Tales & Games: The Grasshopper & the Ant
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The Grasshopper & the Ant is the fourth title in Purple Brain Games’ “Tales & Games” series, each of which comes packaged in a book-shaped box. In this game, players take turns playing the part of the industrious ants and the grasshopper content to sponge off the labor of the ants.
The Grasshopper & the Ant includes two ways to play, but the heart of both is the same. At the start of the game, lay out 16 (of the 48) path cards in a 4×4 grid; each path card shows one of four types of landscapes. The ant player places six ants on these cards, one ant per card, with the ants forming a chain (as in real life), then secretly chooses one type of terrain on which at least one ant stands. The grasshopper player then stands with one of the ants, and if the grasshopper chose the same landscape as the ant player, the grasshopper takes all the path cards of this type on which an ant stands; if the grasshopper chose incorrectly, then the ant player takes these path cards. Either way, you then refill the 4×4 grid. The ant player keeps playing until she finally wins path cards, then the next player in clockwise order controls the ants. (In winter mode, the third and fourth players control red ants and receive a random path card if they match the choice of the ant player.)
In autumn mode, players score path cards immediately, with each type being tracked independently; path cards that feature insects are saved for a endgame bonus. As soon as a player maxes out two scoring tracks, the game ends and whoever has the most points wins.
In winter mode, players keep the path cards they collect in order to buy provision cards (worth one victory point), which cost particular combinations of path types. In this mode, when you win a path card that features an insect, you can claim another card in the grid that features the same insect. Collect both provision cards of the same type, and you score a bonus VP. The first player to collect 4 VPs wins.
Ages | 8+ |
---|---|
Players | 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players |
Play Time | 30m |
Designer | Yoann Levet |
Mechanics | Set Collection, Stock Holding |
Theme | Animals, Bluffing, Novel-based |
Publisher | 2 Pionki, GoKids 玩樂小子, Purple Brain Creations, Asmodee, Asterion Press, IELLO, Lex Games, Portal Games |
Kjuba
Tales & Games: The Grasshopper & the Ant (Skákací koník a mravenec) je chytrá hra inspirovaná pohádkami, ve které otestujete svou bystrost, odvahu, schopnost blafovat i taktiku. Hra je určena pro celou rodinu a na konci vítězí ten, kdo přečká zimu a nasbírá více zásob.
hcsapparel01
Bluff and guess! I LOVE IT! The autumn mode is fun and all, but I prefer the winter mode better! Cant wait for another game of this! The artwork is STELLAR!!
Muse23PT
And this was another surprise form Tales and Games... They make this series of games based on Fairy Tales for kids, but they usually include some sort of advanced rules in them too to make them interesting to adults also... And this one is pretty cool... We played the "Winter" version of the game, I think that's the name, the advanced version and in it one player is the Ant, another the Grasshopper and the rest are whatever you want I don't remember if they had a specific name... The ant makes a path in the tiles that form the board and those tiles are surfaces, like wood, floor, table cloth and another one... they can also have insects in them... The ant marks that path with 6 ant meeples and then selects one of the surface type that the meeples he placed are on... The Grasshopper and the other players try to deduce what surface the Ant picked... If the Grasshopper is right he gets all the Surface Tiles that match that one where there are ants on... and no one else gets nothing... If the Grasshopper is wrong, the Ant gets all those tiles and the other players that guessed right get one Random Tile from the tile deck... These tiles are the currency to trade for objectives that we want to pick up and that require specif types of surfaces to reach... Each one is worth 1 Point, if you get 2 objectives of the same type they are worth 3 points, and the first player to 4 points wins... You can only claim those objectives when you get the tiles either has the Ant or the Grasshopper... so you can see what a player has, what objectives are on the display and what he might be going for and you try to get inside his head and deduce what he's going for... But that would be too easy for everyone to guess what the Ant wants... The twist is that some tiles have insects and when that happens instead of picking up the tile you can exchange that tile for another one that's on the board that has the same insect! and here is where the second guessing comes in... is he going for the obvious and easy to deduce tile? is he seeing that he can get the tile he needs by picking that surface that has the same insect has the one he needs? is he going to stall and go for a completely different surface? And there's also another cool twist to this, if you pick a tile that has an insect, you can discard it and receive a card that has the same insect that gives you a special power, be it a +1 Point, being able to use 2 of the same surface as a different surface to claim an objective, being able to trade one of your claimed objectives with one from another player, etc... The game is pretty darn cool!!