Another module recommended for those with a grip on the basics promises deeper gameplay through unique player characters and more advanced action cards. I’m yet to dive into this properly, but I’m keen to: the base game has plenty to recommend it as it is. The last, Under the Rose, is billed as an even more in-depth variant, introducing agents that players’ characters can meet with along their journey, leaning further into its thriller trappings.

If the player is trying to steal cards from another player and they flip over a card that matches one or more cards in the opponent’s Tank, they can steal the matching cards and place these cards (including the card they drew) in their own Tank. If the card they flipped over doesn’t match any of the cards in their opponent’s Tank, the opponent adds the card to their Tank instead. Sealing the deal inked by the gameplay is the impeccable atmosphere created by Mantis Falls. Its sepia, typewritten cards are soaked in moonlight and ebbing streetlamps. The few supporting characters encountered by players appear as noir silhouettes, with delightfully pulp descriptions like “Ms Cardello, the woman with volition” and “Mr Edwards, the man with connections”. Events, meanwhile, have terse, evocative names like “purge”, “witch hunt” and “the whistling wind”. With its sparing brushes of theme, it sharply conjures the feeling of crunching along a sidewalk in the cold, dark night, glancing behind you every few steps and listening through the silence for a second set of footsteps. Also, shout out to Exploding Kittens who has launched its Youth Program outreach in celebration of this new game. The company’s program provides select summer camps and youth organizations with Exploding Kittens games, free of charge. With nearly 1,000 games already fulfilled since January, the company will be adding Mantis to the expanded program to get games in the hands of more kids. ( Organizations looking to participate can join the waitlist.)With two players, you’ll play mostly normally, with two exceptions. First, you play to 15, not 10. Second, if a player Steals successfully on their turn, they may take another turn immediately after. A player can make multiple consecutive Steals, this way. Player Count Differences

Now that players are all clued up with the Mantis Shrimp mantra - as the comic is included in the box - they can dive into the game of colours with stabby mechanics in a title to steal or score. 2-6 players will have a total of four coloured cards in their arsenal, however, this must be visual to the rest of the group. There is a chance that the draw pile runs empty before someone collects ten Mantis cards. In this case, the person with the most cards in their score pile wins. If there is a tie, the player with the most cards in their tank wins. TWO PLAYER GAME If stealing, the colour must match cards in your opponent’s collection. When you get a match, you get to add those cards to your own collection. But when it doesn’t, that opponent gets to keep that card for themselves. Harm doesn’t always come from your would-be assassin. Event cards drawn at the start of each round throw up various hurdles along your escape path. Some of these are incidents, like storms and earthquakes, that can only be mitigated, rather than avoided. Sometimes, though, it takes the form of opposition: an enemy who must be dealt enough wounds to avoid a negative effect, from suffering wounds yourself (you die after a tense ‘last gasp’ window to reduce your topped-out wounds with cards) to discarding precious cards.To be especially clear, players can only score points by trying to match cards in their own Tank. Even if someone steals one or more cards from another player’s Tank, they can only add these stolen cards to their own Tank on that turn, and not their Score Pile. This means the cards they’ve just stolen can potentially be stolen again before they have a chance to add them to their own Score Pile. Source: Exploding Kittens Is this game fun to play? Winding up for a big Score can be how you win the game. I mean, if you can pull off a major Score action, that’s cool and all, and that can win you the game in a single turn. It’s just hard to do well, since as soon as you get enough cards, you become everyone’s target.