The Board Game Arena new game for me this past week was Symbiose. Now, there is another one as well, we’ll talk about that one eventually. But Symbiose jumped out at me with some nice artwork and different color palate than a lot of games. But that isn’t enough to make it a great game, so let’s talk about if it is or isn’t worth checking out on BGA and when it comes out to retail.

How to Play Symbiose

Symbiose is a simple score creating game. I’ll talk about what that means here and how it works in a second. You want to create the largest scoring grid that you can based off of the cards in your grid and the cards in your opponents grid.

On your turn you pick one card from the “river” of cards. These are four cards set out. Then you take one of your face down cards and put that into the river where you took the card from. And that new card goes into that spot. That is basically the whole game. But, of course it’s not quite as simple as that. Where you put that new card matters.

Each card has a few different things on it. It has a color and a symbol, these are snails, fish, or dragonfly on the top half. Then on the bottom half is scoring. Generally the scoring is going to be points for either a color or for a symbol on the card. Some cards don’t have scoring that depends on other cards and just gives you fixed points.

So, how does the scoring work? We have an idea, but there is more to it for Symbiose. When you play the game you have a two by four grid, two tall and four wide. The left most and right most columns score based off of what your opponents play out in their grid, on the left and right respectively. And then your two middle columns score for everything in your grid. Whomever creates the most symbiotic grid will score the most points and win.

What Doesn’t Work

This game has a level of luck to it. You start with eight cards face down and you flip one up randomly. Based off of the cards that are in play that game, you might never find a synergy to that first card. And the ideal cards for you scoring grid might be face down in your grid. So there is no way to know and when you flip cards what you’ll flip or if they will come back to you.

I also think it’s worth noting that the two player game is different. This isn’t a “not work” so much for me. But it is different. There is the river but it becomes a two by four as well. So you score off of that as one of your sides. Which makes it even more random because that is changing more often. In fact you might mess up your own scoring, or have to, in a two player game. So it’s more just be aware that the mechanisms are the same but the luck increases.

What Works

I love the simplicity of the actions in the game. Your turns go relatively quickly because you only have four a cards to take from. And I think it works well like a number of other games where at the beginning you have more choices as to where to place a card but it matters less. It matters less because your strategy will unfold as you go. In those final few turns it matters more because you know how you and your opponents are scoring. But your choices are much more limited.

This game is fast on BGA as well which is nice. But I think as quick as it is on there it is going to be an even faster game in person. This again comes because of the simplicity of the actions in the game.

I also really like games where you set your own scoring. It reminds me of Castle Combo in some ways, or Point Salad. But this is a little simpler, kind of. So that works well for me, you don’t need to be monitoring your cash to get cards or keys to move like you do in Castle Combo. So it’s simpler to table and play turns that way.

Who Is Symbiose For?

I think this is a game for people who like that building up of their own scoring. But beyond that, I think this is a great next step sort of game for a lot of people. The artwork is going to be fun for them as it’s nice art, and the game play is simple enough to learn. But it’s teaching and challenging them to new things.

Final Thoughts on Symbiose

I very much enjoy this game. I like a game where I create my own scoring and this one does so simply. And I really like that I need to pay attention to what my opponents are doing as well. This isn’t a highly interactive game, sure I could take something you want. But it’s better for me to score more points than to stop you from scoring points. But there is still that interaction because I want to use what you are scoring to my advantage.

And I also appreciate how fast the game plays. Which I think makes the game work really well for me as well. It feels like one of those smaller box games that is easy to add into the rotation. And while I love Castle Combo, one of my favorite games from last year, I think that Sybmiose will hit a similar spot in my collection and be easier to table. Is it a better game, I’m not sure, but it’s a game for a different and more common group.

My Grade: B+
Strategy: B
Luck: B

Send an Email
Message me on X at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here