Qin Review

    Qin is a tile laying game for two to four players.

   There is a two sided board. They recommend starting on the "bird board" (there are birds in the corners)

   There are seventy two tiles in the game. Some have two of the same colored provinces and some have two different provinces.

   There are four different colors of pagodas. Each player will choose a color. These are your pieces for the game.

   To set up, lay the board in the middle of the table. Each player chooses a color of pagodas. Count out the number of pagodas you will need according to the number of players. Mix the tiles and deal three face down to each player. Place the rest in face down piles. You are now ready to begin.

   In the middle of the board there is one of each different color of province. This is where you start the game.

   You must place a tile that is touching a province. You do not need to match the colors. If the tile you place creates a province that is at least two spaces, place a pagoda on the province.

   If a player places a card that is adjacent to a village, that player may place a pagoda on the village. The villages can be taken away if another player has more pagodas around the village. Villages do not count as a province, therefor you must build to the villages to claim them.

   If at any time, you province becomes at least five spaces, place a second pagoda on top of the first one. This province can no longer be taken.

   When playing, make sure that you watch what is going on around you. For example, in this picture pink has three blue spaces and white has two blue spaces.

   If pink plays a tile that connects both blue provinces together, pink will absorb white's blue spaces because pink has more tiles when it is combined. This causes pink to have a blue province that is now seven spaces and can no longer be taken away. Play continues until someone runs out of pagodas. Whoever is out first is the winner!

   If you enjoy tile laying games with a lot of strategy, this is a fun and easy game. It doesn't take a lot of time to explain and the rules are simple. Game play is about half an hour so it's a great game if you don't have a lot of time. The art is bright and colorful. The pagodas are made out of plastic and stack nicely. The "dragon side" of the board has water spaces on it. You can not build on the water so it adds another level of strategy. Overall, this is a fun game that works great for either game nights or family time.

Hanabi Review

   I introduce to you Hanabi Card Game, the 2013 Essen Spiel des Jares winner. Hanabi is a fun co-op card game with a little twist. You can not look at your own cards!  The story is: you are absent minded firework manufacturers that messed up the fire works. You have to work together to put your fireworks back together. 

   Inside, there are colored number cards. There are green, yellow, red, white and blue cards. They are numbered one through five with three one's, two two's, three's, and fours and one five.

   There are rainbow cards that can be used for some different variations.

   To begin, shuffle the cards and deal out five cards in a two or three player game and five cards in a four or five player game. Each person holds their cards so everyone else can see them.

   On your turn, you can give a hint, play a card or discard and draw a card. There are eight hint tokens. If you give a hint you take one and put it in the box (or flip it over) and give one person a hint. You can point to their cards and say things such as "These cards are blue" or "This card is a five". You then move your cards around, without looking at them, so that you can remember the hints you were given. Once the hint tokens are gone, you either play a card or discard and draw another card. If you discard and draw, you get a hint token back.

   If you make a mistake by playing a card that doesn't begin, add to, or complete a firework, you remove one of the fuse tokens. You have three mistakes before the fireworks go off and the game is over.

   When discarding, if you discard the last number available in a certain color, such as the second red four or the blue five, that row can no longer go past that number.

   The game ends in a couple ways. It's over when the fuse tokens are gone or if you run out of the draw pile. Once the draw pile is gone, each player gets one more turn. You add up the points which is the highest number in each row and see how your fireworks show did.

   This game is a lot of fun! It's really hard not to look at your cards, especially when drawing a new card. It takes a lot of concentration, memory and deduction. We have played this with our seven year old, and he did pretty well. He needed a little bit of help, but not much. The age on the game is 8+ so it's a great addition to your family games!