I first discovered this game in November of 2012 and thoroughly enjoyed my first play. However, when I tried to buy the game, I had a hard time figuring out which edition I wanted. The three main editions had different rules, and determining which rules went with each edition was very confusing. Also contributing to the confusion is that there are a number of variants that people play with, and people will mix and match rules from the different versions. People also consistently respond to questions about one edition of the game with rules from another edition! In an effort to clear a few things up for current players, and to help others gamers interested in Shark, I decided to write a review which will:
1) Give a pictorial description of the gameplay
2) Compare the different versions of the game
3) Share common variants
4) Provide thoughts and comments on all the above.
This is a LONG article, so I've used headers to try and make stuff easier to find. I'm sure I'll get something incorrect in this review, so just let me know in the comments below and I'll change it.
Gameplay Description
Shark was released in 1987 and actually received a Spiel des Jahres Recommendation. For the curious, Auf Achsewon the award that year. Flying Turtle Gameswas the original publisher and printed the game in Dutch, English, French, and German. This became known as the Flying Turtle Edition, or FT for short. Images of the box and game board are shown below.
(image courtesy of EJKemp)
(image courtesy of BoardGameGeek)
Yes, that is a picture of the official board, it is not a homemade copy. If people complain about the art in the game, they are probably referencing this edition.
The game is a stock trading game consisting of four companies represented by the colors yellow, blue, red, and green. The stocks are actually seen on the game board in the second picture, and consist of 1's and 5's. 386
Players will put markers in the grid boxes numbered 1-6 to determine the value of each company's stock, and value of each stock is kept track in the grid with the numbers 1-15 next to it. The fact that it is a stock game with players placing markers on a grid to determine stock values sounds similar to the classic , but the similarities end there.
Turn Overview
On a turn, a player can take 4 actions; 2 of them are mandatory:
1) At the start of their turn, a player can buy up to 5 shares of any color combination from the bank and sell an unlimited number of shares to the bank.
2) The player then must roll two dice, a standard die numbered 1-6 and a second die containing a yellow side, blue side, red side, and green side. These correspond to the colors of the companies. There are also two white sides on the dice.
3) The player must then place a marker on a space based on the dice rolled. The numbered die tells the player which numbered section of the board the marker must be placed (1-6) and the colored die determines which color marker must be played in the numbered section. The two white sides allow a player to choose a color of their choice in the required section.
4) At the end of their turn, the player can buy and sell more stock, but the 5 share buying limit is over the entire turn.
After buying and selling is complete, the turn is over, and the next player begins. The game ends whenever any color runs out of markers, or any company's stock reaches a value of 15. It needs to be said that the FT edition says there are 20 markers of each color when there are actually only 18.
Determining Stock Value
The stock value of any company is the sum of the the total number of markers in groups of two or more. Markers that do not touch another marker of their own color do not contribute to the stock value of the company. There are two exceptions to the rule:
1) If there are no groups of 2 or more on the board, the stock value of a given company is 1, regardless of how many pieces are on the board.
2) Groups of 7 or more only count as 7 for the stock value. (aka: The Rule of Seven)
I'll repost the second picture below to give an example.
(image courtesy of BoardGameGeek)
Green: There are four groups of green on the board, a group of 6, a group of 2, and two individual markers. 6+2=8, and the two individual markers do not add to the stock value. Green stock = 8
Red: There are two groups of red on the board, a group of 3, and an individual marker. 597