Seaside review — tiles and tides

As you sit by the seaside, the sound of the waves crashing against the shore drowns out all but the occasional cry of a gull. All your cares melt away, and if you pay attention, the beauty of what’s around you comes to life. Crabs scuttle between the rocks. A bird swoops down and picks out a tiny isopod from amongst the shells. The waves crash in again, revealing an entirely new scene with each retreat of the water. Being at the beach is a reward in itself. It’s the experience of discovery and the peacefulness of the ocean that you remember, not how tall your stack of tiles is… oh yeah, this is a board game review.

Seaside, designed by Bryan Burgoyne, published by Randolph, and available in the US through Hachette Boardgames, is a beautifully simple push-your-luck tile game. Players are competing to have the most tiles at the end of the game. Victory is achieved by making the most of each tile you draw and pushing your luck without going too far. The tiles in Seaside are all double-sided. On your turn, you draw a single tile from the bag and secretly look at each side. Then choose which side to use. Pretty simple. What is on the side you choose will determine what happens next.

Tiles are either Sea or Seaside tiles. Shells, crabs, and isopods are Sea tiles and go into the shared ocean in the middle of the table. If you choose one of those, you get to go again, pulling another tile from the bag. You can continue to chain turns over and over again as long as you are choosing Sea tiles, but the more you feed into the ocean, the more your opponents may be able to capitalize on what you leave behind. Seaside tiles go straight to your player area and allow you to interact with the tiles in the ocean. Beaches let you take one shell from the ocean for each beach that you have. Pairs of rocks let you take all of the crabs and steal crabs from other players. Birds will eat as many isopods from the ocean as you want, but they are jealous of each other and only the bird that has eaten the most will stay on your personal beach. Waves let you flip over one of your beaches and activate the newly revealed side, triggering combos. Once the bag is empty, the player with the most waves gets any tiles left in the ocean. Everyone stacks all their tiles and whoever has the tallest stack (most tiles) wins the game.

The game comes in a miniature beach bag that holds all of the tiles, rules, and reference cards. It’s literally a canvas beach bag. The tiles are wood with clear and easy-to-understand artwork. I played Seaside at my house for this review, but it would be super easy to travel with. You could even take it to the beach and it would be fine.  

After just a few turns, players will have the hang of what every tile does. None of them are complicated, but the push-your-luck element with the ocean tiles adds just enough decision space to keep the game interesting. It plays super fast and works well as a two-player game and at higher player counts. The two-player game is a bit more strategic with either player looking to block and outplay the other. With more players, the push-your-luck elements stand out more. Building up the ocean is rarely going to help you since another player is bound to reap the rewards before it gets back to your turn… unless you draw just the right tile… maybe just pull one more. Seaside is an easy recommendation. It’s quick, interesting, and portable. This one earns a place in my collection and is going to replace Hive as my go-to travel game.

4/30/2024: This article was updated to reflect the publisher of Seaside is Randolph.

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