Socken Zocken (Haba)

Socken Zocken

Socken Zocken is yet another game by HABA that is cute and enjoyable, however it isn't one of my favourites.  I seems to have limited replay-ability for a speed matching game (considering we have been playing Dobble for like 3 years now this one will not last us this long). It is playable to larger numbers (up to 6 players) and good for young children but it is a racing game so everyone playing with the children will need to slow their own racing abilities down, which I always dislike having to do, which is why this game is not in my top 5.

Socken Zocken plays in about 10-15 minutes for 2-6 players age 4 and up, but I think a 3 year old can definitely play with a bit of help. To me this seems more like a game I would want my 5 year old to play with other kids his age but he isn't' that keen on this one so its unlikely to ever happen.


Game Play

Very simple, all the socks are in the box. All together all players put their hands in the box and try to make pairs of socks. If they get 5 pairs of socks first they grab the little sock monster and shout they finished. They then get a little orange clothes pin for getting the pairs, all the socks go back in the box and time for another round of sock matching.  Three clothes pins wins the game.  See super simple.


Review

I do think this game is better off with all the socks out of the box on a table or maybe in a larger box as I can just see the cardboard game box getting torn with six pairs of little hands digging around in there. However taking all the socks out and spreading them on a table does make it easier so you should know that before doing it.  As always with all HABA stuff the quality is lovely, cardboard sock pieces and the monster and pins are painted wood.

I also really like that the socks are quite difficult to match making this game much more fun for adults too. However this difficulty added with the speed pressure is one of the reasons my son doesn't like this game.  He likes matching and he likes speed but not like this for some reason. Possibly not with the added pressure of everyone's hand in the box at the same time.

Ways I would fix this game for us is we put all the socks on a tray on the table and race to still get 5 pairs, but really it would be better to have a larger box. Although I wouldn't want a larger price tag so price-wise this game is okay. Like I said not our favourite and not as bad as some (Monopoly!) so still definitely enjoyable. We will keep it around for a while if only just to have something to play when younger siblings come over.

Farmini (Loki)

Farmini

Farmini by Loki games is a little kids tile placement game. It is useful because it teaches mechanics that will be in more advanced games my child will play like drafting, tile placement, risk/reward and resource decision making. However it is also very simple and can easily be played by the 5+ age range it states. In fact I would argue it could be played from 4 and up as well. Farmini plays in about 20 minutes with two players and can be played with up to four players. Basically its a nice game we enjoy once and a while.

There is even a cute little farm inside the box that you put all the animal tokens into until the animals are needed in the game. However I do wish the theme was just a bit more interesting, or better art work as while its lovely and cute I can't get excited about farming. Where as there are games with similar tile placement (Carcassonne for example) where farming is much more interesting, although that is not a kids game and costs significantly more.


Game Play

Farmini requires a little set up which my 5 year old struggled to wait for, so that was annoying. Set up is finding the starting "farm house" tile for each player and putting the four starting tiles in a row next to the shuffled deck of the rest of the tiles.

After this game play is simple, choose one card from the four available and add it to your farm. If you choose a animal you take the token from the game box and add that to your farm.  Add another card to the card drafting area so that four are available for the next player, simple right?!

Elements of the game include: building your farm, getting animals, enclosing corn and dealing with wolves.  To build you farm you just follow simple rules of grass must touch grass and fences touching fences.  To get animals you must have brown "animal" spots available to put the animals in, then if the animals stay to the end of the game (see wolves) you get 1 point per animal whether or not the animal is enclosed in a pen fully.  Enclosing corn is an interesting part of the game as you do not score for any corn not fully enclosed in a fence and you also don't score for any corn in the same enclosure as an animal (animal eats the corn) so this is a way you can get a lot of points if you are careful in your farm tile placement. Each corn can be worth 1 point at the end of the game if it is enclosed with no animals.

Wolves are where this game is very cute, it adds a risk/reward element to the game. Basically each wolf has a picture of an animal on their card that it scares away. If you have animals on your farm that are not enclosed all of the animals of that type run away when the wolf shows up as one of the four cards (immediately).  This means that later on in the game if there have already been lots of wolves you can take the risk not to enclose animals because the likelihood that a wolf will show up is less and therefore you will score for animals not enclosed without having to waste time enclosing them. 


Review

I do think the starting farm house tiles could have had a different backing too to make them easier to find, however because in a two player game you shuffle these into the deck I also don't know how practical that would be for game play. But the searching for the starting tiles is a little annoying.

Saying that the game play is good and whether or not my son wins is really based on actual decisions he makes as he plays, which is great for teaching him about strategy for future gaming. This game is very light and you will enjoy playing it with your kids. They can grow as they play as well learning to make better and better choices that allow them to win. Out of the first 5 games we played: we tied one, I won three and he won one. So really he still has a lot to learn about choices in the game but I like that he can grow with this game a little. 

I am very mixed about this game as I like the elements of gaming it is teaching my son but for the price the art quality just isn't as good as some HABA games (game piece quality is great though). Loki is new in the children game world and while I love their parent company (Iello) I just don't feel like this is up to the standard they usually have.  There could have been masses more artwork to pull me into the "farm" theme or another theme all together that lent itself to more basic cards. They also could have included another element to the game that allows for more advanced play so that you get a game that grows more with your child. Right now as is I feel like we will grow out of this game by the time my son is 6, so if we had had it when he was 4 we would have only gotten 2 years play out of it. In comparison that is true of some of our HABA games but some we have had and will have for 3-5 years which means they offer a much better replay-ability element.  Price-wise though we paid £13 for it so for two years of play it is a good choice, I think its more that there are £13 HABA games that I just like better. Possibly in our house this has more to do with how many games we actually have!

This game is easy to find at my Friendly Local Game Store as well as online. Enjoy it!

Labyrinth (by Ravensburger)

Labyrinth

Labyrinth is one of the first games of strategy that I have played with my son where the game is very balanced for children as well as adults.  It plays 2-4 players and takes about 20 minutes.  It was created in 1986 and as been a best seller for a very long time. There are also junior versions of this game which have less and larger tiles to make moving the labyrinth slightly easier for younger kids.  This game is recommended for children 8 and up however I play it with my 5 year old.  I think easily you can skip over the junior version unless you have younger kids and you want your children to play together instead of playing with you helping them out.

There are also now many themes of Labyrinth so check these out if you want one of those to get the one you desire. I love our original copy but occasionally I wish we had the Harry Potter one, however I really don't need both so we will stick with the original one.


Game Play

This game requires a little bit of set up. The game board has fixed square labyrinth pieces and then enough labyrinth pieces to fill the board in plus one extra.  These tile pieces are placed in the labyrinth for set up in a random order. The extra piece is how the labyrinth is moved throughout the game. All over the labyrinth there are images of the treasures which correspond to the 24 treasure cards your wizard must land on to be able to win the game.

Each player is given a number of cards with treasures on them, divided by the number of players. In a four player game all the cards are used, with each player getting six. When we playing just a two player game get eight cards each to make it more enjoyable. Children playing the game are encouraged to have all their cards face up and they are allowed to land on their treasures in any order they choose.  Whereas adults must have a face down stack of treasure cards and are only allowed to look at one at a time. This balances the game very nicely between adults and kids. My son playing like this often wins now so only half of his cards are face up and the other half will be face down to allow us to increase the difficulty of the game for him.

Labyrinth is a racing to get your own treasures and get back to your home colour before any other wizard.  The players move the labyrinth squares on their turn to be able to move the wizard around it and land on the tiles with their own treasures on it.  The active player takes the labyrinth piece from where it has been left by the previous player, then that player slides one row or column of the labyrinth using that square. After the player moves the labyrinth they can move as far as they desire as long as the path is clear.  If the player lands on one if their card requirements then they can turn that card over, if not they wait until their next turn to be able to move the labyrinth again. There is only one massive rule when moving the labyrinth, you cannot move the row that the extra piece was taken from (there are more specifics to this so see the rules). This means that you cannot just move one row back and forth and so if someone pushes your wizard in a direction you don't like you can't always fix it in one move, it might take a few turns to fix your position.

This inability to just move one row back and forth makes the game a nice challenge and teaching players to look at the larger picture of the labyrinth is really interesting to watch how they go about achieving the goal of landing on their various treasures.


Review

If you can't tell I adore this game. It has a lot of subtle strategy and challenge when playing with a child but even more when playing with an adult where you can do things like wall each other in or screw each other over.  You cannot help messing with other players as you play and I like the fact that it isn't done in a "take that" fashion more as just part of the ever shifting labyrinth.  I dislike games that screw over other players for the sake of it, whereas in this game you might do it, but not necessarily on purpose (although you can do it on purpose as well if you desire).

I love that this game is teaching my child a lot about spacial reasoning and perception. Understanding things like looking at all his cards and not just picking the nearest one but maybe selecting the one that has the first easiest route, or the easiest route to the next treasure card. This game offers many many layers of thought and strategy for adults and kids hence why it has been around nearly as long as some of us parents! In comparison to games like monopoly I think hands down this one is considerably more fun and enjoyable by all, and the winner can truly feel like they worked towards their own win and not just rolled dice randomly until they won (you can see how I feel about monopoly there!).

This game is available everywhere! High street shops sell it, friendly local game stores, online, second hand - everywhere. Just check if you are buying it second hand that it has all the pieces because if you are missing even one you can't play it, there are ways to replace missing pieces but its hard so really check the box before buying one used.  I nearly bought one that was missing three pieces and that would have been a very sad day when we got home and couldn't play it!

Magic Labyrinth

Magic Labyrinth 

Magic Labyrinth is a simple and lovely magnetic finding game that can be easy or very hard.  It is by Drei Magier Spiele and is about 10 years old.  It plays 2-4 players and takes about 20 minutes.

I really like this game and play it plenty with my 4 year old.  However it has very small ball bearings and they are magnetic so this game is definitely not one to be played without serious supervision of young children.  The game says its for 6 and up but this can be played younger and I think younger children love the magnetic aspect of it - but DO NOT play this game without supervising them as it can also be incredible dangerous if any pieces are swallowed.


Game Play

Each player is a little wizard looking for their items that have been lost in a maze.  There is a bag of items (the small blue tokens) from which at the beginning one gets chosen and then the players race to that token represented on the maze map.  The first player to reach the token image on the game board gets to keep the token.  Getting  five tokens wins that wizard the game. 

This seems really simple but the game is all about the set up and how the magnetic aspect of it works.  To set up you take the board out and rearrange all the wall tiles (see image on right) making sure that you do not cut off access to any one square (the rules explain this with pictures very well) then you put the board back on and spin it so you can't remember where you put the walls. Finally you attach your wizards to your "home" corner and off you go with your turn.

One turn is rolling the dice and moving that number of spaces (between 1-4) without hitting any walls underneath. If you hit a wall your marble dislocates from your wizard and you must return to your home corner to start again.  The point of this game is not only to get the tokens but to memorise the Labyrinth underneath so that it gets easier to get to each token.  When you play initially you put about 18 wall tiles in the game, however there are 24 available and trust me when I say that having all 24 can be really hard sometimes!

The only aspect of this game I don't love is the fact that the rules state you can "pass" other wizards but don't really show you how to do that, as one or two times when we have done this both magnets get stuck to one wizard or one disconnects by accident.  This isn't ideal and I just wish there was a better way to pass each other.  The rules allow for passing and in a 4 player game this is entirely necessary. Maybe we just haven't worked out the finesse of it :-).


Review

This is definitely one of my son's new favourite games as it combines racing with magnets (two of his favourite things). It is easy to set up and play and very easy to teach. We have played with other five year old and they get on well with this game as well.  The hardest part of this game I think is the magnets as if we had any younger children around this game would just be unsafe - so only really play this game during young person nap time or when all your kids are of an age they don't put things in their mouth.

In general the quality of the game is lovely as well. The wizards are nice and hefty wooden pieces with felt bottoms so the slide really well. The maze is easy to put together and the magnets are exactly strong enough to work well through the board and also disconnect when they hit a wall.  We bought this game second hand and have had it about a year with no quality issues (and who knows how long the previous owners had it). 

You can easily find this game from any friendly local game store or from Coiled Spring Games. Its around £40 new but I think worth every penny because of how many times we have played it already!

Pengoloo

Pengoloo is a fun memory game by Blue Orange that always entertains us.

This game is for ages 4 and up for 2-4 players.  We have been playing it at our house since my son was 3 and have played it with other 3 year olds, but please be careful as some of the pieces are small and can be swallowed by accident so always be there while playing games with young ones like this.

The game roughly takes about 15-20 minutes although we have had much shorter and longer games as well.



Game Play

Set up is simple, make a three by four grid with the wooden penguins and hide one coloured egg under each penguin.  Set up the icebergs around them, one for each player.  First person to get six penguins wins.

Playing is actually more complicated then it looks. On your turn you roll two dice with the colours on them. You state which colour you are going to find first, for example red, and then you lift a penguin to either find a red egg, in which case you can take that penguin and egg and place it on your iceberg.  If you can't find the colour you claimed then you have to place the penguin back over the egg and leave it in the grid.  For little children I let them look under any two penguins and they don't have to claim colours first as that can be harder for them. However by the age of 4.5 my son could easily understand and do this so we play it properly now.

The other aspect of this game that I love is that you can steal penguins.  If you can remember that someone has a blue penguin (see lower picture) on their iceberg and where it is you can choose to lift that penguin INSTEAD of lifting a penguin in the centre. This is occasionally hard for the youngest players as they think its snatching, but as they get older you can add this in and honestly in a four player game it is the only way to win as it is really hard to get six penguins without this game mechanic.  I love this part of is as we have had some kids come over who aren't great at remembering the grid but they are very good at remembering what others have taken so basically it is an alternative way of winning for them!

Review

If you can't tell I really like this game, well I do.  I like that is is a memory game with more mechanics involved then just matching and memory.  I like that I am introducing the general game mechanic of messing with others in a game but hopefully, in a friendly way so that everyone understands that it is just a game.  There are a lot of older games that we own where you can really mess with other players so I don't want my son sheltered from this and then surprised when later on he is affected by others.

Other things I love about this game - it is entirely wooden and all the pieces feel nice and sturdy. We have yet to break a nose off any penguins and that isn't for lack of trying. Some of the paint has rubbed off but I feel that is just normal wear.  Sometimes my son just plays with the pieces in a winter penguin play sort of way and this is one of the only games where I am not worried that cards might get wrecked or ripped etc.


Where to find it

As always you can usually find it online but also I know our Friendly Local Games Store (FLGs) usually has it in stock as well.  Alternatively you can buy it directly from the supplier here at Coiledspring Games.  It retails for around £25 and considering the wooden pieces I think that is worth it, but definitely you can find it cheaper some places.

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Petits Magiciens

Petits Magiciens is a Haba memory game about little wizards and magnets.  I adore this game but basically it is really only available second hand as I haven't seen it published in a while.  However Haba have a lot of memory games and they are really all good, so owning one is enough and you can find others like this but perhaps without the gears and magnets.


This is a really simple game for 3 and up though even I find it hard as the gears spin and the items you need to remember can move!




Game Play

Game play is incredibly simple, you roll the die and move the wizard that many on the picture track. Then whatever item you land on you try to find under the wizard hats using a magnetic wand. Each hat is lovely and has a mini magnet in and well made.  If you succeed in finding the item you get a star, most stars at the end of the game wins.

If the die is rolled an it lands on the plant symbol the gears move one quarter turn to make it harder for everyone to remember where stuff is!

A thought out aspect of this game is that there are three wizard hat colours so if the gears spin you can still try to remember where things are, for example on the blue gear under the red hat is the bat etc.


Review

As with all Haba items I have come across this is beautifully made and thought out. I love everything they make really and basically if you find something in their range that sounds fun you will most definitely enjoy it.  The only thing I don't love about this game is that the gears stick a little and so for very young children it can be frustrating.  However like I said this isn't really available to find anymore so if you look at other Haba memory games they don't have gears as often and so you will probably be fine with those.

Sorry I am reviewing a game you can't get easily - we just love it here too much not to include it!

Robot Turtles

Robot Turtles is a lovely programming game for kids by Think Fun.  The game says four and up but you should be able to play with a three year old as well with help. Important abilities for children to be able to play are: playing a card, knowing colours and waiting their turn. Aside from that it's simply using a turtle to capture a gem of the matching colour.

Robot Turtles is great because you can start very simply and add difficulty in a few different ways: increasing the number of cards you play per turn OR adding obstacles OR  both!

Game Play

You start with a board and set up based on the rule book as to roughly what "level" you want to start. This tells you where to place the gems and any obstacles you may need from the start. Each player has a coloured turtle and needs to get their turtle to their gem to win. First player to the gem wins.

The fun bit of this game is that you move the turtle with cards that move for example: forward, left, right, turn 90° etc. This aspect is the programming side of this game. A very simple version of play is just using one card at a time per player so children (and adults) can see immediately what they are asking the turtle to do. 

To make this game more challenging you can ask players to pre-set a run of 3 or more cards before "playing" or running the program, just like simplified programming, funny that.  Currently my son can do 4-6 cards without obstacles or 4 cards with obstacles.

The only challenging part of this game for adults is that one adult/older player needs to be the computer or controller who "runs" the program following the cards correctly in exact order they were placed.  When my son is ready to play his program I need to run it through, which means he can't stop a mistake from happening. I think older kids can definitely be this controller person. But I only warn about this as it's easy for littler kids to want to be the controller and stop their program part way through and fix any mistakes- which sort of defeats the point of the game.

A further way to add challenge to this game is to add obstacles that the kids have to go around or get through to get to their gem.  There are three main obstacles pictured here and they are all fun to play with!

Review

I love this game as it's a board game about programming and so many programming games are screen based. I don't always want him to be on a screen but that doesn't mean I can't satisfy his desire to do logic activities. This game is really perfect for anyone really as it is fun even if you don't like programming that much and the rules are beautifully thought out and written.

I also love that I can make it easier or harder based on my mental capacity or child's desire that day. Sometimes we even make the turtles get the gems and return home to make it even more challenging - something that isn't in the rules.

You can easily find this online or possibly at your local game store or toy store. I noticed also that you can find it at GAME which might be a useful place to look as well for it.  It retails for around £22-25.  We found our complete at a charity shop that sold games so were lucky enough to get it for less then £10, its really worth looking on ebay or second hand selling for kids games as there are lots you can fine there.  Just check it has all the pieces first (usually you can find out how many pieces a game has from either their own website or Board Game Geek summaries)

Serpentina

Serpentina

Serpentina  (also called Hisss by Gamewright games in this country) is a cute little luck game that involves making sets of rainbow snakes. It's easy for children and not too mind numbing for adults either. 

Serpentina is by Amigo games and is advertised for 4 years and up. If your child understands taking turns and basic colours they can play this game. My little guy was playing this with help from 2.5 years old. I say help, but it was basically a constant reminder that he only got one turn at a time. By nearly 5 he can describe it and play with other children his age. So really this game is great for kids playing together because of the heavy luck and simplicity.

Game Play

Basic game play is draw a card and play that card.  Every player builds the rainbow snakes together on an open space so no one snake belongs to any one player. Winning means the most cards at the end of a game and you get the cards when you have completed any snake.  A completed snake is one with at least one head, one middle and one tail, however in practice usually there are lots of middle pieces. There is one rainbow head and tail that is basically a wild card and can be any head/tail colour.

It's slightly cooperative in that if you draw yellow/orange you attach it to any snake with available yellow or orange slot. However this can emotionally become challenging for little ones as sometimes they see a snake as "thier" snake and then someone else completes it and it goes away. 

This took a little time for me to explain to my son about the snakes being built together but belonging to no one.  He was little but I feel the work was worth it as he better understands cooperative play as well as loosing gracefully (although let's be realistic he's still only 4 so he cried after loosing Dobble today).

Review

As you can see I do love this game and I love that he can now play it with other kids basically without me. The cards are thicker then normal playing cards so we have played this a lot and have loaded it out to friends without it ever being damaged. 

However I do still feel I need to be there while he plays with others his age in case anyone gets upset about loosing a snake they thought was theirs. I think by about the age of 6 I wouldn't need to keep such a close eye. My kid and his best friend play this regularly with no issues as they are used to it together.  It isn't in my top 6 and that's mostly the reason why, it's not quiet cooperative and not really competitive so it isn't perfect for us- although it might be perfect for your kids!

Where to find it

You can find it in this country through the name of Hisss by Gamewright games (which is an american games company). I know that my local games shop usually stocks it when they can get a supply from the USA so it is worth calling and asking your Friendly Local Game Store first before heading online.

As of writing this in July 2019 it looked like Hisss was hard to get a hold of (maybe out of print) so before going and spending a bunch of money on this call your local shops as they might have one lying around. Or check out Board Game Geek and see what prices are roughly going for there as then if its more then about £15 or so pounds its likely its still out of print/stock. 

Cobra Paw

Cobra Paw 

Cobra Paw is a fantastic fast paced game for over 6s that plays up to six players. I mean seriously who wouldn't want to be a ninja cat in training?

The premise is simple, you want to be the fastest ninja cat by getting six tiles before any other player. Players roll dice and try and locate the tile with matching symbols faster then anyone else. I think this is suitable from six if your child can get on with other fast dexterity games like snap, Dobble or Jungle Speed for example. If not then possibly wait till they are older. I do play this game with my nearly 5 year old but as he can't keep up with my speed I don't have as much fun because I have to massively slow my speed down for him to even stand a chance.

I have played this with quick six year-olds and very nearly lost. So really it depends on your kid!

Game play

Cobra Paw is extremely simple dexterity game. While playing it is whoever last got a tile rolls the dice - which means a player might roll two or three times in a row. After the dice are rolled and showing two symbols EVERY player simultaneously looks for the tile and tries to "grab" it. First player to six tiles wins immediately (eight in a two player game).  If the tile is in someone else's collection players are allowed to steal it from them and they have the ability to defend it by grabbing it first.

I really like that grabbing isn't clawing at other players. There are a whole list of "respectful ninja" rules (see picture on the right) that need to be followed. So grabbing in this case is touching the tile with one or two fingers.

Equally there is a way of breaking any ties with multiple players- whomever has their finger closest to the center divot wins the tie. So children with little fingers if they are fast are actually more likely to win a tie.  You also cannot cover any of your tiles so all players can have a chance at seeing them.

Review

This is easily one of my favourite party, family or pub games. It's so quick and competitive you'll play it 3 or 4 times before realising. The other thing I enjoy about this game is the tiles are weighty and sort of like nice domino tiles which means they slide on the table really nicely. The dice a heavy too so overall the feel of this game is really satisfying as well. Definitely worth every cent. Did I mention there isn't any plastic inside the packaging? This feels like a forward step which makes me ecstatic. I realise that the game is still made of plastic, but one step at a time kids. 

For me it's like Dobble with stealing and really how is that not fun?! It's super easy to find online and around although as always I recommend finding it at friendly your local game store. If you can't find it there its also sold at John Lewis, Waterstones and other shops especially around Christmas.

Qwirkle

 Qwirkle

Qwirkle is a really simple game of matching either shapes or colours but with the massive benefit of being a really hard game to master.  You can play easily by not affecting other people or screwing them over, or you can intentionally steal qwirkles (worth lots of points) that people have left wide open.

There is a lot of strategy and flexibility in this game for adults and the simplicity of shapes and colours means that is is fantastic for kids.  Players score points by building lines of shapes or colours and the points are tracked through the round, highest points at the end wins.  The first few times I played this with my young son who was 2 at the time we often just did matching and built a grid without concern for points, but as time went on I slowly introduced the points to him and we have played properly ever since.

The only thing I dislike about this game is if you are colour blind (which I don't actually know anyone who is but there are a lot of people in the world) this game doesn't really have a great way of telling between the colours, so I assume you would need some sort of help if this was the case.


Game Play

Each player is dealt six tiles that they keep hidden from the other players. When I play with my 4 year old (and when he was younger) I allowed our personal tiles to remain face up.  This helped me as I could see what he might do and so left qwirkles open for him until he began to understand the game better, but it is not necessary for learning the game.  I did not give him advice about what/how to play as I wanted him to learn that, but I didn't want to wipe the floor with him in terms of points as I had a massive advantage.  In all the games we play both of us win sometimes and not others and I never allow him to just win all the time, as that isn't fair and it doesn't teach good gaming, he will learn nothing in terms of how to strategize, manage resources, concentration etc if all I ever do is allow him to win.

Alright back to explaining the game play.  After everyone has six tiles the player that can put the longest run of tiles down goes first, sometimes this is two tiles and sometimes it is three or more.  The major rules about placing tiles are 1)place all different shapes of one colour together, or 2)play all different colours of one shape together 3) no doubling up of shapes or colour in one row or column created.
In the picture to the left I could not add a blue circle to either the circle row or to the blue column, however I could add a blue circle to the very bottom right of the yellow column and make a new circle row there.  You are allowed to play as many tiles as fit in a row/column that makes sense.  So you could add 5 different coloured circles to a new row entirely or you could add 1 tile each time.

Any time you spend tiles you take more blind out of a bag of tons, when there are no tiles left play continues but you don't get to replenish your stash, and play continues until someone uses all their tiles.  If you finish all your tiles first you get an additional end game bonus of 6 points.  I often get left with a few tiles that I just can't play before someone else finishes theirs.

Each tile placed gets you one point per tile in your placement. For example in the picture above left if I added a blue diamond to the diamond row I would get 4 points.  If the tiles you place get your a qwirkle (all 6 colours or all 6 shapes) you get the points for your placement as well as a "qwirkle" bonus of 6 points (so usually minimum of 12 points for a qwirkle.  In the photo above left the yellow row is one tile away from a qwirkle, that means if anyone has that one tile and plays it they would very quickly get 12 points.  You do not want to leave "open" qwirkles - ones that are easy to finish up if you can avoid it.  This is a big part of learning the strategy of this game.

Review

I adore this game, it is really simple and enjoyable for adults and children.  It is very easy for a child to just play one or two tiles per turn or as they get better many more.  There is a lot of strategy in this game which means it can advance as your child gets better at noticing what has been placed around his/her tiles.  My son often just shape matches because he finds that easier.  I am usually kind and don't take every qwirkle from him but I do finish a few of them so that he learns what he should be trying to get.  Over time he has really begun to understand the game and now holds off on just putting one shape out at a time, more often looking for twos and threes that match to try and get more points.

At home with adults we play two or three rounds of this all the way to the end and then the scores are all added together for the "ultimate" winner.  This especially helps when you have people learning as they can do badly for their first game then be able to pick themselves up later.

Generally this game is for sale at your Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) but it can be found easily online. I would be amazed if you couldn't find this in most game shops (even ones like toyrus) as it is hugely popular and a long time classic!