy to draw new attributes and deck out your champion with asymmetrical powers. I think many will end a game of Tidal Blades feeling proud of the character they've built, and will be eager to see how differently it plays out in future plays. The character growth the star of the show, in my opinion.
And while advancing your traits commands center stage, the dice mechanism is the supporting actor holding the performance together. How you roll dice in Tidal Blades is probably the single most important factor in whether or not you will enjoy this game. Tidal Blades only offers twelve actions (fourteen with the Try-Outs variant), so you know the worker placement can't be doing all of the heavy lifting. No, you will probably spend the majority of your time in Tidal Blades either rolling dice, or watching another player roll dice. If this is a problem for you, then you and I both know this game isn't the right fit for you. But, if like me, you tolerate dice rolling (and potentially even enjoy it!), then I think you'll find a lot to love Tidal Blades' take on the format.
I tend to play my games in gut-reaction mode, meaning I like to keep the action going and the blood pumping. I'm not one to puzzle over every space combat in ; I'm the kind of guy who will quickly assess my odds in and grit my teeth as I pull that final chip from the bag. Going with your gut is what makes the combat in Tidal Blades enjoyable to me. I'll swipe up my dice, roll them without inhibitions, reassess, and roll again. The results you get are often varied enough that you'll get to roll several times, making tight decisions about when to pull out, or when to push for one final go. 237