Sirens is a quick and compact card drafting game for one or two players where you get to play around in some of the most famous Greek myths. You can either play as competing sirens trying to lure the most boats onto the rocks, or go solo and challenge Orpheus to a musical duel.
This is a game that gets better the more you play. Sirens is downright cutthroat with two experienced players. It’s also a game where you actually create a song that you can then listen to via a free app.
Disclosure: Thank you to Envy Born Games for giving us a review copy of this small deck card game. Some links below are affiliate links. Using these links costs you nothing extra and helps us offset the cost of running this blog. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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Learn about Sirens from Envy Born Games
Sirens comes from Envy Born Games and is part of their Tiny Game Series. These are low card count, small boxed games at very reasonable prices which were originally Kickstarted but are now available anywhere hobby games are sold. Each of these is a totally stand alone game with it’s own mechanics and theme, this one being a card drafting game inspired by Greek myths.
A single two player game of Sirens takes ten to twenty minutes and is even quicker when playing solo. Interestingly, this get shorter once you get the rules down but then it can also get longer when you have two experienced players who really know the cards well.
It was Deanna who first noticed Sirens, in prototype form, at Origins 2023. She was drawn in by the Greek mythology theme, the fact that you actually compose a song (which you can then play), and the art style which is reminiscent of the artwork found on Grecian urns.
Sirens is a card drafting game where you build a song that gets scored based on four different criteria: Heart, Parts, Flow, and Charm. A song is built in two parts, each part represented by three card plays. To keep things interesting and add replayability there are special rules introduced each time you play.
Component quality in Sirens is good. The game comes in a rather solid small box that will handle being tossed into a glovebox or purse. The card design is excellent, with clear iconography and flavourful artwork. The rulebook is a bit tiny, and split into two halves; one for solo play and one for playing with two. You also get a couple of wooden cubes and a card for tracking score. The card quality is decent.
Note: To be able to actually play the songs, a companion app is required. It’s 100% free and available on both Android and Apple. Also worth noting is the fact that Sirens is also available in a print and play edition for much cheaper than the cost of the physical game (though, I will say, the overall component quality in this game is great and I personally think it’s worth paying extra for the physical version).
There is also a deluxe version of Sirens available, originally through Kickstarter, and sold at some game conventions. This includes a few aesthetic upgrades including foil reference cards and silk screened wooden scoring tokens. I’ve never seen this for sale online though, so you may need to keep a look out at a con if you are interested in this upgraded version..
We originally talked about Sirens on The Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast Episode 253, Size Matters: Great Microgames. I encourage you to give that a listen to hear Sean and Deanna’s thoughts on the game. That episode we also review another small box game from Envy Born, Confusing Lands which you may also be interested in.
Creating Music in Sirens the Card Game
A two-player game of Sirens starts with separating the cards. There’s a Key Card for each player that they place in front of them. This acts as the start of their song tableau and also includes a handy turn reference There is also a scoring card included that you won’t need until the end of the first round. The Universal Rule Card gets placed on the table between both players, leaving you with the main card deck of eighteen cards.
One card from this deck is drawn, and compared to the Universal Rule Card to find a set of restrictions, opportunities, or special scoring rules to use for this round. This card also starts the discard pile. Next, each player gets a hand of four cards.
Each player selects one card from their hand to be played into their song and places it on the table. Then players swap hands. This is repeated until until each player has selected three cards. The final card left over for each player is discarded.
Next players take their three drafted cards and use them to create the Root of their song. Their cards can be placed in any order, they do not have to be placed in the order drafted.
Once both players are happy with their arrangements, they each get a new hand of four cards from the deck, and repeat the drafting process, the same as above, building the Progression of their song. These new cards must be added to the Root of their existing song. Cards can be added to the left, or right, or split up, but players aren’t allowed to move any of the cards already on the table, you can’t split up your Root.
The final song should be arranged left to right, starting with each players Key Card and flowing into six song cards. When both players have done this you move on to scoring which happens in four segments.
First players figure out who’s song has more Heart. They each count up the heart symbols on their cards. The player with the most hearts scores points equal to the difference between the two players’ heart totals.
Next you score the Parts of the Song. Players break their songs into sets of matching coloured cards with each set counting as a different part and then score points for each part based on its size. The larger the set the more the points. In order to score at all, Songs must have at least three different parts.
After scoring Part sets, players score the Flow of their songs. Each colour of card “flows” into a different colour of card and players are rewarded for each set that flows into the next by having one colour follow the other going left to right. Red flows into yellow, which flows into green, which flows into blue, which flows into red.
You don’t have to follow the flow pattern when playing cards, but you will end up missing out on scoring flow points if you don’t.
Next you score the Charm of your song. Many of the cards in Sirens have one or two halves of a shell like charm symbol on the bottom of them. Each player will get points for matching up cards to create full shells of the same number.
Included in the deck are two wild cards. These cards Flow with all four card colours, and you pick which colour they are during scoring. In addition, if you can manages to fit both of these wild cards into the same part of your song you’ll get three bonus points.
The player with the most points wins the round and collects the first card in the discard pile (the one that was used to set the Universal Rule. This card represents a captured sailor from the ship that you’ve just lured onto the rocks with your song. The card gets placed face down next to your Key Card.
Players continue to play one or two more rounds with the overall winner being the first player to capture two sailors.
Each round of Sirens is independent of each other. Points do not carry over, though one card is eliminated from play each game.
Sirens can also be played as a single player experience. When playing solo you are single siren competing with Orpheus to create the best song. It’s not about luring sailors, just about outperforming the harpist.
The legendary musician starts with one card in play. Each round you draw two cards from the deck and must pick one to add to your song and one to add to Orpheus’ song. In both cases you decide which side of each growing song to place new cards.
There’s no Root or Progression when playing Solo, you just add one card at a time to either end of your existing tableaus. Scoring in a solitaire game of Sirens is the same as when playing two players except that all of Orpheus’ hearts are doubled.
You win the solitaire version of Sirens by defeating Orpheus’ twice. To keep thing interesting and up the challenge level, Orpheus becomes more difficult after you’ve beat him once. In the second and third round against Orpheus, all of his single card sets are worth as much as a two card sets (in addition to his hearts being doubled).
If somehow you get really good at playing Sirens solo you can also try starting with Orpheus leveled up. Good luck with that!
Sirens has become one of our favourite date night games
Deanna has been smitten with Sirens ever since first seeing it at Origins 2023, so when we returned to the con later we practically begged Envy Born for a review copy. We worked with them before to help promote one of their earlier games Mine Your Business (check out our Mine Your Business review for our thoughts), and they were happy to oblige.
What I don’t think most people realize about this game, and that you may have missed in my summary above, is just how few cards there are in the main deck for Sirens, and how that is a big part of what makes this game so good.
There are only eighteen song cards in total in Sirens. One of these is removed from the deck at the start of each round to set the Universal Rule and to be claimed by the winner of the round. Two of the cards are wildcards that can be considered any colour for scoring and give you a bonus if you personally play both together. That doesn’t leave very many other cards, and players will quickly get to know the entire deck.
The better you get to know the cards the better you will be able to play and the more challenging the game gets with an experienced opponent. We found that the game just kept getting better with each subsequent play. A game with experienced players has a slightly chess like feel, with bluffing, predicting what your opponent will play, and hate drafting.
Adding to this card knowledge is the fact that this is a drafting game. After you select your first card you are then handed the rest of the cards for that game segment. You will know all the cards in play at that point.
All of this open information turns Sirens into much more than the light simple card drafting game it first appears to be.
This big problem with this, is that, like chess, experience in Sirens gives a player with game experience a huge advantage. Enough of an advantage that it can be unfun to play a more experienced player.
One way to build up experience is by playing solitaire and the Sirens solo mode is wickedly hard.
The way it’s designed it’s a bit deceptive and lures you in. That first round against Orpheus is rather easy, almost too easy, but then round two is very difficult. In all of the times both Deanna and I have played solo we’ve only beaten him a total of five times, and never when starting on the harder difficulty.
I do enjoy playing Sirens solo. I like that everything is up to you. You get two cards and then have to decide what to do with them. It has a very strong puzzle feel where you are trying to figure out how to make a decent song for yourself while simultaneously trying to make Orpheus’ song as awful as possible, and that’s not easy at all.
One complaint I’ve been hearing about Sirens is the somewhat opaque scoring system. There’s more to the math in this game than just adding things up.
When scoring song Parts you actually score the square of the number of cards in your set, for example, and even the hearts isn’t just your total, it’s the difference between both players totals. At one of our public play events one couple noted that they spent more time trying to score the game than playing it. All I can say is that you will quickly memorize the points for the most common set lengths and really in the end, it’s not that bad.
Overall, Sirens is a solid, quick, thinkier than you expect game we think is great for date night, for playing while chilling at a coffee shop, or any time you need to kill some time and you have a table available. While I can’t see ever planning a Sirens only game night we do like to keep this game on hand (either in Deanna’s purse or our van’s glove box), and end up playing it pretty regularly.
It has also proven to be rather popular at our public play game nights, usually grabbed by couples looking for something they can play together, who then tend to play multiple times in a row.
Sirens is a great choice for a small portable game with a lot of replayability. It’s also a great choice for a solo game that’s rather challenging. It’s a game that may appeal to music fans. There are not a lot of games with musical themes, and Sirens stands out by having a free app that will actually plays your finished songs’ tune for you.
FAQs
How hard is Sirens to learn?
The most difficult thing to learn in Sirens is the scoring system and the hardest part of that is squaring your sets of cards during Part scoring. Thankfully the rulebook lists what each size is worth when describing scoring.
As for learning the cards, there are only 18 song cards total, and you will quickly start to remember what each of them are so you can better draft what you need in later games.
If I like the sound of Sirens what else should I check out from Envy Born Games?
We often talk about Sirens and Confusing Lands together as we got both games at the same time, we reviewed them on the same podcast episode, and they are both eighteen card drafting games.
While the drafting system is similar what you are doing with your cards is totally different. In Confusing Lands you are making a landscape of overlapping cards.
We strongly recommend both games, though so far Sirens seems to be the more popular of the two with the people we’ve played it with.
Is there any additional content for Sirens?
The designer of Sirens does have an expansion in the works. It’s called The Muse Trials (we have been involved in playtesting it, and it’s awesome). What we don’t know is if or when it will ever actually be published. We are hoping it does come out though as it adds even more depth to the game with things like bonus powers and goals.
Deanna and I love discovering new games for us to play on date nights, or for when we are just out for a coffee or two. Sirens has ended up being perfect for this. For some other great date night game suggestions check out out 24 More of the Best Two-Player Board Games for Date Night article.
If you want to learn more about other great Microgames I recommend checking out Size Matters: Great Microgames, Episode 253 of The Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast.
And if you have any great micro or date night games you think we should check out, why not leave a comment below, or post something on The Tabletop Bellhop Discord.
- Sirens is played over 2 rounds of card drafting where players keep and play cards in a row infront of them to form the highest scoring melody possible. Simple universal rules that change between game rounds, adding to the replability of the game adding new and fun strategic desicions for players.
- IMMERSIVE THEMES: Immerse yourself in a Greek Mythololgy gaming experiences with Sirens, featuring unique musical game mechanisms along with breathtaking art.
- GAME INFO: 15 to 20 Minute Playtime, Ages 12+. The Tiny Game Series accommodates diverse preferences, making it suitable for both casual gamers and seasoned board game enthusiasts.
- CREATIVE MECHANISM: Elevate your gaming experience with Sirens’ innovative song-building mechanism.
