My passion for card games began with my great-grandmother, who taught me how to shuffle a deck of cards and play Rummy. In the classic card game you make sets and runs of cards by both drawing from a deck and picking up cards discarded by other players. It’s simple enough for a child to learn, but rewards paying close attention to what everyone else is doing so you don’t accidentally provide a card they need or try to build a set that will be hard to get. Enrico Vicario’s card game Sensu uses many of the same principles, combining them with gorgeous illustrations from Andrea Guerrieri to create an elegant game that’s easy to share with anyone.
In Sensu, two to five players compete to try to build Japanese folding fans in five different colors, each with their own detailed design. The pieces of the fans are represented by gorgeous illuminated cards printed on thick paper that makes the cards a pleasure to handle and look at laid across your play area.
Each player starts with two cards and can have a maximum of five in their hand. The numerical values of the cards range from 1 to 7, and there are some wildcards that can be used for different values like 1-3 or 3-5. You take turns either drawing two cards from the deck and then discarding one from your hand, or picking up a card from the top of any player’s discard pile. If you accumulate a set of cards worth exactly 15 points, you can play them to either start building a new fan or expand one you’re already constructing. It’s a simple goal, but the strategy comes from trying to be as efficient with your plays as possible.
Each card portrays a number of sticks used in the folding fan, which is only completed when you have exactly seven sticks. The number of sticks is inversely proportional to its value, with the 1 card representing four sticks while 5-7 and wildcards are just one. When you play a set of cards, you typically only get to keep the card with the most sticks for your fan. But if you play a set of cards with two cards of the same color of value, you also get to keep a card from those pairs. If you fully empty your hand, you get to draw a card after playing. It can be tempting to play as soon as you have a set that adds up to 15 given the goal of the game is to be the first player to assemble three fans, but winning is really about mastering momentum.
If you’re looking to ramp up the strategic complexity, Sensu also has an advanced mode. The three and four point cards have little power icons on them. If you add one of them to a fan, you earn a power token. Each color’s token has a different ability that lets you bend the rules of the game then you spend it. For instance, the red pavilion lets you draw two discarded cards at once while the yellow koi lets you add a card from your hand directly to a fan you’re building. Since players are almost never going to discard the cards with power tokens, this mode gives players more incentive to go fishing from the deck, adding more surprise to the game.
The advanced mode also changes the victory condition from the first to assemble three fans to the player with the most puffs of air at the end of the game. Each completed seven-stick fan is worth five puffs, but in this mode you can also assemble fans with more than seven sticks, though they’re only worth three points. You can collect bonus puffs for having four power tokens – encouraging you to hold onto them rather than quickly using them for their powerful effects. Bonus puffs are also awarded for working on fans of all five colors, something that’s otherwise a bad idea because it means you’re spreading your focus too much. Those bonuses are awarded to the first players to achieve the goal, so you also need to pay attention to what your opponents are working towards so you don’t miss out.
The advanced mode is certainly more satisfying as a fan of complex card games, but I love that Sensu offers two ways of play so you can ease new players into things, especially if they’ve played Rummy before. This is a great, quick game to add to any collection, serving as a warmup or break between longer games. But it’s also something I can share with my family to relive a bit of the simple competition that got me into the hobby in the first place.
Sensu is available at local game shops and online. The game was reviewed using retail product provided by DV Games.
