Review – Wollmilchsau

2-6 Players, Aged 8+ with a 15-20 minute playing time

A review copy of Wollmilchsau (released in 2011), designed by Liesbeth Bos was kindly provided  German publisher Zoch GmbH.

Wollmilchsau is an awkward name to the English tongue and in translation means something akin to ‘all-purpose’ or ‘allrounder’. The idea of this dice throwing card game is to call out the name of the wanted animal. Not sure how this ties into the games name – you are not the only one! Essentially this is a game of speed of recognition that has some similarities to other Zoch games Geistesblitz amongst others.

What follows is an overview of the game broken down into 5 sections: The Game Components, Setting Up The Game, How To Play The Game, What Did We Think? and finally Who Do We Think Will Like It?. So if you don't want to read the whole review scan down to the heading that interests you.

Match Report - 23rd January 2012

From trading 'Dollies' to some very strange drawings!

With sickness afflicting Crispin, the Safari delights of Tanzania detaining Malcolm and Daniella under the cosh trying to keep a busy family fully fed and watered it was down to Gwen and I to welcome our version of the young ones, Ben, Ruth and Natalie.

These youngsters all like a game with lots of interaction so when it came to selecting which board game to play what better choice than one of the modern classics, Settlers of Catan. A game we have described in previous blog posts in a lot more detail, it requires players to actively trade natural resources with each other in order to advance their civilisation of roads, towns and cities.

Playing with the 5/6 player expansion there was plenty of land for us to colonise although by the end of the game the island felt pretty cramped. Whilst Ben was busy accruing sheep (fondly termed “dollies” since he first played this game with us around the time Dolly was cloned) he was also keeping a watchful eye on my obvious progress and zealously pointed a very unwelcome spotlight on my advancement towards the 10 victory points required to win.

Games in a Pub – 15th January 2012

A quiet evening with some familiar games

With a little confusion over dates to start the New Year and with apologies from 5 regulars before we even started the evening was never likely to yield a big turnout. That said 5 new people had made contact over Christmas having only just discovered us I was hopeful of a few new faces.

The good news is that although in the end none of those 5 was able to join us on this particular occasion Robin was. Typical of most of the people that join us he likes games but to never having played any of the games we play before but. Having spotted our activities through a combination of this blog and Facebook he was intrigued enough to join us and give the games a chance.

Match Report – 9th January 2012

Welcome to the New Year

I had been unsure of when we would be able to get together and only confirmed this meeting the night before so it was tremendously encouraging that so many of our regulars where able to join us and Natalie somehow with under 24 hours notice also managed to bake some of her lovely apricot munchies.

Joining Natalie was Crispin, Malcolm (shortly heading off to Africa for four weeks on what sounds like a very exciting trip), Ben and obviously my long suffering wife!

Our first game in the 10 mins whilst waiting for Natalie to join us was the simple Fuchs and Fertig. This is a game that in the past Crispin has performed particularly badly at but he started well in 2012 only to sadly fall away as the game progressed and let Malcolm win. As the others steadily got rid of their cards I didn’t which left me feeling under pressure to remember longer sequences of my cards and whilst I was good to five the sixth card always caught me out and so I kept all of my original cards (I could blame poor health, man-flu is after an awful affliction) but I guess the first lessons of 2012 was don’t push your luck too far and learn from your mistakes!!

Review – Safranito

2 to 4 Players, Aged 10 + with a 30+ minute playing time 

A review copy of Safranito (released in 2010), designed by Marco Teubner was kindly provided by the German publisher Zoch GmbH.

Players are cast in the role of top chefs from around India jostling around Rajive’s booth in the Mumbai spice market seeking to obtain the best spice blends and thus be the culinary trend setters. In order to buy or sell the spices players try to throw roasted bread chips into the desired spice bowls. Hoping their fellow chefs do not knock their bread chips out of the bowls when they come to throw!

Safranito is perhaps an unusual game to the British eye in that it requires a degree of dexterity blended with some tactics as players try to both buy and sell spices as they seek out the winning combinations. However to those that follow publishers like Zoch in particular this blend of:

• Quality components;

• a dexterity mechanism;

• a game that can be enjoyed as much by adults as children.

is unsurprising. Zoch is after all the maker of games like Villa Paletti (a Spiel des Jahres winner) and Bausack amongst others.

What follows is an overview of the game broken down into 5 sections: The Game Components, Setting Up The Game, How To Play The Game, What Did We Think? and finally Who Do We Think Will Like It?. So if you don't want to read the whole review scan down to the heading that interests you.