Animal upon Animal

Animal upon Animal

Animal upon Animal is another HABA game (see told you I loved them we own at least 8, and all will be in this blog).  This one is a great game all by itself but also if you aren't too worried about loosing the pieces you can just play games with the beautiful wooden animals. There are a few types of this game (one where the base actually turns!) but this original one is my personal favorite as the animals have lovely details that I think make them really special to play with.

The very basics of this game is stacking but with the added element of a die roll that decides what you are allowed to put on the main crocodile when. Generally I don't love random games but I like the die in this game because it teaches another element of gaming - namely that an adult or child can't always do exactly what you want to do whenever you want to do it, they need to follow the rules of the game/what the dice are telling you to be able to win. This is hard for some people, adult or child, so I think learning and guiding children through this game is important.

Also some of the pieces are quite small.  HABA says this game can be played 2-4 people from the age of 4, however I have been playing this with my son since he was two at least. Again with such small pieces please make sure children are always monitored!  We often use this game as just a fun stacking practice to work on fine motor skills too, so really you get a lot out of just one game.


Game Play

Game play is simple.  Every person playing gets one of each type of animal in a pile in front of them.  The crocodile is placed in the centre where everyone can reach.  First person rolls the red die and does one of 4 things depending on what shows up.

The object of the game is to be the first player who gets rid of all your animals.  You do not have to win by getting all your animals onto the crocodiles back as if any fall off you don't get massively punished. (See below about what happens if any fall off during a turn).

 1) if pips (little dots) show up on the die you place that number of your animals on top of the crocodile, the die only has 1 and 2 pips available so the maximum you will put on in one turn is 2 animals.

2) if a picture of a crocodile shows up you place the animal next to the crocodile - on either end not the sides, if there are already animals there place it next to those animals.  See the picture to the right with the sheep, monkey and hedgehog at the head of the crocodile.

3) if a picture of a hand show up, you give one of your animals to another player and they must place it onto the crocodile, if anything falls while they do this they get punished not the player who originally rolled the die. Simple see!

4) last available die option is a question mark in a little talking bubble.  This means that every other player collectively agrees which animal you need to place. With a two player game its just the other person deciding. With a 4 player game usually someone suggests something and most others agree or they suggest something else - it really isn't rocket science!


What happens if anything falls off:
On your turn if you are placing an animal and there is a topple you do get punished slightly. However this is a kids game so it isn't life altering.  You must take two animals from the ones that have fallen (any two you want) and put all the rest in the box. If two or less have fallen then you take those and you don't get a choice.  So really you can win by just knocking stuff off all the time and getting it back into the box, although this is rarer my son has won this way when he was littler.


Review

Big surprise I love this game. It is fun for adults and children and really should be everyone's after dinner game because it is just light and lovely.  The wooden pieces are amazing quality with cute decoration and the simplicity of it always makes me happy.  There are a lot of tense moments for everyone when the towers just look too tall, but then someone places an animal and all is okay for another person's turn. 

It isn't a massive game and I have been known to take this in a little bag out and about with us and play it on cafe tables. You must be careful not to loose pieces but usually a sheep lying on a cafe floor is easy enough to find.

You can usually find this at your Friendly Local Games Store - I know my local tries to have it in stock whenever possible.  It sells for around £19-20.  If you buy nothing else that I have recommended you seriously should get this. Like I said adults and children alike enjoy this game.