Disney Villainous continues to give us more of what we want…. More villains! This is a review of the Treacherous Tides expansion adding in 2 new villains. By now, you probably have a list of who you want to come to your tabletop, and each will hopefully have their own turn, but we find ourselves being able to play as Davy Jones from The Pirates of the Caribbean, and Tamatoa from Moana. If you are not familiar with Disney Villainous, then please check out our other reviews of Sugar & Spite with King Candy & Shere Khan, or Introduction to Evil with Ursula, Captain Hook, Maleficent, and Prince John, or the Bigger Badder expansion with Syndrome from The Incredibles, Lost from Toy Story 3, and Madam Mim from The Sword in the Stone.
What’s in the Box?
- 2 Villain Movers
- 2 Villain Decks of 30 cards each
- 2 Fate Decks of 15 cards each
- 5 Treasure Tokens
- 1 Maui Deck of 20 cards
- 2 Realm Boards
- 2 Villain Guides
- 15 Strength Tokens
- 25 Power Tokens
- 2 Reference Cards
How’s it Play?
Just like all other Villainous games, Treacherous Tides adds 2 more villains to play as. Treacherous Tides introduces Davy Jones from The Pirates of the Caribbean and Tamatoa from Moana. These villains also work asymmetrically. When playing as Davy Jones, you want to reveal all 5 of your treasure tokens by defeating the heroes who have them. When playing as Tamatoa, you will need to hold on to both the Heart of Te Fiti and Maui’s Hook and get them into your Lair location.
Just like other Villainous games, you move your mover to one of the locations and perform the actions shown. This requires playing cards, activating cards, gaining power, moving items or allies, moving heroes, defeating heroes, or slowing down your opponent with the fate action.
Let’s get to the specifics of these NEW villains. Davy Jones is trying to collect 5 treasure tokens. These appear through card actions, so you want to pump through your deck to get cards out. When certain heroes come out, a treasure token is added to it face down. Before defeating the hero, the treasure token is flipped over. Each treasure token has a unique ability that becomes active when it’s revealed. These abilities make it harder for you to collect more treasures, so things get harder as you collect more and more treasure tokens. But once you defeat the hero with the treasure token, you gain it into your supply. When playing against this player, you want to add fate cards that make things more difficult for this player.
Tamatoa need to collect the Heart of Te Fiti and Maui’s Hook and get them to Tamatoa’s Lair. Tamatoa has an additional deck unique to this villain. This deck is the Maui deck, and if a Maui card is in play, then at the start of your turn, you draw the top card for this deck and resolve it. Note, there is a card in your deck called “Not Exactly Maui Time” which gives you a little more control of the Maui deck, choosing if you want to play the card or not. Maui’s hook is in the villain deck, and you can play it to gain 2 power each time your opponent does the fate action to you. However, you need to be careful because the “Maui Time” card automatically brings Maui’s Hook card to Maui. You then need to defeat him to get it back. When the Heart of Te Fiti is revealed from the fate deck, Moana comes into play. Once she is defeated you can claim the Heart of Te Fiti to your side of the board. Then you need to get them both to Tamatoa’s Lair.
The Verdict
First of all, what a surprise to see Davy Jones, as it’s a live action movie done by Disney rather than animated. Playing him, you encounter Elizabeth Swann, Will Turner, and Captain Jack Sparrow. The treasure tokens have some interesting things that happen when you collect them, which can sometimes be lucky to not be a huge deal while other times it can be a huge blow to you. The theme mostly comes from the other cards with this villain, and how the heroes all react with their actions. Equally, Davy Jones has his posse and they all have some fun actions and abilities that they can help you with. You might even feel like you have your own pirate crew fighting against those heroes you love from the movie. And the art is its own cartoony style, not stills from the movie.
Tamatoa’s deck has some interesting cards that are actually thematic, with some of the cards being a stretch on how it fits into the movie. The Maui deck adds a new thing within Villainous that hasn’t been done before, and then you can also figure out how to control that deck, which could possibly help you as some of those cards might actually help you rather than hurt you.
Overall, these additions are welcome to the scene. I do enjoy the mechanisms used for these villains, and think they are better than many others already out there. If you are new to this series, I’d recommend trying out the villain you most like from the movies and see if you like how they play, but the more options the better.
Images via Ravensburger
Have strong thoughts about this piece you need to share? Or maybe there’s something else on your mind you’re wanting to talk about with fellow Fandomentals? Head on over to our Community server to join in the conversation!!
