Das Magische Labyrinth

Das Magische Labyrinth

The new game I'm introducing this week is Das Magische Labyrinth, which means the magical maze in German. It's a new game published just this very year. The game is a memory game for children. I love this game at the first sight because of it's blue cover.

In the game, players are magician apprentices that have lost some objects in the magic maze. They have to find all of them before the master notice anything, but there are invisible walls in the maze. They have to remember the path and collect the objects fast.

The playboard of the game is not just a board. It's in 3D, and of the size of the box. Open the box and you can see the whole constructure. Take out the objects and the characters, each with a magnetic ball. There is the secret of the maze: wooden walls. hen the magicians are passing with their magnetic ball, the wooden walls are invicible for them and will make the balls fall , so they must remember them everytime the ball fall.

To begin the game, everyone put their characters in place, and the first player draw an object, find the picture on the board and put the object on the picture.

Then all the players take turn to find the way to the object and get it. If one hit the wall, one must go back to the starting corner. The first one to collect five objects is the winner.

As I said above, I love this game at the first sight. Last week, I finally got the chance to play it. It was interesting, but wasn't as attracting as I expected. I don't think I will buy one.

San Ta Si

San Ta Si

The game I'm introducing this week is San Ta Si. Try to pronounce the name. You may know what it means. It's a small game that can end in ten minutes, and it's for two people.

The game contains a triangle wooden board and tubes in two colors in various sizes. The Obeject is to let one's own tube be seen when the game ends. However, you can put one another's tubes also. The other things is that the tube you put on the board must touch the other tubes. It can only be a size bigger or smaller. The game ends when all of the tubes are all put.

It's a little game that two people can use to kill time. It's not my favorites though, with interesting players, the game can be interesting.

Set

Set

The game I'm introducing this week is Set. It's kind of like FITS that you can play it alone. I like this game a lot because I can kill time or wait for someone by playing Set, but mostly because it's like a puzzle game, which is my favorite game kind.


There are 108 cards in total. First, open 12 cards face up on the tabel, and then players has to find a "set". To explain "set", each card has four elements in three different kinds, which are number, shape, color, and shading. To complete a set, you have to find three cards in the twelve cards that has all of the same kind or all different kinds in each elements. When you find a set, yell "set", pick up the three cards, and show to others for them to check you're right. Then open three cards to make sure there are always 12 cards on the table.If you said "set" and found out you're wrong, move away a card from your pile, which means minus one point. If you can't find any, after all others are agreed, open another three cards. The game ends when all the cards are opened and there are no more sets on the table. After that count the cards you have, each card gets you one point.


I didn't often win, but I still like the game a lot. It's like training my brain and it makes me think. I even thought about buying one, but after few thoughts, I'll just play it in the store.


set:across and down

Qwirkle

Qwirkle

The game I'm introducing this week is Qwirkle. Don't ask me how to pronounce it. It's not important. It was published in 2006, but I haven't seen it until this summer when it's introduce to Taiwan.

The game has 108 wooden blocks with six colors in six shapes. Players take turns to put blocks of a kind(color or shape) on table and then immediately score. There can only be six different blocks in a row at most. The person who places the sixth block will get double point, at least 12 points.

The game is not only about scoring. You also have to try to prevent other players from getting points. Just be careful not to find yourblocks on yourself's way later.

I like this game a lot and I often play it. It's one of my favorite games. I won some time. Last week, I bought one, but I haven't open it because I still can play it in the store. I took those playing pictures above. It was my first play.

FITS

FITS (Fill In The Spaces)

The game I want to introduce this week is Fits. It is a new game published early in this year and has soon won a award.It looks like Tetris and has almost the same rules. The game can be played with more than one people. Everyone take a board and a set of pieces of their color, and then draw a starting card, which shows the first piece they have to put on the board, so that everyone won't have the same situation. Players put on pieces shown on the cards after every cards are revealed one by one, but you can't slide it horizontally like Tetris do. After every pieces are put, count the space on the board and score.

The game has four boards, with different rules and scoring, and there are more with expansions.

I have played it for some times and I thing I'm GOOD. It is also fun even if it's played alone. One of my friends won the first place in a contest, but after that he didn't win often. Maybe it's because the contest had the wrong rule, which we know after a while.

Thebes

Thebes

The game I want to introduce this time is Thebes. Players are archeologists that travel around Europe and Egypt's historical sites to explore ancient culture and artifacts, but before they do, they have to collect enough knowledge. The more "intelligence" they are, the more and faster can they excavate treasure artifacts. And sometimes, when there are exhibitions where you can have your artifacts in display.

The game is special with is that player don't take actions in the same "time." There is a time track on the game board which has 52 spaces that means 52 weeks of a year. Every action takes different time, so players may be in different week. The one that is the furthest back always act first.

The other special thing are the time wheels, which are not seen often. It shows how long and how many artifacts you can excavate depend on how much knowledge you have collected.

There aren't many action in a turn, so the game's is fast. It is also exciting when you excavates. You draw artifact tokens out from cloth bags, but the tokens are not all artifacts, dirt are blended in, so it is common that you draw five tokens and there are only one artifact. And then drawn dirt are put back in the bag. Therefore, the earlier you make an excavation, there are more chance to dig out treasures.

At the end, the player with the most valuable artifacts, the most knowledge, and the most exhibitions wins.

Roll Through the Ages( The Late Bronze Age)

The new game I want to introduce to you is Roll Through the Ages and it's new version The Late Bronze Age. The owner is my friend and my bf loves it so much that he really wants to buy one after his first play. I have played it for many times, most of the times are with my bf. He likes to research for new ways of winning and discuss them with me.

The box is not big, but it's heavy and it's full. It contains 7 dices, players' peg boards, marking peg, and a thick book of scoring sheet. It's simple and mostly wood-made, so many people just made one by themselves.

Players roll dice to obtain commodities and workers to build up their civilizations. Dice can be rerolled twice unless they come up as a hazard. Players use their workers to build infrastructure to support additional works or to build monuments that are worth points. At the same time commodities are gathered which allow your civilization to develop. Once all monuments or five (in new version seven) developments are achieved by a player the game ends at the end of the round, points are counted, and a victor is declared.

We have played it for not many times, but my bf loves it after his first play. He likes to think of new strategies and methods to win. He even borrowed it home and played it alone just to think and try new ideas. I think it's fun, too, but I haven't win many games. I think I'll have to think and pray more. After all, it's a dice game( winning depends mostly in luck).