I bought this game for around about £11 in October 2007 from Tesco, and have not looked back since! It's available at around about the same price as when I bought it (slightly more at £14.97) and as games go, it's relatively cheap.
The game can be played officially by up to four players, but that is only because that corresponds to the amount of "racks" provided; in actual fact you could play with more, but you'd have to find some way to hide your tiles.
The object of the game is to get rid of all of your "tiles". These tiles are number 1-13, in four different colours (red, blue, orange and black) making a total of 52 tiles. There are also two joker tiles, making that number up to 54.
At the beginning of the game, all tiles are placed face down, and each player chooses a tile. The person who picks the highest number starts. Each player picks up 14 tiles and places them on their rack, hidden from other players.
To play the game and get rid of all your tiles, you must place tiles down on the table. There are several ways you can do this:
- A set of three or more numbers of different colours, i.e Red 3, Blue 3 and Black 3.
- A run of three of more numbers of the same colour, i.e. 11, 12 and 13 of Red.
- Add one or more tiles to an already existing run of the same colour, i.e. add a Red 10 to the example above.
- Add one tile to an already existing set of three numbers of different colours, i.e. add an Orange 3 to the first example stated.
- You can also move tiles around that have already been placed down, provided that at the end of your turn, all tiles are positioned legally, i.e. there are no odd tiles not in a run or set.
As a note, at the beginning of the game, you must place tiles that add up to a total of a minimum of 30 points, so a set of three 10's or a run 11, 12 and 13.
If you are unable to make a move due to no places to set down your tiles, then you must pick up three tiles from the still faced-down tiles, or if it is still your first go and are unable to place tiles down to a total of 30 points, then you need only pick up one tile.
I find this game to be extremely fun, whilst also being quite hard! It takes a lot of brain power sometimes to play the game, especially after a glass of wine or two! The moves you make can become very complicated, and the amount of times I move loads of tiles around and the move has not worked out is crazy, and then you're stuck with trying to remember where everything went in the first place!
This is a great game to play with family or friends; I've spent many nights playing game after game of this, as it's very addictive.
When I play, I also like to keep a running score. For example, each player starts on score of 0, and every player that loses must deduct the total value of all their remaining tiles from their score. The winning player, adds on the total of all the players tiles to their score. It's a great way to keep the game going, and offers a great incentive to keep playing and try catch up with the people you are playing against.
I absolutly love this game, and rank it up there with one of my favourites. Its a great game to play in the evening with family and friends, and never seems to get boring. I definitely recommend you buy this game if you're looking for something different to your usual board games, and I think it's worth every penny!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Some people I used to work with tried to teach me this. I am not a person who is naturally good with numbers so I didn't really ever pick it up. Well reviewed.
blackmagicstar4 13.02.2009 15:23
nice review x
dynamicnurse 08.02.2009 15:44
I have never really been in to this game, but love the review!
very helpful by (100%):
