Review: Tayu

A game for two teams, whether that be with two or four players, Tayu is a simple tile laying game with a lot of fighting back and forth to try to get all of the little lines on the tiles to go the side your team wants them to. While there is some strategy it is very limited because on each turn you only have one tile to play and only a few legal places to play them.

Each tile has three exits for the lines on the tile and there is eight different places on a tile that a line can exit. The starting player begins the game by playing a tile in the middle of the board and from then on all tiles must have all their exits either match previous tiles or abut a blank spot on the board.

The scoring mechanic of Tayu is the best part of the game. Each team has two sides of the board they are trying to get the lines to reach. The number of hits on one of their sides multiplied by the number of lines that hit the other side of the board. So while you are playing your tiles you are trying to get may different lines to hit the other side of the board. However, you are also trying to throw a wrench in the plans of the other team to get the lines to reach their sides of the board.

One of the few negative aspects of the game is that every turn you only have one tile you can play. Sometimes the tile you have will only be able to be played in one or two locations on the board. Not only that but it might be in positions that actually benefits your opponent! While the random nature of the tile draw can be somewhat frustrating it also limits the amount of analysis you have to do from turn to turn making the game go quite quickly.


Another quick and simple game, while still having some strategy.

3 out of 4 Platypus Flippers