Occasionally we feature a post from our friends at The Malted Meeple. Their Game of the Month series highlights one of the many games in their libraries at Ravenwood Castle and The Malted Meeple. They briefly describe the game, how to play it, and why they like it. 

Game: Tsuro

November’s Game of the Month is a Malted Meeple favorite and a real trailblazer, Tsuro: The Game of the Path from our friends at Calliope Games! When guests who are new to the hobby ask us for a recommendation, Tsuro is one of our go-to games. Few games offer newer gamers such an elegant blend of simple gameplay, strategy, and luck.

The goal of Tsuro is to be the last player with their marker on the board. The board, a 36 space square grid, is placed within easy reach of the players. Next, players place their chosen marker on the outside edge of the board on one of the start markers. Players are dealt three tiles which they keep secret from the other players. Each tile depicts four unique paths which create eight points on the tile. When the tiles are laid end to end, they create a path. On a player’s turn, that player will choose one tile in their hand and place it on the board in front of their marker. Then, the player will move their marker to the open end of the path. They will also move any other marker adjacent to the placed tile to the end of their new path. If this moves a marker off the edge of the board, that player is eliminated from the game. If the placed tile causes two players’ markers to meet, they are both eliminated. An eliminated player’s tiles are shuffled into a new draw pile. A player cannot willingly eliminate themselves unless no other move is available. The game ends when all but one player has been eliminated. This lone player is immediately declared the victor and wins the game.

Read more about Tsuro and see what the game looks like on the Meeple Moments blog.