Tacta - The Op Games
Designed by Jason Tremblay
I’m just getting over being sick, and my spouse got sick right as I got better, so I reached for what looked like the quickest and easiest game on our unplayed stack. Tacta is a game that feels way crunchier than the tiny box would have you think. It’s definitely a game that made me question initial vibes, and needed a few plays before I had an idea on how the game felt.
Tacta plays 2 or more players, and has a bunch of different rule variants and suggestions on how to play with different player counts, as well as to accommodate different styles of play. There’s even a rule set if you only have a small area to play the game, which felt very considerate.
Typically you’ll have a deck of 18 cards and on your turn you’ll play either the top or bottom card of your deck. You want as many dots visible on your cards at the end of the game.
The next player does the same, though it has to be off a card that’s on the table, and has to completely cover and match a shape on the existing card.
Play goes back and forth until the last card is played. If there are no legal moves, you play one of your cards anywhere in the play area, so play always continues.
A complete game looks WILD on the table, giving very synthwave/neon circuit vibes.
We used meeples as counters to keep track of what card we counted for end scoring, which made it a lot easier to keep track of what dots had already been counted. Tacta played real fast and loose the first time we played, and then VERY slow and strategic the next match. It has big abstract strategy meets area control battle card game vibes, and when my household is over being sick, I’d love to see how this plays with more than 2 players.
The Vibe Check: Tacta definitely looks like a tiny chill game, and although it was fun and I recommend you play a few rounds, it’s definitely not a “let’s play a chill cozy game for a few minutes” kind of game. It’s way more strategic and has enough depth that you’re definitely trying to plan on the next few plays, doing your best to not leave openings to get all your dots covered. It felt like combative Tetris, and I kind of dug it!
Let’s have fun,
Josh H.
