Turn The Tide: The Sink or Swim Strategy Card Game by Stefan Dorra

A game of sheep, weather and of course the tide, Turn the Tide is a family friendly auction/strategy card game, in which you are trying to outwit your opponent and stay afloat by playing your weather cards at just the right time and holding onto the greatest number of life preservers by avoiding high tide.

Turn the Tide is a German card game originally designed by Stefan Dorra in 1997 and was nominated for the prestigious Spiel des Jahres in 2001 (Carcassonne was the winner that year). We worked with Stefan and the original artist, Oliver Freudenreich, to bring the classic game to your iPhone. We hope you enjoy it.

How to Play:

Each players is dealt 12 cards from a deck of 60 weather cards with values ranging from 1 to 60. A player is given a number of lifesavers representing the strength of their hand. Players with many lifesavers have worse hands than those with fewer.

Another deck of 24 cards with values ranging from 1 to 12 are placed in the center of the table (tide cards). Two tide cards are turned up and all players choose one card from their hand in secret to play. When all players have chosen, the cards are simultaneously revealed. The player with the highest weather cards wins the lowest value tide card; the player with the second highest weather card wins the highest value tide card.

Each player can have at most one tide card at a time; old tide cards are “buried” when a player acquires a new one. The player who holds the highest tide card after each set of secret cards is revealed loses a lifesaver.

One point is added to a player’s score at the end of a round (playing through all 12 cards) for each remaining lifesaver and a bonus point is awarded to the player holding the lowest tide card.

Feeling angry about the horrible hand you were dealt? Not to worry, each player gets a chance to play every hand in the original deal. When a round finishes, a player’s hand is passed to the player on his left and a new round begins. Rounds continue to be played until every player has played every hand.

The winner of the game is the player with the highest score at the end of the last round of play.

Once you get your feet wet, we think you will agree that this is a fun game the entire family can play.