Tanto Cuore
2-4
12+
30+
The players take the roles of "masters of the house", employ a lot of maids, and are served by them while slowly filling out their house (card deck).
But take care. The maids can become sick, or get bad habits!
When the game ends, the player who has the best collection of maids and therefore the most victory points is the perfect master and winner of the game!
User Reviews (4)
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Fans of “harem” animation will be invariably drawn to the high quality artwork in Tanto Cuore (which means “Much Heart” in Italian), as it consists entirely of original characters in frilly maid costumes. As an anime fan myself, I’ll admit that the theme weighed heavily in my decision to pick up this game, but it’s the gameplay, not the pretty pictures, that keeps this from ever remaining in my closet very long.
As for the game itself, Tanto Cuore is a deck-building game that plays very similar to Dominion. For those who are unfamiliar with deck-building games, the concept is simple: Starting with a small and mediocre stack of cards, and using a resource found on the cards themselves, one’s goal is to “purchase” larger and better cards from a communal set in order to form a winning deck. Unlike collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering, the deck-building actually takes place during the game, meaning that everyone has access to the exact same pool of cards, which provides a pleasant change of pace for dedicated CCG players.
For those who find Dominion‘s gameplay too non-interactive for their tastes, Tanto Cuore offers a refreshing offensive option in the form of Illnesses and Bad Habits, which are bought at an opposing player’s expense, either to nullify the effect provided by his Private Maid (a special type of maid who remains permanently on the table once played), or reduce his final score at the conclusion of the game.
My only complaint with this game has to do with the rulebook, as it is poorly laid-out in places, and as someone who had had only limited experience with deck-building games prior to Tanto Cuore, I found it took a while to muddle through. But once I understood the rules I found them surprisingly easy to follow.
I’ll reiterate: those who like Dominion will find that much is the same in Tanto Cuore, gameplay-wise. It’s not an exact reskin, per se, as the addition of the “Private Maid” mechanic provides a unique tactical twist, but the bottom-line is that, if you already have Dominion and the anime theme doesn’t interest you, you’ll probably want to skip this one. But if you love both, or are just starting out in the deck-building genre, this is definitely a game to seek out.
This is a fun Deck Building game based upon the cute Maids from Japanese Animation.
The cards are illustrated by famous Japanese Illustrators with cute maids to care for your mansion. The cards artwork is tastful and cute that appeal to both sexes. Card feature 16 different General Maids, 2 different Maid Chiefs and 10 different Private Maids. The General Maids take care of the main parts of your mansion, Maid Chiefs are the lead maids to make sure the work is done, and Private Maids take care of your private rooms.
The game has 3 different types of Love cards and 2 different event cards. These cards affect game play of your duties as “Master of The House”. The Love cards are used to employ new maids to your mansion. The Event cards will affect the maids of other players mansions. The two event cards are “Bad Habits” and “Illness”.
The set up is card layout in the center for all players to reach which is called “Town”. Each player will also need space to represent thier mansion. Each mansion consists of a space for thier personnel draw deck called the waiting room, a discard spot called the kitchen entrance, a play area and player’s private quarters area to place the cards that are set aside
Each player starts with 7 “1 Love” cards and 3 “Colette” Maid Chief cards. Each player mixes their ten cards and deals five to create thier first hand. Choose one player to start.
Each player will complete four phases on thier turn. The four phases are the starting, serving, employ and discard phases.
The starting phase allows the effects of private maids and event cards in thier private quarters. If illness has been played on a private maid, no effects are generated until it is removed.If the illness card is on a private maid or chamber maid at the end of the game, no victory points are counted for those cards. A “3 Love” can remove an illness by dismissing(return both cards to town).
Next the serving phase allows the play of general maids or maid chiefs to gain effects. Being served by a maid cost one “serving” and only one serving unless bonus servings are earned by effect. Bonus effects are additional draws, servings, love and employment. Additional draws are used immediately. The additional servings are used during this phase or they are lost in the Discard phase. Any text is then followed on the card for the maid after recieving bonuses. Servings can also be spent to make some maids “Chamber Maids”, the cost listed in the text. Chamber Maids are placed in the Private Area, but thier bonuses don’t count in the private area.
The total amount of love cards played and given in bonuses are spent in the employment. Any left over love and/or employ are lost in the discard phase. A player can only employ one private maid each turn. The newly hired general maids and Love cards go to the discard pile. Private maids go to your private quarters and events go to any players private quarters unless stated otherwise. Employment phasing ends when decided by player. Or the player runs out of employ or love.
Finally the discard phase, all of the players hand and cards in the play field are discarded. Any in the private quarters remain there. Next the player draws five new cards.
Play continues until two maid piles are emptied. Note that event cards and love cards are not maid cards. Also, the private maid stack is depleted when the draw pile is emptied even if there is face up cards. Victory points are then counted on the maid cards and listed in the text for all cards if it meets requirements. Any maids that were ill are not counted for victory points or bonuses.
The player with the most victory points is the winner. If there is a tie, the tied players count the number of non-victory point maids and the most wins. If tied again, the game remains tied. The winner is the King/Queen of the Maids.
May you enjoy this fun deck building game.
This is yet another deckbuilding game, with a variety of interesting mechanics that make it rather fun to play.
Right up front however, the theme of this game will either appeal to you, or turn you off. You are basically building a harem of scantily-clad anime maids who “service” you. If the idea of that is turning you off, then just avoid this game.
The game seems complex at first, but is rather simple to pick up if you’ve ever played a deckbuilder. You start with a hand of “love” (money) and some cards that clog your deck but can be placed aside to score them. Some cards are worth victory points, and you are basically trying to get victory points to win the game.
The first interesting mechanic is the “chambering” of maids. There are some cards you can set aside in a score pile via various methods which provide you victory points at the end of your game, and unclog your deck. This is fun, because you can buy these point cards, and utilize other cards to set them aside to score them and keep your deck small.
The other mechanic that is present here is a griefing mechanic, where you put negative points cards, or cards that have bad effects into other people’s houses. This keeps the game interactive, and avoids the “solitaire” effect of many deckbuilders of this type.
Pros:
Easy to learn. If you’ve ever played a deckbuilder in your life, you can pick this up and win on the first try.
Good mechanics for scoring, that don’t clog your deck up.
Tons of expansions are out for this game, which add a bunch of neat mechanics.
Lots of variety in the setup to make the game replayable.
Cons:
The theme was too mysogenistic for my tastes. I couldn’t get over saying “I’ll have this maid service me” over and over.
As a deckbuilder, purely mechanically, I really like this game. I won’t be buying it though, because the theme was just too much for me personally. If this theme doesn’t bother you, then I highly recommend this game.
Tanto Cuore is another entry into the deck-building genre
It is not a revolutionary game … but takes the elements of the others and executes them to perfection.
With the new Expansions ‘Vacations’ and ‘Expanding the House’ the replay value hugely increases
the only fault I have with the game is that it needs a easier way to determine the set-up, there is a setup tool online … I just wish it had been included in the game itself