Review: Tenby

Introduction & Overview

Tenby is one of the most beautiful towns in Wales. Wander through our colorful streets, stroll along our quays enjoying delicious fish and chips, and unwind on our stunning beaches with a cold ice cream and a warm feeling in your heart.

This is the premise behind Tenby, designed by Benjie Talbott (marking his debut title in the market). It was first published in 2025 by Cosy Cub Games in an English edition following a highly successful crowdfunding campaign. The illustrations are also handled by Benjie Talbott himself.

It has not been published in Spain, so you will have to resort to importing or the second-hand market (the game has slight language dependence on the scoring cards, in addition to the rulebook). It supports 1 to 5 players, with a recommended minimum age of 8, and an approximate playtime of 30 to 60 minutes. The retail MSRP is €24.99. A review copy of the English edition provided by Mighty Boards was used for this review.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Go to Personal Opinion

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 25×15×8 cm (a medium rectangular box similar to Forest Shuffle, albeit slightly narrower and deeper), we find the following components:

• Round Track Board (cardboard)
• Round Marker (wood)
• 5 Player Figures (1 per player color) (wood)
• 26 Lifebuoy Tokens (cardboard)
• 285 Cards (51×76 mm):
  • 100 Terrace Cards
  • 46 Pier Cards
  • 18 Landmark Cards
  • 5 Starting Cards
  • 6 Simple Terrace End Cards
  • 6 Simple Pier End Cards
  • 16 Day Cards
  • 5 Night Cards
  • 42 Resident Cards
  • 7 Distinction Cards
  • 5 Player Aid Cards
  • 12 Anchor Cards
  • 16 Compass Cards
  • Solo Aid Card
• Rulebook

How to Play

Tenby is a card-placement and pattern-building game set in the picturesque Welsh coastal town of the same name, where each player attempts to construct the most attractive and harmonious streets. The game plays over ten rounds divided into three phases. In the first phase, following the order of the Night cards, players choose and claim one of the available Day cards. During the second phase, in ascending numerical order based on the chosen Day card, each participant executes the actions shown on their card; once resolved, they place their pawn onto the lowest available Night slot to determine turn order for the next round. Actions allow players to draft cards from the market—terraced houses, piers, or landmarks—to place them at the ends of existing streets or start new ones (always ensuring edges match visually), as well as draw Resident cards or gain lifebuoys. Throughout their turn, players can spend lifebuoy tokens to take additional actions, such as revealing new cards to the market, repositioning already built cards within their town, or purchasing extra cards. At the end of the tenth round, final scoring takes place, where each street card scores based on the icons and features present on neighboring cards within its range, in addition to points awarded by fulfilled Resident cards, which yield a higher payout if the assigned street has been completed by capping both ends with open sea. The player with the highest final score is declared the winner.

Key Concepts

Let us begin with the Starting Cards and the Player Aid Cards. At the beginning of the game, each player chooses a Starting Card and places it face up in front of them to begin their town and their first street, identified by the icon of a white square inside a black shield. Alongside it, each participant receives a Player Aid Card of matching color, which serves as a handy reference for the structure of each round, the phase resolution order, and the costs of the additional actions available during a turn.

Next come the Terrace Cards. These cards display street sections featuring colorful building facades or urban elements like lampposts, benches, or clouds. They feature terrace, pier, or sea edges that must visually align with adjacent cards when placed into your town. Added to either end of an existing street or used to start a new row, their bottom section depicts scoring conditions and range arrows that award victory points at the end of the game based on the features depicted on neighboring cards. This group also includes double-sided simple end cards that provide fixed points and make closing rows easier.

Pier Cards represent harbor promenades with wooden decking, bollards, lobster pots, seagulls, or open sea views. Much like the terraces, they feature specific edge types that must align with adjacent cards, displaying various scoring conditions at the bottom via range arrows or flat victory points. They are incorporated into players’ streets to lengthen them or start new rows, often including sea edges with a distinctive marker that completes a street on that end. They also have double-sided flat versions that can be used on either side.

Landmark Cards depict monuments, unique buildings, or iconic sights in the town of Tenby, designated by a yellow map pin icon. Functionally, they operate similarly to other town cards when scoring surrounding elements or completed streets via golden arrows, but they carry a strict restriction: each individual street can only host a single landmark across its entire length.

Moving on to the Night Cards and Player Figures. The Night cards are a small set of consecutively numbered cards placed face up on the table depending on player count. The Player Figures—custom wooden pawns in each player color—are initially placed upon them. Their purpose is to establish and regulate turn order: players whose pawns occupy lower-numbered Night cards draft their Day cards first during the Night phase, and upon finishing their daytime actions, return their figure to the lowest vacant Night card to determine initiative for the upcoming round.

The Day Cards form the dynamic action market for each round. Each card displays a sun with a numerical value at the top and one or more icons at the bottom representing card-drafting actions (terraces, piers, landmarks, or residents) or lifebuoy acquisition. Functionally, they dictate the order in which turns are resolved during the day (from lowest to highest printed value) and grant their bearer the exclusive ability to execute the printed actions.

Lifebuoy Tokens serve as the game’s currency and multi-use resource. Players collect them directly when resolving cards showing their icon, by forfeiting printed actions, or by drafting unchosen Day cards from previous rounds. Their main role is to fund additional actions, such as revealing new cards from the draw decks into the market, shifting built cards within your town layout, or purchasing extra drafting actions during the day phase.

The Round Track Board and the Round Marker keep track of the game’s progress. The board is an elongated piece featuring spaces numbered 1 through 10, representing the passing days in the coastal town. On top sits the Round Marker, a wooden disc that advances one space during each maintenance phase to indicate the current round and signal the immediate end of the game once round ten is completed.

Resident Cards represent local inhabitants who request specific architectural or scenic requirements. Kept hidden in hand, they are revealed at game end to score bonus victory points. Each card sets a condition requiring a minimum threshold of a specific feature (such as shutters, chimneys, or particular building types), offering two tiers of scoring depending on whether the street being evaluated remains incomplete or has been completed with sea exits at both ends.

Finally, we have the Distinction Cards, which provide an optional module of shared endgame goals. Each card features a common milestone related to town layout and awards a flat victory point value. They introduce direct competition among participants, whether set up publicly from the beginning, activated individually by spending lifebuoy tokens, or managed in secret. Several variants are supported.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

1. Separate all cards into piles according to type, returning the solo-mode cards to the box: the Anchor cards, the Compass cards, and the Solo aid card.
2. Shuffle the Terrace, Pier, and Landmark decks separately and place them face down on the left side of the play area to form a column of three decks: Terrace on top, Pier in the middle, and Landmark at the bottom, leaving room to their left for discard piles.
3. Form the market by drawing cards from each of these three decks, laying them out face up in rows to the right of their respective piles:
4. Terrace cards equal to the player count plus one.
5. Pier cards equal to the player count.
6. Landmark cards equal to the player count minus one.
7. Place the Simple Terrace End and Simple Pier End cards in separate piles above the market.
8. Shuffle the Resident cards and place them face down as a deck next to the street end cards.
9. Position the round track beneath the three market decks and place the round marker on space number one.
10. Take Night cards equal to the number of players, always using consecutively numbered cards starting from one, and place them face up in ascending order to the right of the round track. Return any unused Night cards to the box.
11. Shuffle the Day cards into a face-down draw deck beneath the round track. Draw Day cards equal to the player count plus one and place them face up directly below the Night cards, arranged from lowest to highest numerical value.
12. Create a general supply with the lifebuoy tokens off to one side of the market.
13. Shuffle all Distinction cards and reveal three at random, placing them face up near the market in clear view of all players.
14. Each player selects a starting card of their choice and places it face up in their play area to establish their town. Each player also receives:
    • 1 Player Aid card of their matching color.
    • 1 Wooden pawn of their matching color.
15. Randomly select a start player, who places their pawn on Night space 1. Proceeding clockwise, all other players place their pawns on the remaining Night cards in ascending order.
16. Lastly, each player draws two cards from the Resident deck, secretly selects one to keep in hand, and returns the other to the bottom of the Resident deck.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of Tenby is played over 10 rounds. Each round consists of three phases.

Phase I: Night

Following the ascending numerical order of the Night cards their pawns currently occupy (starting with card number 1), each player picks up their pawn and places it onto any available Day card (one without a pawn already on it). All players must choose a Day card before anyone resolves actions.

Phase II: Day

In ascending numerical order according to the number printed on the sun of the chosen Day cards, players resolve their turns individually before passing to the next person. When taking a turn:

• If the Day card holds physical Lifebuoy tokens accumulated from prior rounds, the player adds them to their personal reserve.
• The player resolves all available actions on their Day card in any order they choose, and may also spend Lifebuoy tokens to take additional actions.
• If a player chooses not to perform an action printed on their Day card, they may forfeit it prior to resolution to gain one Lifebuoy token from the supply instead.
• Any drafted Town card must be placed immediately into the player’s town layout. It can be added to either end of an existing street or begin a new street row, but cannot be inserted into the middle of a street. Adjacent edges must match visually (sea to sea, terrace to terrace, or pier to pier). Only one Landmark is permitted per street. A street is considered complete when capped by sea on both ends.

Once all actions have concluded, the player immediately moves their pawn to the lowest-numbered empty Night card and discards the resolved Day card.

The phase ends once every player has taken their turn.

The standard actions provided by Day cards are:

• Terrace Action. Draft a face-up Terrace card from the market or blind-draw the top card of the deck. Alternatively, the player may take a Simple Terrace End card (double-sided, acting as a wild color and granting 2 points).
• Pier Action. Draft a face-up Pier card from the market or blind-draw the top card of the deck. Alternatively, take a Simple Pier End card, or replace it with a Terrace Action (including simple ends).
• Landmark Action. Draft a face-up Landmark card from the market or blind-draw the top card of the deck. Alternatively, replace it with a Pier Action or a Terrace Action (including simple ends).
• Resident Action. Draw two cards from the Resident deck, keep one in hand, and return the other to the bottom of the deck.
• Gain Lifebuoy Token. For each lifebuoy icon printed on the Day card, take one Lifebuoy token from the supply.

At any point during their turn, players may spend Lifebuoy tokens to perform the following bonus actions (as many times as they can afford):

• Reveal a Card (1 token). Draw the top card of any Town deck and add it face up to its corresponding market row.
• Move a Card (2 tokens). Reposition any card already built in your town. Unlike standard placement, this action allows you to slide a card into the middle of a street or pull one out and push the rest together to close the gap, provided edge types still match properly.
• Additional Terrace Action (2 tokens). Perform a standard Terrace Action.
• Additional Pier Action (3 tokens). Perform a standard Pier Action.
• Additional Landmark or Resident Action (4 tokens). Perform a standard Landmark or Resident Action.

Phase III: Upkeep

Proceed as follows:

1. Place one Lifebuoy token on the unchosen Day card from this round, which remains available for the next round.
2. Discard all remaining face-up Town cards in the market.
3. Refill the market by drawing from the decks: Terrace row (players + 1), Pier row (players), and Landmark row (players – 1).
4. Replenish the Day cards by drawing until there are players + 1 cards available, ordering them from lowest to highest.
5. Advance the round marker one space on the round track.

A new round then begins.

Game End

The game ends once the second phase of the tenth round is fully resolved. At this point, players reveal their Resident Cards and calculate their final score, taking into account:

• Town Streets. Each Town card in a player’s streets scores according to its condition and range arrows, checking for matching elements on neighboring cards or across the street itself (including the 2 flat points on Basic End cards).
• Resident Cards. Each Resident card awards points if its criteria have been met, granting a higher payout if the evaluated street is closed compared to an incomplete one.
• Distinction Cards. Each of the three active cards awards its designated points to the player who best achieved the objective. In the event of a tie, tied players split the points equally (rounding down, with remainders lost).

The player with the most points wins. In case of a tie, apply the following tiebreakers:

• The player with the most completed streets.
• The player who scored the most points from Resident Cards.

If still tied, players share the victory.

Variants

Without Distinction Cards. Leave them in the box; they will not be used during the game.

Ebb and Flow. During setup, instead of displaying three shared Distinction cards, deal one card secretly to each player. Each participant decides whether to keep it hidden (worth 5 points, scorable only by its owner) or reveal it immediately for the entire table (worth 15 points). During the game, a player may reveal their secret card by paying lifebuoy tokens equal to the current round number.

High Tide. During setup, reveal Distinction cards equal to player count + 1 in an inactive state instead of a row of three. On their turn, any player may pay lifebuoys to activate a card for everyone, placing a token onto it. The activation cost increases: 2 tokens for the 1st card, 3 tokens for the 2nd and 3rd, 4 tokens for the 4th and 5th, and 5 tokens for the 6th. Only activated cards can be contested and scored at the end of the game.

Solo Mode. The game runs for ten rounds across three phases. During setup, shuffle the Compass and Anchor decks and place them face down. In the planning phase, draw two Compass cards, play one, and reveal the top card of the Anchor deck. Their values are then compared: the strictly lower value acts first (Anchor wins ties), though lifebuoys can be spent to reduce the Compass value. During the play phase, execute Compass actions to build streets or recruit residents, while the Anchor discards indicated market cards; if the Anchor acts second and its targets are gone, penalty cards are added to your discard pile. Finally, upkeep clears the market, refills the card display, and advances the round marker. After round ten, sum street and resident points, deduct negative penalty values, and check your standing against the achievement table.

Personal Opinion

In recent years, we have witnessed a boom in so-called “cozy” games—an umbrella term used to describe warm, comforting, and serene experiences. These titles deliberately move away from direct conflict, high stress, or grandiose narratives to deliver gentle, leisurely, and visually charming gameplay where the simple act of playing feels deeply satisfying. While this trend found its initial footing in video games thanks to titles like Animal Crossing, the board game hobby has by no means remained detached from it.

Frankly, games providing a calming experience free of competitive cutthroat tension have been around for a very long time. French designers are arguably pioneers in this space, even if their designs often caught flak over the years for being perceived as rather bland.

We can look at several examples that fit this contemplative, peaceful philosophy like a glove. The quintessential model is probably Tokaido, with its leisurely stroll along the Japanese coast where scenic appreciation takes precedence over cutthroat play. On a similar wavelength sits PARKS (read its tocho-review here), leaning into an intimate vibe and gorgeous artwork to depict journeys through nature, or Santa Monica (read its tocho-review here), which invites us to wander beneath the California sun piecing together coastal boulevards without friction, consistently prioritizing comforting sensations over head-to-head conflict.

Now we get a fresh release in this very mold, one that feels heavily influenced by Santa Monica’s mechanisms while setting the action in Tenby, a walled seaside town in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Let us see how this title—which turned quite a few heads at the 2025 Essen Fair—fares on the table.

Tenby whisks us away to the picturesque, pastel-toned Welsh town of Dinbych-y-Pysgod. The premise is as simple as it is inviting: wander through colorful lanes lined with candy-colored facades, stroll along the quayside soaking up the sea breeze with a paper cone of fish and chips, and watch daily life unfold at that unhurried pace unique to coastal resorts. It is a tourist postcard turned into a board game that seeks to draw players in with a bright, welcoming ambiance where every visual element seems crafted to foster calm and escapism.

A game of Tenby plays across ten rounds driven primarily by a sequential action-selection system reminiscent of titles like Kingdomino. Each round, a line of Day cards presents varied action combinations, and players draft them in a set turn order. The catch is that snatching stronger action combinations pushes your pawn further back in the turn order for the subsequent round, forcing you to weigh whether a more powerful current turn is worth taking a later pick next time around.

Once you resolve your chosen card, you will deploy building cards into your personal area. These show terraced houses, piers, or unique landmarks drafted from the shared market. Building is not merely about stacking structures; it requires aesthetic cohesion, as edges must align seamlessly across adjacent cards, alternating facades or promenades while attempting to cap streets with sea cards on both ends. At the same time, every card features scoring conditions tied to neighboring elements—usually directly adjacent cards—turning your board into a spatial puzzle built around synergistic alignment.

Layered onto these scoring opportunities are the Resident cards, which players keep hidden in hand throughout the game. Acting as strategic guideposts, they reward concentrating particular patterns within your avenues, multiplying their point yield if you manage to complete the street with sea cards on both sides. Once the tenth round concludes, everyone tallies bonuses across their completed and incomplete streets along with their citizen cards, crowning the player who engineered the finest promenades as victor.

That covers plenty of ground, giving us the context we need to examine how the game actually behaves. Approaching each round, players encounter a classic yet reliable dilemma: the tension between capitalizing on an immediate opportunity in the market and accepting the turn-order fallout it brings for the upcoming round.

Many turns will present a standout Day card that lets you snag a critical landmark from the market without hesitation. Other times, the gap between available Day cards is minor, making it far wiser to settle for a modest action if it secures earlier initiative for the next round.

Initiative is not the only variable in the equation; you also need to track the landscape cards available in the market. If you spot an opponent eyeing a terraced house that fits your layout just as well, drafting an otherwise weaker card may be worth it if you can burn lifebuoys for bonus actions to scoop that card before they do.

Once Day cards are locked in, the spatial puzzle takes over, challenging players to optimize short-range scoring goals. The holy grail? Two adjacent cards with mutually reinforcing criteria, where the left card scores off the right, and the right card scores off the left. Make no mistake, pulling that off is remarkably tricky.

Herein lies the central flaw of Tenby: the puzzle is simply too demanding for a game whose core promise is sitting down for a relaxing afternoon. That is not to say the game feels stressful, but the cognitive load dumped on players feels disproportionately heavy.

Every card hides a dense thicket of iconography: directional and bidirectional range arrows, urban paraphernalia ranging from seagulls to clouds and planters, building color swatches, and edge types that are frequently difficult to read on the artwork itself. This barrage of tiny variables forces players to squint at their layout and the shared market, grinding turn momentum to a halt with an analytical slog at odds with the airy vibe promised on the box, turning what ought to be a breezy stroll into cumbersome bookkeeping.

Game flow does not fare particularly well either. While borrowing Kingdomino’s snappy turn-order dynamic, it gets weighed down by tedious cleanup steps between rounds that drag the pacing. Tallying up the final point salad on the table is equally cumbersome.

Additionally, each player’s row stretches into an unwieldy line across the table, making it virtually impossible to track what opponents are building. Outside of the optional Distinction module, there is very little shared tension to spark meaningful friction.

It might sound like I am tearing the game apart, but the experience is not fundamentally broken. It remains engaging enough and holds your attention throughout the ten rounds because the core spatial challenge has merit. That said, it feels as though the designer spotted Santa Monica’s flaws and decided to amplify them rather than streamline them: longer playtime, heavier icon load, and far more cumbersome scoring. Placed side by side, there is an undisputed winner, and it is not the title on review today.

As a drafting and set-collection design with minimal interaction, the game shines best at two players. While drafting Day cards at higher player counts is arguably more intriguing—making it easier to track which cards have appeared and calculate the odds of what is left—the tradeoff in downtime and an even slower final tally simply is not worth it.

Regarding replayability, this is a title that should theoretically hit the table regularly thanks to its cozy aesthetic. Unfortunately, the aforementioned hiccups mean that with each play, the urge to pull it off the shelf wanes a bit. It is a shame, especially given how generous the card decks are when it comes to setup variety.

Turning to production quality, the cards boast solid thickness, a nice linen finish, and excellent snap. Sleeving is unnecessary since cards rarely sit in hand (a relief, given their unconventional dimensions). The cardboard tokens feature appropriate thickness and punch cleanly, while the rulebook is well organized and leaves no ambiguity.

Visually, the game adopts a distinctly naive, minimalist vector style that captures the peaceful charm of a Welsh seaside village. Clean, geometric line work avoids heavy textures or gradients in favor of flat colors, dominated by nautical blues set against primary and secondary building facades. This visual simplicity provides a warm, casual charm that remains practical. Even so, certain subtle icons—like porch arches or fishing nets—blend too easily into the art. Including an icon summary indicating the total count of features on each card would have helped significantly.

And let’s wrap this up. Tenby blends a sequential action-selection mechanic governing initiative with card placement to build a Welsh coastal street. At the table, it generates a sharp tactical dilemma between securing turn order and squeezing the most out of your current actions, feeding a personal puzzle that keeps players engaged throughout. Unfortunately, the experience loses steam under an excessive cognitive load driven by dense iconography, resulting in a tedious visual puzzle at odds with its cozy premise. Added to sluggish between-round maintenance and a dragged-out final scoring step, what could have been a relaxing seaside stroll ends up tripped up by its own design. For all these reasons, I give it a…