Every year we go to Whitby Folk Festival and inbetween the music and dancing we always manage to play some games. These are the ones that we played in our holiday cottage with its very small table! There were only three of us but it was still a bit of a squeeze.
Sea Salt and Paper – still one of my favourite games ever. Collect sets in your hand and play pairs face up to gain extra actions. Once you hit 7 points you can end the game but you need the most points to win so you need to keep a close eye on what everyone is doing. You can choose to end and score immediately or, you can give everyone a last chance – this gives each player one more turn. But of course this comes with a risk – lose after last chance and you score very little but win and it is everyone else’s score that is affected.
Fetching Feathers – I have not played this enough so it was brilliant to play it a few times and really get to grips with it. You need to try it at my events. Collect habitats and birds making sure you maximise your points. Different birds have different requirements and different scoring bonuses. You play over three seasons so it’s quite quick to play meaning you need to lock in your strategy early on. It’s tricky with a lot of planning, arranging and re-arranging cards.
I adore the art work in both of these which makes them even more enjoyable to play.
Slide required a bit of juggling but we did it! In Slide you play a card from your face down grid to the centre of the table. Take turns to choose a card from the centre and slide it into your grid. There’s a first player token which moves on each round so it’s easy to remember whose turn it is to choose first. Group numbers together in your grid to eliminate them at the end. You score for any remaining numbers. Pretty straightforward but nice and thinky.
Flip 7 – I’ve banged on about this a lot and if you’ve been to any of my events I’ve probably made you play it! Flip cards until either you bank your score or go bust by flipping two of the same number card. There are special cards in there that make a player flip 3 cards, freeze a score, give you a second chance or add to your score. We had a particularly close and tense game of this which got very noisy despite the fact there was only three of us playing!! I also have Flip 7 with a vengeance which is good fun. But, like it says on the box – it is merciless.
Isla – a roll and write game by Ocean City Games – was more of a space challenge but we were determined to play. Explore the island, research the flora and fauna, take rest judiciously and manage your dice. Top tip – plan your route carefully – don’t think ‘it’s only 1 minus point per unexplored square that won’t matter’. Also remember that at the end you need a clear route to the exit. I am still on the island. I lost. Horribly. I blame That’s not a hat for breaking my brain but that’s another story…
Canal Houses is another one from Hachette Games that I’m enjoying sharing with lots of people. It was too big for the table at home so we were forced to go out for tea and cake at Sherlocks. You are building Canal Houses and each card that you place on the ground floor level and each roof has scoring conditions. These might be that the house needs a certain number of flags, cats, flower boxes, or seagulls or they might be height related. Each turn you draw either a ground floor, middle floors or roof card and add one card to your street then pass your hand on to the next person. It’s quick to learn and the pictures on the cards make scoring easy. The challenge is in maximising your score.
We also played 6nimmt both in the house and in the pub. It’s the perfect size to pop in your bag or pocket. In 6nimmt you place 4 cards in a column to start then play cards to the right of these in ascending order. The cards have small bull images on – the more bulls the higher the score. In this game you are trying to score the lowest so you want to avoid picking up high scoring cards and try to force others to. All players choose a card and play it face down. Reveal your cards then the person who played the lowest card goes first. Cards must be played in ascending order and next to the card that they are closest to numerically. If a row is full and your card would be played on that row, you must pick up all of those cards and place the card you played as the new starter card in the leftmost column. If your card is too low to be played anywhere, you choose a row – pick those up and play your card on that row as the new starter card in the leftmost column. Once someone gets rid of all their cards (you start with 10) the game ends and you count up your bulls. It can be quite a quick game and it’s another one that I haven’t found anyone yet who dislikes it. We really enjoyed it.
I also treated myself to a copy of Cribbage. I do have a lovely vintage cribbage set but I couldn’t resist this one and I thought it might tempt some of you into a game of Crib. It’s an absolutely beautiful set from Gibsons games. They’ve released a load of classic games in similar style and they are all gorgeous. I got it at the wonderful Holman’s of Whitby – it’s a treasure trove. They sell toys, games, puzzles, books, stationery and they are a newsagents too. Well worth exploring if you’re in Whitby.
I absolutely love Cribbage – it’s quite repetitive and it has a language all of it’s own. Before you deal, the non-dealer (pone) cuts the deck (of course they must knock on it first). Players are dealt six cards – two of which are discarded into a crib or box which will be a bonus extra hand for the dealer. After dealing the pone reveals a card that will be used as a shared card when scoring in the final phase (the show). If that card is a Jack then the dealer scores 2 points (for his nibs or for his heels) and in the show you also score one for his nob if you have a Jack in your hand that is in the same suit as the shared card.
Your score is recorded by pegging – moving the peg at the back over your leading peg and counting from there. If on your turn you pass 121 points then you ‘peg out’. You score at two points – as you play cards – the play and, then at the end – the show. Cards that total 15 are counted up in 2s as you score 2 for each set that add to 15. In the play section of the game you get points for ending on 31 or being the closest to 31. If you can not go because you would go over 31 you say ‘Go’ to indicate that. You also score in both the play and the show by playing runs or pairs, threes and fours and flushes. Cards may be used more than once in different scoring combinations. In the show phase you can also incorporate the shared card to help you score more. Miss any points when you are scoring and you may be declared a muggins.
We also took Scrabble because me and my son play it loads – I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but we really enjoy it. I even managed to get a seven letter word this holiday. It’s ok though because he got two. Yes, two seven letter words. Unbelievable. He’s just really lucky that I’m so mature.
