As witness to something not meant to be seen, you must escape the dark mob-ruled town of Mantis Falls alive. You are told another witness will join you, and together you must use cooperation to survive the increasingly dangerous roads of the night. Your ability to work with another could be your greatest strength, but what if they are not who they claim to be?

verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ There are a lot of other interesting effects among the Action cards, too many to list here. Most have a way of adding to the tension or tactics. Additionally, there are add-on Modules that aid in fighting any monotony that may develop from playing the base game. Some combinations of Action cards and Events allow you to call on Allies to help as well. Analysis and Thoughts So, if the player beside you has four blue mantis cards, and the card on top of the draw pile has the color blue, you may want to try to steal. Essentially, target the greatest chance of a match. Next is the Event Processing phase where the previously drawn Event is actually processed. Sometimes, the effects of Action Processing have negated the harmful possibilities of the Event or have neutralized it completely. Sometimes there are positive bonuses for successfully defeating an Event.

How we tested

Inspired by shadowy film noir worlds, Mantis Falls is a thematic journey that requires players to continually weigh the value of cooperation against the implicit perils of trust. Hand management and facedown card play combine with opportunities for betrayal to create a detailed blend of strategy, player interaction and suspicion. At every turn, players make concealed moves and develop hidden plans, but will also have thorough conversations as they discuss tactics, defend choices and bluff to protect carefully guarded secrets. So, that’s why the game of Mantis is considered the colorfully cutthroat card game of rainbows. Is Mantis a good game? Then, choose a player to go first. The instruction manual does not specify who, so if people are being indecisive, you can always choose the youngest or oldest player. The game comes with a fun little comic by The Oatmeal that explains why the Mantis shrimp is their favorite animal. Rather than working things out through pure discussion, Mantis Falls puts an explosive card game at its centre. Each turn, the two players both have the chance to play a series of action cards from their hands. There’s a light bit of combo potential, with cards in a matching suit able to be strung into a series of actions. These abilities can be used to hurry along the road to freedom, call in helpful allies and more. Most of the time, though, you’ll be using them to fend off enemies that put you in their sights.

This is not a pure social deduction game. I'd argue the split is about 65% hand management, 35% social deduction. This is a challenging game to win even if both players are correctly convinced that the other is a witness and are in full cooperation mode early on. Finding critical cards at the correct time is key to surviving.During a turn, a player will decide to score or steal. The act of scoring or stealing is essentially the whole turn.

But that’s not the only thing that makes them unique. The comic book takes us on a twisted turn, a dangerous journey, if you will, on how these alien offspring-looking creatures are also incredible hunters.Discard/conserve energy: After the two active players have made their main plays, the bystander may either discard up to two cards or place one card face up in Conserved Energy. • Draw: After the two active players have had their draw from the draw phase, the bystander also draws their hand to full. • Bystander abilities: Cards in the Triad Module may refer to the bystander by name. These cards are NOT played by the bystander directly, but when an active player processes such a card, it gives the bystander specific abilities or choices. OTHER RULES

Key to this is that often only one player actually gets to see the event, even after it’s resolved. While you can’t cheat by altering a hidden event’s effects, you can twist the truth - or outright lie - to try and manipulate your companion. You might pretend a minor foe needs as much firepower as possible to see off - leaving your target defenceless - or insist you had to deal them wounds, keeping schtum about the card’s choice of dividing them as you like.The players arrange the playing space by making a game board with 12 road cards in a 3×4 grid. The first row are the Sunset road cards, the second row are the Night road cards, and the final row consists of the Dark road cards. These road cards are placed face down initially, flipping only the Start of the Road, the next road, and the last End of the Road. The death of a player ends the game (although another player may first need to resolve a Last Gasp if at their maximum wounds).