Boitas Card Game Review

Jim Gamer
13 minutes ago
6 min read

Boitas

WBG Score: 8

Player Count:2-4

You’ll like this if you like: Trick-Taking, with a twist - obz!

This is a free review copy. See our review policy here.

Trading, tricking, and timing your moment

At first glance, Boitas looks like a straightforward trick-taking game with a fresh theme. A few hands in, though, it becomes clear this is doing something a little different. Less about following suit and more about picking your battles, reading the table, and knowing exactly when to win… and when not to.

It’s a clever twist on the genre, wrapped in a theme that actually carries some weight. Playing as ancient sea traders navigating ports and bringing back goods sounds light, but it feeds nicely into what the game is asking you to do. You are not just chasing tricks, you are chasing the right ones.

In one game, I spent an entire round deliberately losing, picking up cowries, the currency in the game, while others fought over mediocre goods. Then the next round, with a stronger hand and better timing, everything clicked. That shift from passive to aggressive play is where Boitas really starts to shine. But getting it right is hard. Satisfyingly hard. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays.

How to set up

Set up takes a little longer than you might expect for a card game, but it is all purposeful.

Shuffle the main deck and deal five cards to each player. Lay out three ports, each with a face-up port card showing the trump suit for that trick, and place two import goods at each port. Place the remaining goods tokens to the side. Set up the market with four face-up cards, create a supply of cowries, and give each player a couple to start. Place the four Elephant cards into the main area by the market and you are now ready to play.

How to play

The game runs over four rounds, each built around three trick-taking phases followed by a market phase.

In each trick, players can play any card. There is no obligation to follow suit, which immediately changes the feel. You are aiming to place one of the top two cards to win goods at each of the three ports each round. The highest cards gets first pick of the two goods at the port. Second highest takes the other, while everyone else picks up cowries as compensation.

The twist comes from the port system. Each trick has a trump suit, dealt at random during set up, and a key number based on which number the port it, making certain cards incredibly powerful in the right moment. Elephant cards sit above most of the hierarchy, but even they have counters, which keeps things dynamic. Don't worry, I will explain!

After three tricks, the market phase kicks in. Players use cowries to buy better cards from the market or powerful elephant cards, improving their chances in future rounds. The elephant cards are expensive, costing three cowries, but potentially very powerful. Whereas normal cards from the market cost one cowrie each. Then it all resets and builds again.

So, how do you determine the highest card for each trick? Well, first, it's simply the highest card played. Then, you need to see if anyone played a trump card, based on the colour of the port for that round. If they have, that will then beat any other card played. Again, the highest trump card played wins if there is more than one. But wait, you can beat any trump card even if you don't have the highest one, if you play the trump card that matches the number of the port. For example, if this is the first trick of the round, and you are playing at port number one, then the trump card matching that port's colour with the number one would now beat any other trump card played even if the other trump cards have higher numbers. Make sense?

Well, we are not done there. There is one card that can beat the trump card matching the port, and that's the Elephant card. There are only four in the game, no one starts with them, and you must buy them. So you know when they are in people's hands and could come out. But of course, you don't know when people may play them. But there is still a card that could beat that! I know. But this is the final one, I promise. The Elephant, when played, can be beaten by the four of any trump. The five or higher of any trump would beat a four of any trump when played. But not when the Elephant is in play, when the four jumps up to the top card. So this is the order, you can see in this handy card provided that now hopefully makes sense to you.

By the end of the game, points come from a mix of collected goods, cards left in hand, and leftover currency, forcing you to think beyond just winning tricks. And here lies the final twist. From your collected goods, you can either score the highest value of each good type you collected, but just the highest value one. None of the others. Or, you can choose to score from all goods of two types, discarding any other type of good you may have collected. It's your choice!

What it feels like to play

This is not a traditional trick-taker, and that is both its strength and its biggest hurdle.

It feels closer to a mix of trick-taking and tactical bidding. You are constantly evaluating whether a trick is worth winning, whether second place is enough, or whether it is better to lose and invest in future rounds. That push and pull is where the tension lives. But of course, with the interesting way the highest card is selected, you will not always be sure how likely your chosen card is to achieve what you want it to. You could play a valuable and hard-to-get Elephant card in an effort to win a trick where you really want one of the goods there, only for another player to bring out the four trump after you. Sure, you could now come second and still get a good over a cowrie, but with the way the goods score, this good may not score you anything at the end of the game, and you spent an Elephant card to get it.

The open information about upcoming ports adds another layer. You are not just reacting, you are planning ahead, shaping your hand through the market, and trying to line up the perfect moment to strike. You know what goods are up for grabs each round, and you will know if any Elephant cards are in play. And you will begin to understand which goods which players want based on the previous goods they have collected. This is all open information, but does make a rather simple trick-taker have a fair few layers!

There is a nice rhythm once it clicks. Early rounds are about positioning, later rounds are about evaluation and execution. But it does take a game or two to get there, and some players may bounce off the initial complexity or the feeling that card draw or a misunderstanding of what other players may be going for can swing things.

Pros

Clever twist on trick-taking with meaningful decisions every turn
Strong balance between winning now and building for later
Market phase adds depth and control over your hand

Cons

Slightly more rules overhead than expected for a card game
Some reliance on card draw can affect consistency in early games

Final thoughts

Boitas is a smart, slightly unconventional take on trick-taking that rewards timing, planning, and a willingness to play the long game. It will not replace your classic trick-takers, but it is not trying to. Instead, it carves out its own space somewhere between trick-taking and tactical hand management and set collection.

For the right group, especially those who enjoy thinking a step ahead and adapting on the fly, there is a lot to dig into here. It is quick, interactive, and just different enough to feel fresh without losing its core identity.

Just remember, sometimes the best move is not to win the trick… it is to let someone else take it, potentially overspending with a powerful card, and then profiting yourself later.