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Geek Dad
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Dad
Davy Jones and Tamatoa Join ‘Disney Villainous' in ‘Treacherous Tides'
Everyone loves heroes. However, heroes would be pretty dull, or not even heroes at all, if it were not for the villains. Some of the greatest villains of all time are the Disney Villains. Seven years ago a new game was released that let players take on the roles of these villains. In Disney Villainous , players could play as one of four fiendish and diabolical villains as they competed to be the most…villainous. Since that time, expansions have been released to add an additional 18 villains to the mix. Now two more villains make their villainous debut, Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean and Tamatoa from Moana , in Disney Villainous: Treacherous Tides . What Is Disney Villainous: Treacherous Tides ? Disney Villainous: Treacherous Tides is a stand alone expansion for the card-based Disney Villainous strategy game. It is designed for 2 players, ages 10 and up, and takes about 40 minutes to play. With other Disney Villainous games, up to six players can take part in a game. In the game, players take on the role of one of two Disney villains and work to achieve their unique objectives before the other villains. The game includes a hand management mechanic with some 'take that' elements as well. It's currently available for purchase from Target, with a suggested retail price of $19.99 for a copy of the game. Disney Villainous: Treacherous Tides was designed by Mike Mulvihill and published by Ravensburger, with illustrations by Johnny Morrow and Yuri Cameirana. Disney Villainous: Treacherous Tides Components Here is what you get inside the box: 2 Villain movers 2 Villain decks (30 cards each) 2 Fate decks (15 cards each) 2 Realm boards 2 Villain guides 2 Reference cards 1 Maui Deck (10 cards) 5 Treasure Tokens 15 Strength tokens 25 Power tokens Each villain has their personal stylized mover. Photo by Michael Knight. The villains are represented by their own sculpted movers which are used to show the location where a villain is on their realm. Disney Villainous: Treacherous Tides includes two unique movers. The two villain lairs. Photo by Michael Knight. Each villain has their own realm made up of locations from their story. Each realm has four locations, each with four symbols for actions which can be taken by the villain when at that location. The realm boards also list the objective for the villain to help remind you what you must do to win the game. A sampling of some of the villain cards. Photo by Michael Knight. The villain cards are what you use to take control of your realm and work towards your objective. There are four basic types of villain cards in Disney Villainous: Treacherous Tides . Allies are characters who help you and can attack heroes that other villains may play on your realm. The number in the bottom left corner is their strength. Items are also placed in your realm and provide lasting effects. Effect and Condition cards are played immediately and then discarded. The number in the upper left corner of a villain card is the cost you must pay in power in order to use that card. Both Davy Jones and Tamatoa have some interesting and powerful cards. There are some powerful fate cards to play against your opponents to make it harder for them to achieve their objectives. Photo by Michael Knight. Fate cards are unique to each villain and are played against you by other villains. Effect and item cards function similarly to those types of villain cards. Hero cards are similar to ally cards in that they represent characters. However, unlike allies, heroes are trying to prevent you from achieving your objective. They also have a strength number in the lower left corner. Some of the Maui cards Tamatoa uses when Maui is in play. Photo by Michael Knight. Maui Cards are used by Tamatoa. While the Maui hero card is in play, Tamatoa draws a Maui card before moving to a new location. The effects of the Maui card are immediate and may change what happens during the turn. Some have a negative effect while others can be neutral or even positive for Tamatoa. Villain guides help acquaint you with the villain you will be playing. Photo by Michael Knight. There is a villain guide included for each villain that explain in greater detail how that villain can win the game. It also offers tips to help you win and descriptions of how some of the cards in the villain deck work or interact with other cards. It is a good idea to read through the villain guide before you start playing. There is also a QR code on the back with a link to a quick video on how to play that specific villain. Each player gets a reference card. Photo by Michael Knight. The reference cards are useful reminders to use during play. One side lists all the action symbols from the realm boards and explains each action. The opposite side lists the objectives for each of the four villains to remind you what your opponents must do to win. The various tokens used in the game. Photo by Michael Knight. Power tokens are used to represent power, which is the currency in the game. There are also treasure tokens used by Davy Jones, and strength tokens which can be placed on allies or heroes to represent a modification to the strength listed on their cards due to effects during the game. How to Play Disney Villainous: Treacherous Tides Ravensburger has created a video to quickly describe the rules for the Disney Villainous series. It can be found here. The Goal The goal of the game is to be the first to fulfill your villain's objectives. Setup At the start, each player chooses a villain and takes that villain's realm board, mover, villain deck, fate deck, villain guide, and a reference card. Open up the villain board and position it in front of you. Place the mover on the portrait of your villain on the left side. Shuffle our villain deck and place it face down to the left of your realm board. Draw four cards from your villain deck to form your starting hand and place them face down in front of you. Now shuffle the cards in your fate deck and place it face down above your villain deck. Place all of the power tokens in a pile in the in the center of the table so all players can reach it and the strength tokens in a separate pile. Choose which player will go first and give the player going second one power token. Finally, each player reads aloud their villain's objective to the other players. You are now ready to play the game. A two-player game between Davy Jones and Tamatoa setup and ready to play. Photo by Michael Knight. Gameplay Disney Villainous: Treacherous Tides is played in turns. During each player's turn, they go through three main steps. First they move their villain move to a different location in their realm. They cannot stay in the same location. Next they perform as many actions as they wish that are available at that location. Finally, if the player has fewer than four cards in their hand, they draw cards from their villain deck until they have four in their hand. Each location on the villain's realms has four action symbols. There are seven different types of actions. The Gain Power action lets the player take a number of power tokens from the cauldron equal to the number in the symbol. The Play a Card action allows a player to play one card from their hand. They can play one card for each symbol of this type they have in their current location. First a player must pay the power cost in the upper left corner of the card by returning that many power tokens to the cauldron. Ally and item cards are played to the bottom of the realm at any of the four locations. Effects and condition cards are played and then discarded immediately. The Fate action lets you choose another villain to target. Draw two cards from their fate deck. Choose one to play and then discard the other. If you play a hero card, place it on the top of one of the locations so that it covers and blocks the top two action symbols. While blocked, the villain cannot take an action at that location. Move an Item or Ally lets you take an item or ally already in your realm and move it to another location. Move a Hero lets you move a hero from one location to another in your realm. The Vanquish action lets you defeat a hero at a location where you have one more more allies. The ally must strength equal or greater than the hero in order to remove them from your realm. You can also must multiple allies at the same location as the hero and combine their strength to defeat the hero. Any allies whose strength was used to defeat a hero are discarded. Finally, the Discard cards action lets you discard any number of cards from your hand. This is a good way to get rid of cards you don't need so you can draw new ones at the end of your turn. Game End The game ends as soon as one villain achieves their objective. That player is the winner. Tamatoa has already defeated Maui and moved his Hook to the Lair. Now this turn, Tamatoa can use both the Tree Monster and Fish Monster to vanquih Moana. Then next turn move the Heart of Te Fiti to the Lair to win. Photo by Michael Knight. Why You Should Play Disney Villainous: Treacherous Tides The Disney Villainous series is one of my favorite games. I also enjoy Star Wars Villainous and Marvel Villainous , separate Villainous lines which are not compatible with each other or Disney Villainous . First off, the Disney Villainous games look incredible and have a classy table presence. The art on each card is original, but based on the movies from which the respective villains came. For example, the art on Davy Jones' cards are illustrations and not photo images from the movies. I like how each villain has different objectives and as a result plays a bit differently. The villains in Disney Villainous: Treacherous Tides are no exception. I order to win, Tamatoa needs to have both Maui's hook and the Heart of Te Fiti at its lair. Maui's hook is a villain card which Tamatoa can play. However, once an opponent plays the Maui fate card, Maui takes the hook and must then be defeated for Tamatoa to get the hook back. The Heart of Te Fiti is a fate item card. Tamatoa has cards which allow him to look for items in the fate deck. Otherwise, Tamatoa must wait for opponents to play the Heart of Te Fiti. Tamatoa also has several villain cards that give him power. This helps when you want to play the You Look Like Seafood card since it can defeat a hero by playing power equal to the hero's strength. Tamatoa's fate cards only have three heroes: Moana, Maui, and Hei Hei, the chicken. However, opponents can use fate cards to take away power from Tamatoa as well as move items and heroes around to get them away from allies which might defeat them. Davy Jones can be a bit tougher to play as. He needs to collect all five treasure tokens. However, in order to do this, you must first place a treasure token on a hero in play, then use a card such as The Black Spot to reveal the treasure. Then by defeating that hero, you collect the treasure. Doing this five times can be tough because several of Davy Jones' fate cards can take away a treasure from a hero and give it to another while un-revealing it. Also each treasure when revealed has some negative affect on Davy Jones. The Kraken is a powerful ally and you want to get it as soon as you can for vanquishing heroes. You can purchase it for 5 power if it comes into your hand, or you can play Summon the Kraken and discard an ally to search for the card and place it in Davy Jones' location. Not only does the Kraken have 8 strength, it also is not discarded when it defeats a hero so you can keep using it. Davy Jones can win this turn. He plays The Chase to move Jack Sparrow to Davy Jones' Quarters. Then uses the Vanquish action to defeat Jack with the Kraken and collect the fifth and final treasure. Photo by Michael Knight. When playing, it is easy to focus on completing your objectives. However, it is important to also play fate cards as often as possible against your opponents. That is where the interaction between the players really takes place. Nothing can be more satisfying, or frustrating, is when a fate card wrecks a carefully laid plan–especially when getting close to winning. Playing fate cards requires some strategy of its own as you try to determine which of the two cards you draw will have a greater effect on your opponent. While Disney Villainous: Treacherous Tides comes with only two villains, they are compatible with all of the other Disney Villainous games and expansions. These two bring the total number of villains in the series up to 24! By adding more villains, you can also bring the number of players up to six for a single game. I have found that while a two-player duel is fun, adding one or more players can make things more interesting. Sometimes in a two-player game, when a player gets close to winning, it can be tough for one opponent to stop them. However, with multiple opponents, there is a great chance to prevent them from completing their objectives. I really enjoyed playing as both Davy Jones and Tamatoa. They are great additions to the line-up of villains. Each plays differently and has great interactions among their cards. If you have never played Disney Villainous , then Treacherous Tides is a great place to start. It is considered an expand-alone game since you can play it with two players by itself or use it to expand the series. If you already have some of the series of games, then I highly recommend adding Disney Villainous: Treacherous Tides to your collection. Click here to see all our tabletop game reviews. To subscribe to GeekDad's tabletop gaming coverage, please copy this link and add it to your RSS reader. Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Women's Euros viewership nearly doubles from 2022, Fox Sports says
Television viewership of Euros group-stage matches has nearly doubled from the 2022 iteration of the tournament, Fox announced Tuesday, with an average of 306,000 people tuning in to those 24 matches this summer, compared to an average of 161,000 three years ago. The most-watched game so far has been France's scintillating 2-1 victory over reigning champion England on July 5. That game brought in 690,000 viewers, a 329 percent increase from the previous group stage. Advertisement More recently, 2023 World Cup champion Spain's 3-1 win over Italy on July 11 averaged 568,000 viewers, while an average of 486,000 tuned in for Sweden's 4-1 victory over Germany on July 12. Both matches featured the winning teams coming back from a goal down to claim three points. A Fox spokesperson also told that England's 6-1 win over Wales garnered around 151,000 viewers to FS1, while the Lionesses' 4-0 rout of the Netherlands brought 120,000 to the same channel. 'UEFA Women's EURO 2025 has surpassed all our expectations in setting a new viewership record for the group stage. Fox Sports is proud to see our commitment to both international soccer and women's sports validated by +90% growth,' Fox Sports president of insight and analytics Mike Mulvihill said in a statement. 'With the knockout rounds starting Wednesday and matches the rest of the way airing on Fox, we're confident the tournament will continue resonating with fans,' Mulvihill added. Advertisement This is Fox Sports' first time broadcasting the women's European championships. In addition to airing the matches themselves — not only on cable but on its main broadcast channel — the network has featured prominent pre-match coverage featuring a slate of retired international women's football stars. World Cup champions Carli Lloyd (who is also a National Soccer Hall of Famer) and Julie Ertz of the U.S. women's national team, and four-time European champion Ariane Hingst of Germany composed the analyst team alongside Alexi Lalas and Stu Holden at the start of the tournament. Norway and Italy will open the Euros' quarterfinal stage when they face off on Wednesday in Geneva. Thursday's quarterfinal features Sweden against England, followed by Spain vs. tournament host Switzerland on Friday and France vs. Germany on Saturday. All matches kick off at 3 p.m. ET. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Women's Soccer, Women's Euros 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
15-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Women's Euros viewership nearly doubles from 2022, Fox Sports says
Television viewership of Euros group-stage matches has nearly doubled from the 2022 iteration of the tournament, Fox announced Tuesday, with an average of 306,000 people tuning in to those 24 matches this summer, compared to an average of 161,000 three years ago. The most-watched game so far has been France's scintillating 2-1 victory over reigning champion England on July 5. That game brought in 690,000 viewers, a 329 percent increase from the previous group stage. Advertisement More recently, 2023 World Cup champion Spain's 3-1 win over Italy on July 11 averaged 568,000 viewers, while an average of 486,000 tuned in for Sweden's 4-1 victory over Germany on July 12. Both matches featured the winning teams coming back from a goal down to claim three points. A Fox spokesperson also told The Athletic that England's 6-1 win over Wales garnered around 151,000 viewers to FS1, while the Lionesses' 4-0 rout of the Netherlands brought 120,000 to the same channel. 'UEFA Women's EURO 2025 has surpassed all our expectations in setting a new viewership record for the group stage. Fox Sports is proud to see our commitment to both international soccer and women's sports validated by +90% growth,' Fox Sports president of insight and analytics Mike Mulvihill said in a statement. 'With the knockout rounds starting Wednesday and matches the rest of the way airing on Fox, we're confident the tournament will continue resonating with fans,' Mulvihill added. This is Fox Sports' first time broadcasting the women's European championships. In addition to airing the matches themselves — not only on cable but on its main broadcast channel — the network has featured prominent pre-match coverage featuring a slate of retired international women's football stars. World Cup champions Carli Lloyd (who is also a National Soccer Hall of Famer) and Julie Ertz of the U.S. women's national team, and four-time European champion Ariane Hingst of Germany composed the analyst team alongside Alexi Lalas and Stu Holden at the start of the tournament. Norway and Italy will open the Euros' quarterfinal stage when they face off on Wednesday in Geneva. Thursday's quarterfinal features Sweden against England, followed by Spain vs. tournament host Switzerland on Friday and France vs. Germany on Saturday. All matches kick off at 3 p.m. ET.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Cowboys Disrespected by FOX TV Schedule Decision For 1 Reason
FRISCO — The NFL has released its schedule for the 2025 season and once again the Dallas Cowboys are a key feature spread across some primetime spots and major game days. Much to the chagrin of their haters, they claim these spots coming off a 7-10 campaign in 2024. The Cowboys have six primetime appearances and a total of eight standalone games counting their matchups on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Dallas will also set a record this season with four Thursday games on the schedule. Advertisement Regardless of these tokens of the schedule, Cowboys fans have grown accustomed to seeing their team in the spotlight and not fitting into the traditional mold. However, there was a concerted effort to make a separate change to the team's schedule. The Cowboys will have less representation in FOX's "America's Game of the Week." Mike Mulvihill, the President of insights and analytics at FOX Sports, revealed to The Athletic that this was done in order to give other teams more of the spotlight around the league both within the NFC and AFC. "Of our 4:25 p.m. games, only three of them are Cowboys games,' Mulvihill said. "In other years, we've gone looking for five or six Dallas games at 4:25. What we wanted for this year was more AFC, more Philly, but also more Detroit and a little more Washington to try to capitalize on the Jayden Daniels story. I think we have a better mix of teams than we've had in the past." Advertisement Last season, the Cowboys took that 3:25 p.m. slot on FOX three times in the first six weeks. FOX's No. 1 broadcast crew with Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady actually called Cowboys games the first three weeks of the season, getting their fourth in Week 6 in Dallas' blowout loss to the Detroit Lions. It's a noticeable change but a positive one in the grand scheme for the league. The Cowboys are always a draw, but there are other proven contenders and stories to monitor throughout the NFC that should take some precedent this season. More than anything though, Cowboys fans want to see their team winning these marquee matchups and rebuilding their contending status. Related: Cowboys George Pickens Jerseys On Sale Despite Missing Key Detail Related: 'Schotty's' First Month A Chance For Cowboys To Stake NFC Claim
NBC Sports
15-05-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Fox pleased with 2025 schedule after asking NFL for better AFC-NFC balance
The NFL's two Sunday afternoon TV packages have long been divided up with Fox primarily getting NFC games and CBS primarily getting AFC games, but in recent years the league has had more flexibility to move games across networks. And Fox hasn't always been happy with that. Fox executive Mike Mulvihill told Richard Deitsch of that in past years his network has felt it was losing more good NFC games than it was getting back in good AFC games, but that Fox is pleased with how the NFL divvied up the schedule this season. 'We talked a lot with the league about the idea that 'cross-flex,' which is the policy by which NFC games can go to CBS and AFC games can go to Fox, needed to be a little bit more balanced,' Mulvihill said. 'That cross-flex mechanism was created to help balance the (media) packages, and in the years since then, the AFC has become significantly better than it was when that protocol was agreed upon. They (other outlets) were getting better NFC games than we were getting back from the AFC side. It just became a little bit imbalanced.' This year, Week 14 Bengals-Bills is a big AFC game with star quarterbacks Josh Allen and Joe Burrow, and likely playoff implications, that the NFL gave to Fox. That's a game that wouldn't have gone to Fox under the stricter NFC/AFC split, and it's the kind of game that makes Fox very pleased with the NFL's schedule makers.
