We love a good push-your-luck board game, and Lure quickly became a favourite. It’s quick to learn, full of fun decisions, and there’s nothing better than landing a big fish with just one die—if you’re lucky!
Written by Rob Burman
Push your luck games always seem to go down well in our house. Whether it’s eating tasty brains in Zombie Dice, diving for sunken treasure in Deep Sea Adventure or mining for gold in My Gold Mine, push your luck games have a tendency to be easy to explain and quick to play. What’s more, there’s nothing better than watching your opponent risk it all… only to get blasted by a shotgun, stranded at the bottom of the sea or roasted by a dragon.
Lure, on the other hand, is a push-your-luck game with a slight difference. You see, rather than always trying to roll the most dice or collect the most treasure, Lure encourages you to keep things small but hopefully win big. And it’s super addictive!
Each player is trying to catch the most elusive fish by rolling dice and tactically using special lures. At the start of every round, new fish cards are added to the centre of the table. A fish card shows a few key elements: how many victory points they’re worth, any special requirements needed to catch them and, most importantly, the minimum amount required to roll so you can reel them in.
Each player then secretly bets how many dice they’re going to roll that round. Say, for example, you’ve got a rainbow smelt in the centre, which requires 7+ to catch. You can roll up to five D6 to try and get that elusive score. Easy right? Well, not quite. That’s because after all the players shout “Ready… Cast!”, everyone reveals the number of dice they’ve selected and the person with the least dice gets to roll first. This means there’s a wonderful twist on the usual push your luck formula. If you play it safe and roll lots of dice, by the time it’s your turn to roll, there could be no fish left. However, if you don’t roll enough dice, there’s the risk of not catching the fish at all. The agony!
Things get even trickier because some fish have additional special requirements if you want to net them. The sunfish requires you to score 12+ and roll at least one five, meanwhile the northern snakehead only needs 3+ but you’ve got to roll a two. Thankfully help is on hand in the form of lures, which can adjust your score, give you an extra die or even give you additional VPs. Every player gets one lure at the start but earns more during the course of the game each time they catch zero fish. It’s a neat “rubber banding” technique that ensures no one is ever completely out of the game and we’ve often had games where someone has come from behind to snatch victory.
Obviously a massive amount of luck is involved in any game that involves chucking brightly coloured dice around. Yes, you can use the lures to try and increase your chances but, more often than not, there are going to be quite a few ‘ones that got away’. Therefore, your levels of frustration will depend upon how irritated you get by games dictated by lucky (or unlucky) dice rolls. However, for our group, the misery of missing a fish was quickly overridden by the joys of rolling that chunky D20 or scooping a rare fish with a risky low roll. Plus, the fact that games are over quickly means Lure never overstays its welcome if you do have an unfortunate few rolls.
Yes.
As a push your luck game with an element of blind bidding, Lure works wonderfully. If you’re happy to overlook the inherent randomness of dice rolling then you’ll fall for this hook, line and sinker.
You should try it if you liked Zombie Dice. Can’t get enough of that dice-rolling, push your luck fun? Lure adds a few more tactics compared to Zombie Dice but still offers the dopamine hit of rolling lots of dice!
Designer: Satoru Nakamura
Publisher: Allplay
Time: 15-20 minutes
Players: 2-4
Ages: 7+
Price: £20