Othello

This game is an old game but one of our absolute favorites! Today's game is Othello.

Gameplay:
Each player starts with 32 discs and uses one color throughout the whole game.

Place two discs on the board as shown:

A move consists of "outflanking" your opponent's disc(s) and then flipping those discs to your color. "Outflank" means that you place a disc on the board so that your opponent's row(s) of disc(s) is/are bordered at each end by a disc of your color.

Here's an example: I place my black disc below the white disc so that I'm surrounding it, and then I get to flip it:

White is going to make a move similar to this on her next turn:

Now I need to capture another disc:

 A few moves later, I can do this move and get two discs in two different directions:

 But now white can make this move to capture three of my discs:

The game moves rather slowly at first, usually capturing one at a time for the first few moves. Don't worry - it ramps up, and you have to be very cautious in what move you decide to make!

Some Things to Remember:
Black always moves first.

If it's your turn and you can't outflank your opponent, skip your turn.

You can capture discs horizontally, vertically, or diagonally as long as they are in a continuous straight line.

How to Win:
Typically, once all 64 squares are covered, the game is over. Add up how many squares are covered by your color and the highest number wins. It is possible for a game to end before this, essentially in a stalemate, in which case you would still just add up your discs and count them as points.

Verdict:
Love! Love! Such a great game! This is a hit with everyone we've taught it to.

Great for Learning:
Strategy, patience (it's so similar to chess), critical thinking, thinking ahead to consequences of their moves

Monopoly Hotels

I have another version of Monopoly Hotels for you if you like Monopoly but need a shorter version: Monopoly Hotels!

Gameplay:
This is much different from other versions of Monopoly!

Each player starts with one gray base and 5 matching color floors. Go ahead and place one floor into your hotel base. Take your cash ($250). Shuffle all the cards and draw 5 per person. This is your hand.

On your turn, take two cards from the draw pile and add them to your hand. You may play up to three actions on your turn. You can only have 7 cards in your hand, so if you have more than that in your hand at the end of the turn, discard until you have 7. If you have zero cards, on your next turn, pick up five cards from the draw pile.

There are three types of cards. These are the cards you play into a hotel room.

A room card is played as one of your actions. You can later collect rent on it as long as there is no bill in the room.

The bill card is played in your opponent's room as one action. You can play it in an empty room but not in a room with a celebrity. They will have to use one action to pay it off.

A celebrity card is played in one of your rooms as one action. This protects it from bills.

These are your other action cards:

Demolish & Build:

Demolish the highest floor of your opponent's hotel and build another floor on your own for free.

Empty Room:

Remove and discard a whole room from your opponent's hotel. Discard any cards that were in there as well.

Thief cards are self-explanatory:

 No Deal:

Play at any time to stop your rival from playing an action card on you.

Swap Room:

Swap one of the rooms in your hotel with one of your opponent's rooms. Discard all bills and celebrities when you do this.

 Recycle:

Pick up any card from the discard pile and add it to your hand.

Pass Go cards are self-explanatory:

Pick Up cards are self-explanatory:

Rent/Build cards:

This is what you are looking for! When you play one of these cards, you can either collect rent or build floors. You can only build a floor if you have enough money, so collecting rent is really important!

Example of what your hotel may look like as you're building it:

How to Win:
Build all five floors on your hotel. You must have a room in all of them and no bills!

Verdict:
Love, love, love this version for a quick gameplay. There is some strategy involved but also some luck, which makes it tough!

Great for Learning:
Strategy, decision-making, risk-taking

Racko

Today's game is called Racko.

Gameplay:
Everyone is dealt 10 cards. Do not look at them before placing them, but start placing the cards immediately, facing you, starting at the number 50 slot in your rack and working down to the number 5 at the front.

You are all trying to get your numbers in numerical order. The highest number in the deck is 60 and the lowest is 1. On your turn, you will take either the top card from the discard pile or the top card from the draw pile.

If you take from the discard pile, you must exchange the card you've picked up with one in your rack. Discard the card from your rack.

If you take from the draw pile, you may exchange the card for one in your rack or simply discard the card.

For example, if I drew the number 57, I would want to put it in the number 50 slot since there are only 60 numbers total. I would replace my number 24 card.

How to Win:
As soon as you get "RACKO", the round ends. When you have gotten all ten cards in numerical progression, you have reached RACKO!

Verdict:
Oh, we love this game! It's simple, not a lot to get out or clean up, and pretty fast.

Great for Learning:
Number order, strategy, decision-making

Dragonwood

Hunter is the one that introduced today's game to our family. He played it in a gameschooling class at our homeschool co-op, and bought it with his birthday money. It is definitely a favorite here! Today's game is Dragonwood.

Before you begin the game, you need to separate the green cards from the red cards. Find the two dragon cards and remove them from the deck. Shuffle the deck and remove 12 cards if there are two players playing, remove 10 cards if three people are playing, and remove 8 cards if four players are playing. This is optional, actually - if you don't mind a longer game, just leave all the cards in the deck. Shuffle the dragon cards back into the deck.

Lay out five cards from the Dragonwood deck (green side) face up in the center of the playing area. Stack the rest of the deck face down beside it.

The five Dragonwood cards:

Shuffle the Adventurer cards (red) and deal each player five cards. Stack the rest of the Adventurer cards face down near the cards which are laid out.

The five Adventurer cards in my hand:

There are three types of Dragonwood cards that you will see laid out.

These are creature cards. Your goal is to defeat them and collect the points on the card. The number on the shield is how many points they are worth.

These are enhancement cards. They don't give points but make it easier to defeat creatures. They may add on points to your attacks or allow you to re-roll. Some are one-time use and some are for the entire game.

These are event cards. They occur immediately and affect all players.

On your turn, you may choose one of two options.

Option 1:
Draw a card. You'll draw from the red pile, add it to your hand, and then say, "Reload!" to signal that your turn is over. There is a 9 card hand limit, so make sure you play something once you hit 9 cards!

Option 2:
Attack a creature/enhancement card. Let's say I'm going to attack this wild boar card. I want the three points associated with it. I need to roll an 8 if I attack with a strike, I need to roll a 7 if I attack with a stomp, and I need to roll a 7 if I attack with a scream.

An example of a Strike - three numbers in a row:

 An example of a Scream - three of the same color:

 An example of a Stomp - three of the same number:

 Announce which card you are trying to capture and show the cards you are using by placing them in front of you. Take one die for each card you are playing and roll them. In the previous examples, if I lay down three cards, I will use three dice to roll. Remember - the dice only go up to the number 4, so if you need a 12 to win the card, it's very unlikely that you'll win by using only three cards/dice! You can use up to six cards to attack, plus any enhancements.

You capture the card if the total of your dice is equal to or greater than the related value on the card.

How to Win:
Both dragons are defeated, not necessarily by the same person.

All players total up their victory points. Whoever has the most creature cards captured also gets three bonus points added to their score. Highest total wins.

Verdict:
This is such a great game! It's really engaging, I love the graphics, and it's a fairly short game if you need something like that.

Great for Learning:
Math, strategy (beware trying to get a lot of enhancements, which means you won't end up with as many creature points!), patterns, matching, probability, risk-taking

Farkle

We really love dice games, and if you do too, you'll enjoy today's game - Farkle! If you've ever played Six Cubes or Fill or Bust, the scoring is very similar.

Gameplay:
Roll the six dice inside the dice cup. After each roll, set aside dice that are worth points and roll the rest of the dice. You must remove at least one die after each roll. If you're lucky enough to set aside all six dice, you can roll them all again to build your running total. If you can't set aside any dice after a roll, you've rolled a Farkle. You lose all your points for that turn. So if you're racking up some points, you may want to stop and keep your points instead of risking losing them all!

Single 1s and single 5s are worth points. Other than that you need combos. The combos are: three of any number, four of any number, five of any number, six of any number, a 6-dice straight, three pairs, four of any number with a pair, or two triplets. Of course, you must get these in one roll.

For example, I rolled once and got a set of four and a pair. This would earn me 1,500 points.

I rolled again and got three pairs. This would earn me 1,500 more points. Personally,I would probably stop rolling at this point!

The rules say to play to 10,000 but you can choose any number to stop at. Honestly, getting to 10,000 won't take very long if you have some great rolls!

Verdict:
Love, love this game! It's such a simple game and easy to travel with!

Great for Learning:
Addition, matching, patterns, decision making

Monopoly Crazy Cash

If you're looking for a shorter version of Monopoly, this is one we like. It's called Monopoly Crazy Cash!

Gameplay:

Pass out the money and set up the game board as needed to play. Shuffle all the extra money and Chance cards together. Put the pile inside the cash machine.

On your turn, roll the die and move around the track. You basically play the same way as regular Monopoly, but when you land on a cash machine space, you get to put your debit card in the cash machine!

Whatever cash you get, you get to keep! If you get Chance cards, pick the one you most want to do and do it. These cards can be really silly actions or you may get a free property!

How to Win:

The game is over when the cash machine is empty or someone goes bankrupt. The player with the most money wins!

Verdict:

We love regular Monopoly and this one is great for when we need a quick version. We all love the cash machine because it's so random!

Great for Learning:
Decision making, trading (if you play that way), finance and investments