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Salmon Run
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Number of Players
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2 - 4 (5 w/ Expansion)
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Play Time
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20 -30 min.
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Ages
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10 years and up
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Salmon Run is a race to the finish game that features a deck building
element.
The players take the roles of salmon trying to reach the spawning
pool. The first player to reach the pool
wins. The way that the players do this
is to play cards from their hand to move their fish upstream. There are a number of obstacles that are
triggered as players hit a space on the board or can be triggered by cards that
are played by other players. If you use
too many movement cards or jump rapids on the board you gain Fatigue Cards.
In addition to card the move your salmon forward there are a number of
special cards that you can get during the game.
Fatigue Cards clutter your deck and will slow down your forward
movement eventually if you get too many of them. You get them by using three movement cards in
a turn or by jump a set of rapids. You can
get rid of them by resting in a reed spot on the board or spending a movement
phase playing them down. Each action
allows you to remove one from your deck of cards.
Bear Cards allow you to move a one of the bears on the boars up to two
spaces. If a fish is in the space that
the bears end its movement in the owner of that fish gains a Fatigue Card.
Eagle Cards allow you to make a player discard one of the cards in
their hand.
Current and Rapids Cards impede all of the players, including the one
who played it, movement.
If a Current, Eagle, or Rapids card is played against a player they
many play the same type of card from their hand to prevent the effect of that
card on them.
Another feature of the game that increases the replay potential is the
modular board system. The game contains
8 double sided boards. Usually six
boards are laid out to make up the game board for that play of the game. This makes it so that players do not have to
play it on the same board all the time.
There are a number of expansions that were included with the
Kickstarter sets like additional cards, boards, and the pieces to add a fifth
player. They are not available at
retailers at this time.
The game plays quickly and lends itself to optional rules and
expansions in the future. There is just
enough strategy in it to keep me engaged.
This is a great filler game if you need something that plays in 30
minutes while you are waiting on people to show up at the beginning of an event
or finish up another game.
I give this game an A for its simplicity and the ability to replay it. I would definitely play it again.
