- BGG rank
- BGG #24,391
- BGG rating
- 5.8
Geißlein, versteck dich!
- 2–4 players
- 15 min
- Complexity 1.0/5
- 2003
- BGG rank
- BGG #13,799
- BGG rating
- 5.7
The Reef
2000
Rules assistance for The Reef
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 2 players
- 60 min
- 10+
- Complexity 1.6/5
For 2 players
Rules assistant for The Reef
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
The Reef is a board game released in 2000 for 2 players, 60 minutes per game, and ages 10 and up. It was designed by Wolfgang Lehmann and Christine Lehmann and its main mechanics are Race, Set Collection, and Income.
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About the game
After arranging the cards to form the reef, players roll dice to collect worms, spend worms to buy cards, use the cards to breed fish to win the game. You need to buy more boats to increase the columns on which you can fish. You need to buy reef cards (5 in total) on which you breed the parents, first to get 5 offspring wins. There are also pearl cards, which act as joker worms, and sharks, which eliminate cards by eating them. There is a deck of offspring, 4 are dealt up, being combinations of the 5 colors. So there are blue green fish, pink yellow fish, purple purple fish. The parents are in the same colors, some male, some female. So, for example, to collect the blue green baby fish, you need a blue male and green female, or a blue female and green male. Any used cards go to the discard, which gets shuffled round and feed back into the reef. The cost of cards depends on their position on the reef, and there is a rule for flowing cards through past your boats. The Reef is part of the Kosmos two-player series.
Designers
Publishers
- KOSMOS
- Rio Grande Games
Questions and answers
The Reef supports 2 players according to the catalogue. This is the publisher’s listed player count, so the game is designed for exactly that number of participants. Variants for other group sizes, if any, are described in the rulebook of your edition, so check it before setting up a different configuration.
The listed playing time for The Reef is 60 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists The Reef for ages 10 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
The Reef has a complexity rating of 1.6 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
The Reef belongs to these categories: Card Game and Animals. Its main mechanics are Race, Set Collection, and Income. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of The Reef are: Wolfgang Lehmann and Christine Lehmann. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists The Reef as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.