Tenby is a chilled-out drafting game with some clever mechanics to ensure you have to make some tricky decisions
Tabletop games let you travel the world. We’ve had the opportunity to visit France in Carcassonne. Travelled along the Tokaido road in Japan and had a little trip to Greece in Santorini. Well folks, get ready to add a new destination to your tabletop-themed holiday list: the delightful Welsh seaside town of Tenby.
Kickstarted last year and delivered in 2025, Tenby is the first game from Benjie Talbot and Cosy Cub Games. We had the opportunity to review the bumper Kickstarter edition so, if you like what you read, then keep your eyes peeled for it in stores.
At its heart Tenby is a card-drafting game that sees you trying to build the most beautiful seaside town possible while fulfilling the scoring conditions of different locations and also pleasing the inhabitants of your little town. You do this by carefully placing different types of buildings – terraces, piers and landmarks – to maximise your score. The scoring conditions are vast, varying from the number of seagulls on adjacent cards to the amount of clouds or even the colour of different buildings. As a result, you’ve got plenty of decisions to make about which scoring method you choose to adopt. What’s more, the scoring conditions are all clearly marked on the cards with bold iconography, which is fantastic when playing with younger players. They can immediately see, for example, that they will score one point for each seagull along a particular street.
Let’s get back to that card-drafting element, though. Here, Tenby does something a little different to other drafting games. Each round is split into two main phases: the Night Phase and the Day Phase. Starting with Night Phase, the player on the lowest numbered Night card takes their player token and places it on the Day card of their choice. Day cards dictate what actions a player can take that round, such as selecting a terrace card, adding a resident to your town, etc and are numbered one to 16. The higher a card is numbered, typically, the more actions it will allow you to take. For example, the number one card only lets you take a terrace action and gain a life ring (which can be spent to trigger extra actions), whereas the number 10 card enables you to take two terrace actions, gain a life ring and take a pier action.
You may be thinking ‘well, why not go for those high cards’… but here’s the rub. Lower cards are activated first, which means someone could snap up that terrace card you really need and, as if that wasn’t bad enough, a player who chose a lower Day card will be higher up the turn order in the Night phase. It’s a great balancing act between going all out with actions but risking being lumbered with a bunch of duff cards you don’t want.
No matter what you choose, the end result is an absolutely gorgeous-looking tableau of streets with brightly coloured buildings and clouds with little smiling faces on. One thing not to be caught out by though is just how much table space Tenby requires. Yes, it comes in a small box, but across the course of 10 rounds, you can end up with very long streets – so make sure you’ve got the room. Also, the setup can be a little fiddly, but once you get going, it plays very smoothly.
Review by Rob Burman
YES
Tenby is a chilled-out drafting game with some clever mechanics to ensure you have to make some tricky decisions. Thankfully though there are plenty of scoring methods to ensure you’ve always got some options. Plus, this edition had some neat modes for family and solo play, which adds to the overall value.
Not only are you building a beautiful landscape, but both games play around with the turn structure to decide who gets first dibs on the cool stuff.
Category: Family Games
Designer: Benjie Talbott
Publisher: Cosy Cub Games
Time to Play: 30m-1h
Players: 1-5 Players
Age: 8+
RRP: £38
95 Terrace cards
49 Pier cards
18 Landmark cards
47 Resident cards
5 Night cards
16 Day cards
12 Anchor cards
16 Compass cards
5 Start cards
5 Player Aid cards
Solo Player aid card
16 Plain End cards
Tracker card & counter
5 Wooden player counters
30 Wooden life ring tokens
Score pad
5 Score trackers
Multiplayer rulebook
Solo mode rulebook
Family mode rulebook