Phillip first heard about Reef at his first Gencon which is also the year that he brought home Century: Golem Edition with its playing mat putting him way over his nonexistent budget that he had. In the same seller’s booth was this brightly colored chonky pieced game getting about the same amount of demo table space.
It interested him but he was running around with his head cut off trying to see everything and do everything that he had tickets for. Fast forward a year or so and it pops up on a marketplace for cheap and Phillip brought it into the fold. He should have given it the attention he now is willing to give it from the beginning as it is just as good as Century has been.
If you want to support your Meeple crew, snag a copy of Reef for yourself.
How do you play Reef?
Reef’s gameplay comes down to 2 actions really. Each player is given a 4×4 space player board and 3 victory points.
The first action is drafting a card from the line of 3 that are available or picking the top card off the deck (costs you 1 victory point). You have a hand limit size of 4 cards. Once full you have to play a card, so no card camping till you have a clear strategy to just keep laying down cards till you win.
The second action is playing a card from your hand. When you play a card from your hand you do the two parts of the card in order: first gain the pieces that are being added and place them on your reef, second score the pattern on your board as many times as you can without overlapping it.
The game ends when one color of coral’s supply has been depleted, you then finish the round to the first player board and count up final victory points.
What Phil & Heather Think
This is a solid game to have in my collection, it doesn’t get to the table very often as it has some stiff competition from other really good games but the puzzle it presents as you only get to know so many moves in front because of limited hand size creates a great tension as you go through the game hoping patterns come up that you need to score most effectively.
Phil’s Take
A bright and cheery game that creates a good puzzle that doesn’t melt your brain as you move through it. A good addition to any collection in my opinion.
Phillip, an unabashed game hoarder.
Here is a full gameplay of Reef by Phillip and Heather at a 2 player count!
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Phil is an avid gamer who not only loves board games (he has played 100’s) but is one part of the “Table for Two” board game YouTube series and has designed several of his own board games. In addition to gaming he is all about the DIY life for creating gaming shelves or additional pieces and has a luck with dice that is mathematically infuriating to everyone else at the table most of the time.