Tenby
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🐸 Una rana saggia sa quando dividere l’ordine… e quando aspettare il salto giusto.
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FroGames — Moments You'll Remember
A sunny afternoon, the sound of waves, the smell of fish & chips. Build the most beautiful city — card after card.
What it's about
Build the most beautiful seaside town in Wales
Tenby is one of the most picturesque towns in Wales: colourful streets, seaside piers, golden beaches. Benjie Talbott — designer, illustrator, and citizen of Tenby — has transformed his town into a board game that smells of sea breeze and unhurried afternoons.
Each round you select a Day card that determines your actions and your position in the next turn. Then you build the streets of your Tenby: colourful terraces, seaside piers, iconic landmarks. The secret is feature matching — each card scores based on the characteristics of adjacent cards. Seagulls, clouds, waves: the details matter.
Ten rounds, five players, hundreds of possible cities. Tenby is published by Mighty Boards and also supports a complete official solo mode.
What they say abroad
"One of the more joyous gaming experiences I've had this year."
One of the most joyous gaming experiences I've had this year.
— Meeple Mountain
The beauty of Tenby is that each card is a small visual puzzle — the details of the artwork determine the points, not just the position.
The secret of Tenby in one line
Tenby
Dedicated solo rulebook included in the box. The feature matching puzzle works very well even alone — the challenge is against your own high score.
FrogScore · FroGames editorial rating · based on rules, international reviews, and play sessionsWhat you build
The bricks of your Tenby
Colourful Terraces
Tenby's terraced houses, each with its own characteristics. Place them strategically to maximize feature matching.
Piers and jetties
Extend the streets towards the sea. Piers open new construction directions and scoring combinations.
Iconic Landmarks
The castle, the church, the lighthouse. Tenby's landmarks are worth a lot — but they take up valuable space on the streets.
Resident Cards
Local inhabitants assign you secret objectives. Fulfilling them can turn the final result around — or become a burden.
By the end of the game you will have built something unique. Your Tenby — different from any other.
🃏Recommended sleeves1 size · 324 cards total
📖RulebookEnglish · Official PDF
A Game in Five Moments
What Happens at the Table
Not the rules. The experience.
The Market Opens, First Choices
Cards are laid out on the table — colorful terraces, piers, landmarks. Everyone is eyeing the market for the right combination. From the very first round, you get a sense of what kind of city you're building. And already in the first round, someone wants the same card as you.
The Street Takes Shape
Two or three cards in, and you can already see where your Tenby is headed. Did you focus on seagulls? On clouds? On the sea? Feature matching starts to show its effects — and you realize that card you ignored in round one would have multiplied everything.
The Resident Changes Everything
The Resident card you've kept secret since round one comes to mind. You need to build three piers, and you only have one. Or you need a landmark that has never appeared. The city you had in mind and the one you are building start to become the same thing — or not.
The Card You Shouldn't Have Left Behind
Someone draws the terrace you had already planned for. Perfect for their street, disastrous for yours. You can change your plan or adapt — but the market doesn't wait. That feeling of "I saw it coming but it was too late" is the heart of Tenby.
Points are Counted — and Surprises Happen
Cities are revealed. Residents come out into the open. Someone had quietly built something unexpected. The final score is almost always surprising — for better or worse. You put it back in the box already thinking about the city for the next game.
How to Play
The Flow of Each Round
Three phases for ten rounds. Learned in five minutes, mastered with practice.
Each player secretly chooses a Night card that determines their position in the next turn. Better cards give you more actions — but put you at the end of the turn order in the following round.
In turn order (determined by the Day card), each player draws cards from the common market and places them in their streets. You can create new streets or extend existing ones — each card has its own scoring conditions.
Each card scores based on the features of adjacent cards — seagulls, clouds, doors, waves. There are no "strong" cards in isolation: their value always depends on where you place them and what's next to them.
The revealed Day cards become the selection order for the next round's Night cards. The market repopulates. After ten rounds, points are tallied — including bonuses from the secret Resident.
Why it's Different from Others
Six Mechanics That Make a Difference
Turn order that changes each round
The card you choose today determines your positioning tomorrow. There's never an obvious choice — acting first or having more actions is a tension that lasts the entire game.
Feature matching on every card
No card is inherently valuable — its worth depends on where you place it and what's next to it. The game rewards attention to visual details, not memorization of complex rules.
Streets of flexible length
You can create short, specialized streets or long, multi-themed ones. There's no single "right" layout — the final city is always unique and always yours.
Resident Cards with secret objectives
Everyone has a Resident with a private objective. It's only revealed at the end of the game — and can completely overturn the rankings. Every game holds a surprise.
Artwork functional to gameplay
Illustrated by the designer themselves, the game uses the visual elements of the cards as a mechanic. You don't look at details for aesthetics — you look for them because they determine your points.
Complete solo mode
Dedicated rules included in the box. The challenge against oneself works very well — the feature matching puzzle retains all its depth even when playing alone.
How it Ends
Ten Rounds, One City, One Winner
The game is not won with the strongest card — it's won with the best-built city. Every point counts, every placement counts.
Victory
- After the tenth round, points from all cards in the streets are tallied
- Bonus points from the secret Resident are added — if satisfied
- The player who built the Tenby with the most total points wins the game
How to Lose Ground
- Cards placed without considering neighbors are worth little to nothing
- Ignoring the secret Resident can cost crucial points at the end of the game
- Always taking cards with more actions exposes you to bad turn positions
Tenby is one of the most elegant gateways of recent years: it can be taught in five minutes, and with each game, something new is discovered in feature matching.
Frequently Asked Questions
Tenby FAQ
What makes Tenby different from other card drafting games?
Feature matching: each card scores based on the visual characteristics of adjacent cards, not isolated symbols. This means the value of each card depends entirely on where you place it — there's no such thing as an inherently "strong" card. The other distinguishing element is the interplay between turn order and action choice: the card you choose today determines how advantageous your position will be tomorrow.
Does it work well with few players or does it require the maximum number?
It works well with all player counts. With 2 players, it becomes more tactical and direct — you can better monitor what your opponent is doing. With 4-5 players, the market is more competitive, and the pressure on turn order is felt more. The official solo mode is a genuinely satisfying option, not a fallback mode.
Is it suitable as a gateway game for beginners?
Yes, it's one of the best-designed gateway games in recent years. The rules can be taught in five minutes, the artwork guides the game intuitively, and there are no mechanics that require prior experience. It's accessible, but has enough depth to keep even experienced players coming back.
What are Resident cards and how much do they influence the outcome?
Each player receives a Resident card at the beginning — a secret objective that is only revealed at the end of the game. It can be worth significant points if satisfied, but it's not essential for winning: many games are decided by the quality of the tableau, not the Resident. For initial games, it can even be excluded, as suggested in the rules.
How long does a game last and how many cards do you need to learn?
A game lasts approximately 45-60 minutes with players who already know the rules. There is no text on the cards — the game is completely language independent in the gameplay aspect, even if the rulebook is in English. You don't "learn" the cards: you read their graphic symbols in play.
Is the rulebook only in English?
Yes, this is the English edition with an English rulebook. The game itself is language independent — all cards communicate through illustrations and graphic symbols, without text. The written rules are simple and do not require extensive knowledge of English to understand.
Tenby is a card drafting and tableau building board game for 1–5 players (ages 8+, duration 45–60 min). Designed and illustrated by Benjie Talbott, published by Mighty Boards. Main mechanic: action drafting with feature matching on a card grid. Players build the Welsh seaside town of Tenby by placing Terrace, Pier, and Landmark cards into streets of flexible length, with scoring based on the characteristics of adjacent cards. Includes official solo mode, Resident cards with secret objectives, and 324 total cards size 50×75 mm. Language independent English edition. Available on FroGames.it.
Tenby
Frequently Asked Questions
The answers you're looking for, no beating around the bush.
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