Koi Pond: A Coy Card Game (2013)

Overview

Game description from the publisher:

Koi Pond: A Coy Card Game is a lovely, clever game for 2-4 players. Collect colorful koi fish and choose whether to place them in your pond or in your house. You'll score points only for the *lower* number, though, so keep your pond and house as balanced as you can. Your pond is public, but your house is secret. To win, you have to be...coy!

Each turn, players take turns drawing a card from the face-down deck or from the face-up "lake" until everyone has three new cards in hand. Then all players simultaneously choose from amongst their entire hand one card to add to their personal pond and one to discard to their personal "river". Cards in your river will eventually go to the lake, so choose carefully.

After six turns, the round ends. Score points by comparing the total number of koi of a suit in your pond and your house. Score points equal to the *lower* number. Score each suit of koi in this manner. If a crane, housecat or turtle is in your pond, you score bonus points for koi of that noted suit in your opponent's pond (crane), house (housecat) or river (turtle). Which opponent depends on the number of players and the current round.

After each round, ribbons are awarded to the player with the most koi of each suit in her river. Ribbons grant bonus points at the end of the game.

To maximize your koi score, you have to carefully balance the populations in your pond and house. A turtle, housecat, or crane earns points from an opponent's hard work, but they also take valuable space in your hand. Sending high value koi cards to your river earns more ribbons, but also makes them available to all players in the next round. The player with the most points wins!

Expansions

Koi Pond: Four Winds

Koi Pond: Four Walls

Koi Pond: Moon Temple