Christmas - games

We had, or have played, several new games this Christmas, so I thought I'd do a post just about those to start with.  In no particular order between us, we have:

Draw Out Junior, which is a Pictionary type game, which M in particular liked rather a lot.  We also played Pictionary with friends when we visited them.  Draw Out has the advantage that you can play it with as few as three people, as it's not a team game, but the drawer and the one who gets the answer move on on the board, but for larger numbers of people I think Pictionary is better personally.

Rummikub, which we all really enjoyed.  It's a tile game where you have to make sets and runs of coloured, numbered tiles.  It can get very involved when you get into the game, as you can split up already played sets & runs and rearrange them to add in new tiles.  It's better with more than two players, but still good.  In fact A & I had a game on New Year's Eve after the girls had gone to bed. If I were going to recommend one of the games that we've been given this Christmas, I think I'd go for this one.

Carcassonne - 1st extension:  We have had the original Carcassonne for a while now and really like it, so I wasn't really sure about an extension set (there are several).  It really does add something though, with the new elements it introduces.

Carcassonne.

Flags of the World.  M in particular likes this one.  So far we've only had a go with the European ones, but with nearly 50 of those, that's plenty!

You try to identify one of the flags in front of your opponent, if you get it right you win the card along with a bonus card if you can also give the capital city.  If you're wrong you are told the correct answer and have a second chance to win the card by naming the capital.

K & M are surprisingly good at identifying some of the flags, as they like a flag naming app game on A's tablet, for example they get Macedonia and Bosnia & Herzogovina right every time!  We did have a game when M was allowed to go and have a look at our world map in the hall if she got it wrong to try to find the capital, but she decided that it was cheating, so we didn't continue with that.

Chronology:  While we don't usually take any notice of what it says on the box, this is aimed at 12+ and in this case I think that's probably about right. 

The idea is get 10 cards in a time line, by correctly deciding where they fit in with the cards you've already got.  Some of the events on the cards are very obscure, e.g. 7up was launched on to the market in this year, while others are more significant, such as On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin was published in this year.  It was interesting, but definitely one for when the girls are a bit older.

Qwirkle, isn't a game that we received this year but we did play it with friends and it's one that I would definitely consider getting.  It's another tile game, but with different coloured shapes on the tiles that you have to put out in lines that are either all the same colour but with different shapes, or all the same shape but different colours, in order to score points.

Finally, and most bizarrely, The Big Fat Tomato Game. 

It is completely bonkers, but really good fun.  The aim is to harvest and stockpile the most tomatoes, while defending your hoard from Pesky Weeds, Hungry Hornworms and Dang Varmints cards, which are sent your way by your opponents, using cards such as the Hoe, the Farmer or the Pepper Spray.  There are also other cards you can use to try to steal your opponents tomatoes or make them lose them, such as the Look There's a Flying Hippo card or the Attack of the Zombie Tomato.