Sloetsly

I really like this family focus review. I’ve got three kids between 3 and 6, and am on the lookout for new games to introduce them to, and to keep them busy and away from the TV.
I recently picked up Hisss and Toc Toc Woodman (I scouted them out because they are on Boardgaming.com). Another family favourite is My First Carcassonne. They also like Hoot Owl Hoot by Peaceable Kingdom. It’s my 3 year old’s favourite.
The only problem I have with 3+ games is their limited timespan of interest. My current thought is that 6+ games begin to have a useful life of more than just a year or two, and sometimes last into adulthood. Qwirkle is an example of this.
If Orchard can hold a child’s interest from 3 all the way to 6 years of age, that’s pretty good.

Had an evening of light games with family last night. – Love Letter, Ticket To Ride, and King of Tokyo. It was fast moving and fun!

I picked up King of Tokyo a couple days ago. With a few young children in the home, short fast games seem the way to go at this stage. Even so, it’s hard to find the opportunity to play. Maybe today we’ll get a chance to try it out! Although digital is not my preferred way of gaming, it is often the only option, and lately I’ve gotten a bit addicted to San Jaun.

@HarryCallaghan79
If your power plant can only power two generators (or houses as you call them), then that’s all it can do, even if you’ve got extra fuel saved up for it.
Regarding the purchase of generators, you can purchase as many as you want, even if they aren’t going to be powered that turn.

Could a “Your Turn Discussion” be set up to continue this conversation? I think it would be interesting. Perhaps discussions on this topic have come up before, but I’ve yet to come across them. I am curious about how others approach plays.

Personally, I’m in ‘The Game’ in a rather limited way, and don’t ever expect to be near top ranks. I participate more as a solo player, and have come up with restrictions for my own plays that I’m comfortable with. For example, if a game takes an hour or more to play, and I play more than once, I will log each play in a day. However, if I play a short game like King of Tokyo or Love Letter a few times in a day, I’ll count just one play, or else my plays could rack up quickly, and disadvantage stats for longer games that I may play for a comparable number of minutes or hours. Using expansions, I’ll only count one game as one play, and I no longer add plays for digital games. This is just my preference, and since I log my plays for myself, I have no issues with the approaches that different players use.

One reason I have for my approach is to force me to limit my purchases. I don’t want to blow my family’s budget on games, and want to only buy games if I’m playing them. I have goals for the number of plays I log between purchases. Right now I’ve got 22 BGdot games in my collection and just over 220 plays of games, including ones I own as well as ones I don’t own, so that’s a ratio of about 10:1. I want to make sure that ratio doesn’t slip, and in fact grows, maybe up to 11:1 or 12:1 in a year or two. So, to buy more games I need to play more, and not just a bunch of quick plays.

I look forward to hearing other approaches to the game!

I just received my copy of String Safari in the mail, and am hoping that it will be a great game for my six year old to learn and play. However, the first thing I noticed is that the box says it’s for ages 10 and up, not six and up, whereas boardgame sites say 6 and up. Hmmm. I went to the IDW website and it doesn’t specifically state an age recommendation, but just says there’s plenty of fun for both younger gamers and more experienced. Perhaps this is due to there being both basic and advanced rule sets. Perhaps the box recommendation of 10 years is for the advanced rule set?

On another note, I’m writing this in August 2015, and IDW Games’ website states that the game is currently in development and will be released in March of 2015. Perhaps it’s time for a website update!

Anyway, I’m looking forward to trying it out with the family!

I ordered this game online from Walmart in Canada for $10 with free shipping! It arrived today and my young kids, as well as my wife and I, had a great time playing for a bit this afternoon. The quality isn’t terrific (I’m sure it’s quite poor compared to the original version) but for the price it’s good fun! My four year old son especially loves it. I just ordered a couple more for birthday presents.