Most think of board games as big boxes with several elements, resources, tiles, figurines… And while that’s true for many of the great examples, others don’t need more than a small and portable box because all they feature is just a set of cards and a rulebook. Even with this simple build, this kind of games can be quite tricky and offer a much more affordable challenge for those not too keen on playing the complicated endeavors of the big board games. And my newest entry in that field is Seas of Strife.



The above image shows the eight suits of cards, distinguishable by color and by artwork. The trick is that judging by the image the numbers range from 0 to 80, but if you take a closer look you’ll see that below the number there’s a series of marks. These marks show the true number of cards in the suit and the position each number occupies. For example, the 71 is the lowest card of its suit, but there’s only three more marks above it meaning it only goes up to 74. This in fact responds to a degrading scale to each suit, which we’ll see much better in the image below. Check also the highest card of the suit, it has an X on its mark.



The full deck of 60 cards will be dealt to the players, which can range between 3 and 6, meaning you’ll have between 20 and 10 cards in your hand at the start of the game. You might rearrange your hand if you so wish, but be careful because the game mechanics may actually reveal a lot of your hand to the rest of players which can be used against you mercilessly. The player who got dealt the 0 card will be the first player, and they must play the 0 to open the game.

This starting card shows the mandatory suit every other player must play in this turn, which for starters will be yellow. In the case a player doesn’t have a card of that suit (no lying here, buds) they can choose any other suit to play. In clockwise order from whomever started, once everyone has played their card we can check who gets the trick. In the perfect case scenario where everyone managed to play the starting suit, then the highest card wins the trick. I’m sure you recall this mechanic from other, more classic card games, but there’s a twist in here: the player who wins the most tricks is actually THE LOSER, so here you must aim to never win a trick if at all possible.

In the case a player must play a different suit, then the rest of players after them can now choose whether they play the starting suit or the newly introduced one. At the end of the round, whichever suit was played most is the one which prevails, in the case all suits had the same number of cards played then the highest suit is the one which prevails. This is also a crucial move that can let you throw unwanted cards, specially when you’re the last to play in the round. Also, the next round is started by the player who got the trick, so sometimes it’s another strategy to win a trick on purpose so you can start the next trick.

There’s one last twist to mention here. Remember how the highest card on each suit had an X on its mark? That means this card nullifies the whole suit. This mechanic can come in handy when there’s more than one suit in play, by nullifying the one you play you’re guaranteed to not win the trick. The downside is that if just a single suit is played the nullifying has no effect, same as if all suits in play are nullified, so in these scenarios the highest card would win the trick and thus its advantage would be lost. Plus, having played the nullifier card also frees the rest of players to safely play that suit knowing it will not be nullified anymore.

As you can see, the game is quite simple yet challenging and very different depending on the number of players. And if you want to add a bit more spice, the game offers you three possible variations over these standard rules: Original means the highest card in a suit has no nullifying effect but the player winning the trick with that card can choose who starts the next one; Pass means you pass one card to the player to your right and one to your left right after the whole deck has been dealt in a way to undermine your neighbors even though they’ll probably do the same to you; Happy Faces means that each of the highest cards of a suit you’ve collected will let you nullify one of the tricks you’ve won thus creating a whole new twist when counting the tricks everyone has won.

I immediately got glued to it when I first played it, and even though it’s a game from 2015 (originally was named and styled in a different way until 2023 when this new name and style was adopted and the game finally became international) it hasn’t yet come out in Spain. There’s really no problem in playing an international version as you’re not dependant on language, which is the reason why a friend of mine bought the German version and we could perfectly play it without knowing a word in German.

I’m waiting for it to come out in Spanish so I can recommend it to more friends as well, but so far the publisher hasn’t yet announced a release date. Considering they said they were releasing it this year, it will either be added at the last minute to the releases of November already announced or it will be left for December. Then again, I think the publisher has a habit of delaying its projects, so we’ll see if it ends up being released soon or they’ll keep us waiting more.