Tidal Blades is a worker placement game where players are seeking to be named a “Tidal Blade”.  In this world, these are the elite guard sworn to protect its people. 

The game, designed by Tim and Ben Eisner, also has gorgeous art from David Forrest and Lina Cossette (known collectively as “Mr. Cuddington”).

Bebo sat down with both Tim and James at Gen Con to learn more about this fantastic looking game being published by Druid City Games.  

“Tim made it, he’s awesome. He’s like a mad scientist when we start making games and such”, said James excitedly. “It’s been a long process to get it to where it’s at. Went through a lot of iterations but, whoo!”.

“One of the coolest things about this game is in the creation process James teamed myself and my brother (Ben) up with Mr. Cuddinton, David and Lina”, said Tim Eisner. “They did all the world building and art and as you can see they have done a fantastic job at creating this world we collaborated on and designed with them” 

In Tidal Blades you’ll be sending your young hero out to complete challenges, fight monsters, and advance your skills to build and focus their abilities so they can defend the cities from attack.

James Hudson explained. “In this world, they’ve got this mysterious “fold” situation and monsters are coming out of it and attacking our city. No Bueno. So, we gotta go kill those things”.

Action spaces for your character are scattered among the tropical islands of the world of Tidal Blades. You'll get bonuses both from the spot you placed your pawn and the island space is on. In the design, there is an emphasis on actions having variability and layers. One example is an island that has a boat that moves around the island that changes the bonus you receive. This can lead to timing strategies and figuring out the most optimal time to place your pawn at that location.

Other areas earn you one-time bonuses you can use at your discretion. These will combine well with the abilities you have in your character’s custom card decks.

Also; tons of gorgeous, upgradable dice!

Your characters have dials you can level up and different tiers of dice you can upgrade to get better access to a pool of better results.  While you are leveling, you can decide what you want your focus to be based on the kind of challenges you’d like to be good at.

“Your tracks also unlock different traits and abilities for you,” James added. “And you’re also going to combine that with your own-I’m going to use a special word here-asymmetric player powers. Whoo-hoo!”

Tidal Blades will be coming to Kickstarter soon! If you’d like to see the full interview from Gen Con 2018 you can follow THIS link!

Happy Gaming!