Welcome To Tenby
The bulk of Tenby’s setup comes from the card decks you’ll need to shuffle before you begin. After all, you’re building a town, and that requires plenty of buildings. Once that’s out of the way, you’ll create the central marketplace using Terrace, Pier and Landmark cards. Resident cards are placed above this, along with the end-of-row Terrace and Pier cards.
Next, set up the Night cards according to player count. Beneath these, place the Day deck and reveal a number of cards equal to the player count plus one. Life preserver tokens are placed within reach, and each player takes a meeple and a starting house card. Finally, deal two Resident cards to each player, choosing one to keep.
Whoever most recently walked along a beach places their meeple on the first Night card, and you’re ready to begin.
Welcome To Tenby
The bulk of Tenby’s setup comes from the card decks you’ll need to shuffle before you begin. After all, you’re building a town, and that requires plenty of buildings. Once that’s out of the way, you’ll create the central marketplace using Terrace, Pier and Landmark cards. Resident cards are placed above this, along with the end-of-row Terrace and Pier cards.
Next, set up the Night cards according to player count. Beneath these, place the Day deck and reveal a number of cards equal to the player count plus one. Life preserver tokens are placed within reach, and each player takes a meeple and a starting house card. Finally, deal two Resident cards to each player, choosing one to keep.
Whoever most recently walked along a beach places their meeple on the first Night card, and you’re ready to begin.
Opening the Seafront
The rhythm of Tenby is simple and satisfying. On your turn, you select a Day card and resolve its actions, usually taking Terrace, Pier, Landmark or Resident cards, and sometimes gaining life preservers for bonus actions.
Tenby stands out through how turn order and the marketplace interact. Each round begins in the Night phase, which sets the order for choosing Day cards. Higher-value cards give more actions but push you later in turn order next round.
There’s a lot to weigh up. Do you take three actions now, or go earlier to guarantee a key Landmark? Both feel strong, but their value depends on your tableau. It quickly becomes a balancing act between short-term gain and longer-term positioning, and that’s where Tenby feels most like an optimisation puzzle.
The marketplace adds pressure. Cards aren’t replenished until the end of the round, so if something you want is taken you may need to draw blindly or spend life preservers to reveal new options. Once taken, a card must be placed immediately.
You’ll create one or more streets over the game, and placement matters. If a card can’t be placed, you’ll need to start a new street, though this can improve scoring. This is also where things start to sprawl, as streets grow longer and table space shrinks. Time to move the snacks elsewhere… I’ve got a pier to build.
After your Day action, you move your meeple onto the next Night card, setting turn order for the following round. Any unchosen Day card gains a life preserver, making it more attractive next time.
Life preservers are both thematic and essential, helping smooth bad draws. You can spend them on extra actions, repositioning, or revealing market options. In one game, I took weaker Day cards early to build them up. It felt slow, but later they let me reposition buildings into far better scoring spots, ultimately securing the win.
Plain end Terrace and Pier cards are also available. They don’t score much but help finish streets and support end-game objectives when key pieces are missing. There’s a lot to like in how the game softens bad luck without removing it entirely.
Thanks for Visiting
Scoring is where Tenby really opens up. Each card has its own conditions, often based on adjacent features such as birds, flower boxes, lobster pots or house colours. Some score from immediately neighbouring cards, while others reach further. Landmark cards apply to an entire street, but you’re limited to one per street, so placement is key. If you take the museum, you’ll want to focus on Terrace cards with businesses to maximise your scoring, which can be a strong strategy if the deck plays along.
Residents act as end-game objectives, offering additional scoring based on things like lampposts or Pier cards. Some apply to a single street, others across multiple, and completed streets score more, though unfinished ones still contribute. Picking up a few of these during the game can give you a solid boost if you’re able to meet their conditions.
After ten rounds, the game ends and scoring begins. This is where things can become a little fiddly. With so many unique conditions and no built-in tracking, scoring takes time. Having a pen and paper handy helps, and it’s worth double-checking as you go. Missing even a single pigeon could be the difference between winning and losing.
Once you’re comfortable with the base game, you can introduce Accolade cards. These add shared objectives, increasing player interaction and giving you new strategic angles to consider. Talbott also includes several ways to bring them into play, including a variant that feels reminiscent of Terraforming Mars.
A Quiet Day by the Sea
But what if you want to go it alone? Thankfully, Tenby also plays beautifully solo. It’s a relaxing experience, both in play and visuals, complete with charmingly named businesses like Spill the Beans on the pier.
The solo mode replaces the Day and Night cards with Compass and Anchor decks. Each round, you draw two Compass cards, or three if you spend a life preserver, and choose one. An Anchor card is then revealed for the automa opponent.
Turn order is determined by comparing values on the cards, with lower values going first. You can spend life preservers here as well if you want to adjust your position. Compass cards function much like Day cards, dictating the actions available to you.
The Anchor cards determine what the automa takes from the marketplace. If its chosen card is no longer available, you draw a matching card from the deck and set it aside as a penalty, which will score negatively at the end of the game. These can add up quickly and feel quite punishing, forcing you to think more carefully about your choices rather than simply taking what you want.
Aside from that, the game flows in much the same way. At the end, you compare your score against a ranking table. Even without chasing high scores, there’s a lot of satisfaction in simply seeing what you’ve built, although I’ve yet to progress beyond the Seasoned Tourist bracket.
For experienced solo players, there’s additional depth. Higher difficulty scenarios and alternative solo modes offer more challenges once you’ve mastered the basics. There’s a lot to explore in such a small box.
Final Thoughts
Tenby is a beautiful game with vibrant artwork that stands out on any table. The mechanics underneath are just as polished. The interplay between turn order and action selection is particularly strong.
It’s also highly replayable. The variety of cards and scoring conditions means no two games feel the same, and you’re always adapting to what appears in the market. Just when it starts to feel like multiplayer solitaire, someone takes your Day card, grabs the best Terrace… and suddenly the bickering and bartering begins. On top of that, there’s a real sense of pride in what you build. The little details, like street names, business names and quirky features, often spark conversation as everyone shares their creations.
There are a couple of drawbacks. Table space can become an issue, as streets can grow surprisingly long, especially if you’re managing multiple rows. Not every table comfortably accommodates Tenby at full sprawl, particularly in larger player counts.
Scoring is the other sticking point. With so many individual conditions and no tracking system, end-game scoring can feel a little cumbersome and occasionally confusing.
That said, these are minor issues in an otherwise excellent design. Tenby is a joy to play, with a smooth solo mode that makes it easy to bring to the table even without other players. If you’re looking to bring a bit of seaside charm indoors, Tenby delivers. I’m already planning my next trip back.
About the author:
* Sophie is a gamer, blogger, podcaster, and book lover with a passion for solo narrative video games. When she's not immersed in games or writing, she's probably out hiking. Her favourite board games feature worker placement, nature themes, and smart tableau-building mechanics
