As we continue our Calliope Summer Travels series this week sailing through choppy waters, it’s time to showcase some of our favorite game variants for Tsuro of the Seas. We’ve got a Solo variant and a Teams variant this time, so now you can get your fix no matter how you like to play! If you’re not sure how to play, check out our Everything You Need to Know Guide first.
Survive the Daikaiju!- Solo Mode Variant
Many thanks to BoardGameGeek fans such as Ian Davies and David Gotteri for their multitude of solo variant options, both including and excluding the Veterans of the Seas expansion. Here are some of our favorite options for solo play:
Set up the game as if you were playing with 2 players (6 daikaiju), and never have less than 3 on the board, unless of course there’s less than 3 remaining.
Your goal is to survive longer than the monsters! Once a daikaiju is eliminated (goes off the board or is taken over by a different daikaiju) it is removed from play. You must make it through all 10 daikaiju to win!
Easier variant: Another win condition is to make it through all the wake tiles. If a wake tile is destroyed by a daikaiju, don’t add it back into the tiles, just discard it.
Veteran of the Seas variant: Add the Cannon and Mystic Portal tiles into the wake tiles and use them to help keep the daikaiju at bay! Ignore any special draw rules associated with these tiles. For an easier time you can start with one of these tiles already in your hand.
Tsuro of the Seas Team Edition
A big thank you to Scooter Hamilton with Time 2 Tabletop for this variant! Time 2 Tabletop uses this in schools to teach teamwork and communication, and we love it! What a fresh spin on an old classic.
You’ll be working in teams (your call on how many or how big) trying to survive both the daikaiju and the warring ships! On your turn you can play your wake tile in front of your own ship, or any other ship on your team. This can come in handy if you have the perfect tile to save a teammate from sailing into a daikaiju. Last team standing wins! Players on the same team cannot show their tile cards to each other, so there’s quite a bit of trust and communication needed.
Do you have your own variant of Tsuro of the Seas that you play with? Let us know on our social media, and use #CalliopeGames!