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Eric Arneson
November, 2003
USA

Fish Eat Fish begins with players placing their fish on the board, making sure none of their own fish are adjacent. When the game begins, they take turns challenging one opponent at a time to an attack or, if no attack is possible, moving one of their fish into attack position. Attacks are resolved by combining the size of the fish (a stack is one to five fish tall) with the number on a challenge card. The winner is the player with the larger total. Players choose their challenge cards simultaneously, providing plenty of bluffing opportunity. Most challenge cards show a fish and a number, but two special challenge cards are available: the shark, which wins over any fish card, and the octopus, which nullifies the attack. Once used, challenge cards are discarded. The winner of an attack places his fish on top of the defeated fish. If this makes the stack more than five fish high, fish are removed from the bottom of the stack; they are then put into the winning player's "catch." When only one player has fish remaining on the board, the game ends. The player with the most fish in his catch is the winner. Fish Eat Fish is a clever abstract game with an appealing theme added. It lies somewhere between Checkers and Chess on the strategy continuum, with a nice element of bluffing adding to its flavor.

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