Orchard

Orchard (memory game)


Orchard memory game is by HABA and this company has a fair few games on my list - so really you can't go wrong with them.  They also have a few with the same theme though specifically this one is a memory game.  I have a few friends that have the variations of this game (larger and smaller versions with large wooden pieces or smaller tokens) and everyone loves this game in any form or setting really.

The game is simple and light and teaches children from a very young age about cooperative games.  In this game you are all working together to pick all the fruit in the orchard before the crow can get in and take it from you.  It is gentle in it's evil character of the crow as you fairly often win against it.  When my son was two I think we lost a few times as he just couldn't remember where any of the tiles were, whereas now he is four we nearly always win together.  It plays 2-4 players and the box states it can be played from the age of 3.  However like I said we played it from two but the pieces are very small so please don't let a three year old play it alone or without supervision. 


Game Play

Game play is extremely simple. You use the green tiles to create a small grid of fruit all face down. Then every turn you roll the dice.  If the dice is a colour you have to find the corresponding fruit but you are only allowed to turn over one tile each turn.  If you do find it then you take that fruit into your basket.  If you cannot find it then you turn back over whatever tile you exposed remembering it for next time in case you roll that next time.  If you roll a basket on the dice you must first state which fruit you want to find (for example - apple) then only find that fruit.  If you can't then same as before you just put it back.  If the crow is rolled on the dice then you move the crow one space on it's mini board and take no other action on your turn.

Winning is collecting all the fruit into your collective baskets before the crow gets to the picture of the gate on it's board.  See simple :-)


Review

I have basically already said this and will continue to say it - I love HABA games. There is nothing bad about them.  There is always a real game inside and hardly ever do I find something as trivial as a roll and move type game where my brain just dies of being board.  This specific game is usually priced around £8.

If you want to buy this one check our your Friendly Local Games Store (FLGS) and ask if they sell HABA games, a few are sold easily in the UK through a games distributor, but mostly they are imported direct from Germany.  I know for a fact that this FLGS store sells lots of HABA stuff but whether or not they have Orchard in stock is really depending on the time of year.  Though you could always ask if they can add it to their next order.