In honor of the Finspan upcoming release, here’s a look at a slew of the best sea-themed board games you can shake a fin at. These watery titles run the line from simple to savvy, presented here in no particular order, so if you’ve been missing some blue in your board games, or just have a passion for the waves, read on:
Reef
If you’re going to go abstract, make yourself beautiful. That motto describes Reef, a 2018 title from Emerson Matsuuchi that has you (shocker) building a
reef with pleasant, chunky pieces. Every turn, you’ll have the option to pick up a card from the market row or play one from your hand, dropping fresh coral onto your undersea village and scoring points if your reef matches the pattern also on that same card. It’s a pleasant play that can breeze by in somewhat solitaire fashion, everyone crafting their chunky coral homes, or bring the knives-out blocking reminiscent of Azul and any number of similar games, wherein you’ll see a card would be a perfect play for Bob over there and so you’ll snag it on your turn instead.
Is it worth more to stop Bob than advance your own reef? The chaos agent in me says definitely yes!
Reef hits the sweet spot for a family weight game too, able to play start to finish in under an hour and with components flashy enough to fight off even the most compelling social media sensations.
Hey, That’s My Fish
Keeping on with the family friendly fishes, we have Hey, That’s My Fish, a game I’ve mentioned once or twice before and deservedly so. Here you’ll be guiding penguins to their next meal across an ice floe grid. The floe you started on disappears into the ocean beneath you, a perhaps unintended metaphor for disappearing Antarctic ice, that then creates a gap in the grid and a trap for future moves. Anyway, assuming your penguin gets their meal, its the next player’s turn to plot a path for their fowl to get some delicious dinner. Play dashes by fast, making Hey, That’s My Fish a devilish filler game, perfect to open or close a game night with folks who don’t mind getting trapped on a literal island or guided to their certain doom.
Depth nibbles at the edges with differing fish counts on some spaces, nudging penguins towards less-optimal plays in favor of more points. The game goes so fast that making wild plays is half the fun, diving into dire territory just to nab some watery grub even if skating a couple spaces away offers better odds of survival. Hey, That’s My Fish is a great travel title too, coming in a small box and ready to play on any surface.
At least until it sinks.
Sushi Go
Sure, it might be a bit morbid to have Sushi Go in an article about fish-based games, but let’s be real: this delightful drafting, set-collection game avoids 
controversy with its pleasant art and bento box package. I’d pitch it as 7 Wonders for people who don’t like 7 Wonders, as it’s far easier to grok on a first play and pushes you to consider what your opponents are collecting. Sushi Go’s limited card pool in every game makes it clear what folks are going for, giving you a real chance to make deliberate drafting choices that help yourself and slow down your neighbor. That’s often hard to do in bigger games with a zillion possible strategies.
Slightly above filler weight, with a sub half-hour playtime and a perfect matching of theme to your sushi dinner night, Sushi Go is never a bad time. And, if you’re itching for a little more heft, there’s deluxe editions aplenty if your hankering for raw fish drafting demands satisfaction.
Dominant Species: Marine
We’ll step things up for Dominant Species: Marine, a refreshed design of creature-killing classic Dominant Species. Reduced to keywords, this is a sea-themed worker placement and area control game that features card-driven events and a sort of rondel guiding your actions. Put a different way, Dominant Species: Marine is about covering the planet with your crab horde, devouring food and friends alike, until an asteroid, invasive species, or nasty reptile turns your crustaceans into cocktail shrimp. Every turn crackles with meaningful decisions, with big swings coming through card draws and your own choices, while the board itself morphs and grows while you play.
Dominant Species: Marine isn’t a simple game, but neither is it a multi-step, tome-rules venture. Feeling your way through is viable, and the potential for huge plays means a clueless start can make a comeback for the win. If you’ve tried games like Evolution or Dinogenics and want to take the next step, give Dominant Species: Marine a shot. The crabs will thank you.
Fishin’ Time
A brief detour here to the realm of my childhood, wherein bass fishing programs dominated weekend mornings and Fishin’ Time, a game about zipping your boat around a lake in pursuit of the legendary Muskie, offered angling pleasure to a kid who could barely cast a lure.
Fishin’ Time, for all its simplicity, is a goofy pleasure. The game operates like a fishing tournament, where players are given a time window/number of turns to scoot around the lake to fishing spots and try to catch as much fish, by weight, as possible, before time runs out. You’ll roll to move and curse cards forcing you back to shore, you’ll hook a fish only to find it’s a minuscule perch. Or you’ll be on the verge of success only to get caught without a fishing license.
Somewhat rare now, with components of questionable quality, Fishin’ Time is a relic best played with kids or a few cold ones on a porch overlooking a lake. Optional rules exist for the hardcore, but so do other games. Keep this one casual, and enjoy the water.
Kelp
The newest game on this list and perfect for your Noble Knight Want List is Kelp, a game in which you are not, sadly, playing literal seaweed. Instead, and
perhaps better for action, you’re entering into an aquatic duel between a Shark and an Octopus. This is, as tentacles and teeth would imply, an asymmetric battle played with two separate mechanics.
The octopus skulks in the weedy depths by playing cards and acquiring new ones, deck-building their way to victory by survival and snacking on a few special foods. The shark, meanwhile, hunts via dice, rolling and placing those cubes on various abilities in their pursuit of a meal. Bluffing and misdirection are crucial in this hour-long dance that doesn’t go hard on rules load, instead relying on you, the players, to make undersea magic.
In a crowded one vs one space, full of anime fighters, witches, and Richard Nixon, Kelp bolsters its stock with a sumptuous production. Increasingly table stakes in the modern tabletop era (particularly for mass market titles), Kelp’s components are top-notch, lush with color and watery artwork. Thick dice and blocks bring pleasant heft while the shark and octopus minis are appropriately aggressive. Given that you’ll want to run this battle back two or three times, the visual and tactile appeal is a big plus.
Aquatica
A little underwater area control never hurt anybody, an ethos Aquatica adopts in its quest to make a lightweight card-confrontation game. Here you’ll be 
splaying out your kingdom across the mystical depths, claiming sunken treasures, hiring heroes, and thwarting the ambitions of your opponents. Aquatica strives for the elusive low complexity, high strategy combo that lets a game cover the broad swath of players young and old, new and gnarled. It largely succeeds by virtue of its combo-tastic card play and nifty resource-raising design. A good turn will see you couple cards played from your hand to boost up needed stuff, then transmute those dredged gains into fresh power.
And, as we’ve all heard, with great power comes great points.
See, every captured location—earned with played strength or resources from your hand—offers an opportunity via matching symbols to ‘raise’ it up your triple-layered player board. Every lurch upwards gets you closer to completing the set and earning a valuable manta ray and its associated abilities. Personal challenges and intermixed competition make Aquatica a beautiful, interactive race, though a compelling solitaire mode exists for folks who’d rather indulge their deep delights without pressure from other people.
If Finspan has you hankering for some sea-themed board games, the list above covers the gamut, from family-style hijinks to competitive contests. Whether you’re a group of marine biologists or just need a little more blue in your life, getting wet with some of these games is guaranteed to give you a good time.
Not literally, though. Unless you’re Chip Theory, games and water don’t mix, folks.
Check out our previous article here!
