Something caught the eye of Kyle, the first mate of the good ship Garfield. Something in the water just off the side of ship. His legs were still trembling from the last encounter with a white dragon. Encounter wasn't the right word. They had simply lucked out and skirted the dragon. It looked like it was going to advance on them and they were so perilously close, but it just turned and looked like something to its right had captured it's attention. They had tried to be as quiet as they could but the wind was blowing and a ship can only be so quiet. Well at least this ship could.Those look like bubbles in the water. Well, that sort of thing could happen in these waters. Seven other ships had set sail and hoped to be the last one standing. One had already fallen to the red dragon in the south and two had rammed into each other, of all things, trying to avoid the green beast. They were doomed any way they went. I think the captain of one of those vessels was a little crazy anyway.That's not just bubbles. Suddenly a huge green serpent rose beside our ship. It shot strait up as if to show off how long it was. It hurt kyle's neck to look that high, but then it stopped, folded down making an arc, and started coming down. Down onto the good ship Garfield. He heard screams, one of them was his. And then he fell. His ship was broken in half and sinking. One of the spikes on the back of the sea serpent caught and pulled kyle down into the mess of splintered ship and sodden sail into the sea.And just like that, the game was over for me.Tsuro of the Seas is a game of chance and close calls. It is a tile laying game on a beautifully illustrated grid. On your turn, you play one of your tiles in front of your ship and follow the path in front of your ship. Each tile has four paths on them. If the tile you play is in front of another player's ship, they get to move ahead as you do, for better or worse.If yo utake a path that leads you off the board you are out. If you take a path that rams you into another ship you are out. If your path leads you into a dragon, you are out. Duh. Each turn you get to roll dice too, to see if the dragons wake or move. If too many dragons leave the board they get to spawn randomly. This is why they might appear on a tile you thought was safe- and then it's not. If the dragons wake they move according to the die roll. They may move in the compass directions or turn. If you roll the lucky number, a new dragon will join the melee. What fun!I hate to tell you what to do but...Dragons can't appear on the outermost rim, though they can move there. As dragons move, they remove tiles that were in their wake, allowing the game to go on longer than this games predecessor (Tsuro, way of the path: just play the game without the dragons and you've got it.) Naturally you want to steer clear of things that can kill you. 'nuff said.If you get the expansion, you can get cannons and kill dragons. That's nice, but then you have whirlpools and tsunamis to avoid, so its kind of sixes.ThemeI confess, I get sucked in, as I hope the vignette got across.BalanceI guess since it's a crap-shoot for everyone, it's pretty balanced, but only in the bad way. It is most often a short game (read 15-25 minutes), so the player elimination isn't usually too bad, but it could go as long as an hour, so... there's that.InteractionThis is tough, there really should be lots of cheers and jeers, but if you play with quiet folk, maybe there won't be. It's all up to you and yours. I like to give my kids titles they earn. . Dragon slayer, dragon skirter, dragon avoider, crazy cap'n, etc. It's a nice salve when they get eaten, unless their title was just Fodder or Dragon sweet Treat.Learning CurveVery low, if you could follow my disjointed blathering above, you should be good. My four year old can play so if you can't... The So it's rules are like two doubles sided pages- with pictures. Easy peesey. I confess though, you do have do know the minimum number of dragons that should be on the board, and how new ones come out. That is to say, my four year old can play if a savvy player is there to man the dragons.DowntimeYou do have to wait your turn, but people only have three tiles they can choose from so paralysis should be limited. And dragons can always come get you when it's not your turn, so it can be a nail biter while you wait. Maybe that's the worst kind of down time. Just use lee press on nails.What’s not to Like?It's ease of play leaves me a little wanting. The player elimination isn't my forte, but the speed of the game helps- most often. It's a very light filler game. Late comers can have fun watching players bite their nails.Collateral EndorsementsMy littlest games call for this game often, and it's predecessor. Sometimes we just play with dragon points in golf fashion rather than getting eliminated, then set a time limit. Whoever dies least in 30 minutes is the winner!Tsuro of the Seas is one of those games that isn't too competitive and very laid back. It doesn't require too much skill and could be played for almost all ages for a fairly large amount of people. It's a game that's very easy to learn, very easy to get into and also...very easy to lose interest in...if you're not careful.One of the great things about Tsuro of the Seas is that it has dice mechanics. Which means there is luck involved. However, this game could be played just like the original Tsuro by removing the dice and the dragons for an even more pleasant and easy going gaming experience. but, even with the tension of dice rolling involved and the impending doom of ferocious dragons, the game has a slow pace that seems to fluctuate its speed between slightly fast and steady throughout a single gameplay.Tile placement and drawing can get a bit tedious and most smart players often stay on the edge of the board, avoiding the majority of the dragons which means avoiding most of the action. The core mechanic of this game rely solely on the dragons the dice movement, which is actually a very cool idea until someone gets eliminated in which case they sit around and roll dice for the dragon movements and even then the level fun drops by about a fraction. And when there are 3 or less people still remaining the board the game seems to drag-on (no pun intended). In some cases, you'd probably to have implement "House Rules" to keep the game going and more interesting.I don't think this game is bad, I just feel that this game needs the right gaming group and also a big group of players (8 maximum), I think a good group for this game is around 4-6 at least. Don't worry about age group, because this game can be a fun family game and could played with almost anyone who understand basic concept of tile placement, and dice rolling. I've had such a fun time with this game when playing with two separate gaming groups who felt that this game was a blast to play but also felt that it could go on and on and early player elimination would suck so much.Get this game for some good family fun on a quick game night, get this game if you want something a little easy going with your gaming nights, get this game if you want to take a break from some of your more tense gaming sessions. get this game for a large gaming group. Don't get this game if you're looking for something that has sole competitive purposes. Overall it's a decent game that I am proud to add to my collection, hopefully you feel the same too.Nice little game - I had already played the earlier version and loved it - this version with extra rules and elements is just as enjoyable. If you want to play the simpler version you can still do it with this version but there are more ways to play this- so an improvement on the original version of the game. Personally I would choose to buy this version over the original Tsuro game, although I do still like the pebble player pieces from the original game.Note that the Cannons tiles and whirlpool come in a separate add-on pack that you have to purchase separately.After reading about this and watching Wil Wheaton's tabletop show on this game I went out and bought it.So my thoughts:The game looks good, the components are good quality (the tiles are a thick cardboard with a hard glossy "laminate") and there is an attractive "tissue paper" artwork included in the box I bought.After playing a few games, the group I played it with (4 of us) weren't totally convinced. Why?I guess because there is a lot of random element in it. Every turn roll dice to see if the Daikaiju do anything (which they do on the highest probability 6-9). Then roll another die if they do to see where they move, or if another is added. If another IS added, roll dice to place it randomly. The result was, that several games end before you've had any chance to get at a distance where you're "safe", or the chances of survival are random when near the Daikaiju at the end of your turn (just hope no one rolls and no one activates Daikaiju near you, which if you play 8 players is fairly unlikely).The strategy of laying tiles is interesting, and as the board fills, often becomes a case of sailing your opponent off the board, or into a Daikaiju while you sail in the opposite direction. There is the random element of which tile you end up with, but that I can accept as you can't escape some randomisation entirely and you can choose from 3 that you hold in your hand.It is probably a personal thing, but it works as a quick filler as many times a game will finish quickly (played several games with players elimianated on 1st or 2nd turn), but doesn't suit my personal taste (like Risk doesn't suit my taste for similar reasons!), but I'll happily play if someone gets it out and really wants to give it a go. I just think there are many options before getting this game out.Verdict?2 1/2 stars (rounded to 3!) It's ok, but too random for me!We had enjoyed playing the original version of Tsuro at our local game cafe so when I was looking for a new game to keep us entertained during lockdown I thought we’d give this a try. You can still play the original version using this one but the addition of the daikaiju tiles make it more interesting. It’s easy to setup, quick to learn and typically takes 25-30 mins to play with three players. Highly recommended.This is a very enjoyable, quick game. When you are out it does not take long before the game ends for you to be involved in the next game.You can adjust how you play this game to make this work just like the Tsuro Game of the Path - so save yourself money by just buying this game!Awesome game! Can be played without the Monsters if you want a regular Tsuro game, but the monster effect is very fun. The board, tiles and pieces are all very sturdy and beautifully made and would stand up well to being handled by youngsters. The game is fast paced and the rules are easy to learn (watch Will Wheaton & co on YouTube to see the rules in play) so even reluctant players will get the hand of it.