Animals

As a little pig, your dearest wish is to build a strong and beautiful house in which you can spend your long winter evenings. But you won’t need trowels nor scaffoldings, as only dice will allow you to construct your dream home. Beware the wolf prowling around, whose only thought is to literally blow down your comfy house!

The Three Little Pigs is an easy and fun dice game for the whole family. On your turn, roll the special pink dice up to three times and try to generate symbols to trade for doors, windows, and roofs made of straw, wood, and brick. The more beautiful and voluminous your house is, the more points you will earn at the end of the game. If you generate two wolf symbols, take a huff and puff and blow someone's house down!

This original game comes in a box decorated to look like a storybook and includes an illustrated version of the famous tale of the Three Little Pigs.

Arimaa, pronounced "a-ree-muh" is a game where stronger animals like elephants and camels freeze, push and pull the weaker ones from the opposing team around and into traps while one of the rabbits tries to sneak across the board and harmlessly reach the other side. The first player to get one of their rabbits to the other side wins.

This may sound like a simple kids game; and while it is easy enough for your kids to learn and enjoy, you will find that it is also a very deep game that can take a lifetime to master. Arimaa is one of the deepest strategy games ever invented in the history of mankind, but designed to look intuitively simple. No two games of Arimaa are ever the same. There is much to learn and discover about this intuitively simple, yet intellectually challenging game.

Played on a 8x8 grid with four trap squares and 32 animal pieces(16 gold and 16 silver). Each player has an elephant, camel, 2 horses, 2 dogs, 2 cats and 8 rabbits.
Strength hierarchy: Elephant>Camel>Horse>Dog>Cat>Rabbit.

The game begins with an empty board. Gold places the sixteen gold pieces first in any configuration on the first and second ranks. Silver then places the sixteen silver pieces in any configuration on seventh and eighth ranks. Then gold moves its pieces first. A player can move up to four "steps" each turn. All pieces move orthogonally.

History:
Arimaa was invented by Omar Syed, an Indian American computer engineer trained in artificial intelligence. Syed was inspired by Garry Kasparov's defeat at the hands of the chess computer Deep Blue to design a new game which could be played with a standard chess set, would be difficult for computers to play well, but would have rules simple enough for his then four-year-old son Aamir to understand. ("Arimaa" is "Aamir" spelled backwards plus an initial "a").
In 2002 Syed published the rules to Arimaa and announced a $10,000 prize, available annually until 2020, for the first computer program (running on standard, off-the-shelf hardware) able to defeat each of three top-ranked human players in a three-game series.

The second game from Fragor Games, featuring a flock of sheep and their attempts to be in the right place at the right time. Much gambolling, some tupping, lots of shearing.

Publisher Blurb:

"'The Best Game Ewe Ever Herd!'

Ah, do ewe long for the life of a sheep? Bright summer days filled with games of tag and attempts to flock closer to Roger, the Heartthrob Ram? But, Watch Out! The shearer wants to drag you away from all the fun and games!

In Shear Panic, ewe maneuver your ewes to score points, playing tag, standing close to Roger, or trying to avoid the shearing scissors! Will your brave sheep score the most points, or will it be "Off with the wool" for ewe?"

The game includes eleven small figurines (which are somewhat fragile): Two each of four different colors, one black, one 'Roger', and one 'Shearer'. Also included are four player mats in different colors; a timing/scoring mat; 48 mutton buttons in four colors; four scoring markers; one flock marker; and two special six-sided dice.

There are two separate play areas: The one where the flock of sheep figurines are clustered; and the combination timing/scoring mat. (The timing mat is two-sided for 3 or 4 players.) Actions by the players each turn cause the timing marker to move faster or slower through each of the four fields, and the scoring is different in each field.

Field 1 is Team Tag. Players score higher for keeping their sheep closer together. Field 2 is Roger’s Field, where players score more the closer they are to Roger (the ram). Field 3 is Black Sheep Tag, and players score higher the closer they are to the black sheep. Field 4 is the Shear Panic Field, and the row of sheep closest to the shearer figure are eliminated each turn, while the remainder are scored individually. The timing marker indicates which Field the sheep are currently “in”.

Players have a total of twelve actions they may take during the course of the game, and as each one is used, a “mutton button” is placed over it, eliminating it from future use. Also, the more powerful the action, the farther (faster) the timing marker will move. If the timing marker lands on a red spot, the active player executes a free “lamb slam” by rolling the Panic Die and moving a sheep of the color rolled one space in any direction. If the Panic Die rolls white, the entire flock does a “ewe turn” ninety degrees in a direction of the active player’s choice.

Since all the player mats are visible to everyone, players need to keep an eye on what moves are still available to their opponents.

The game is intended for three or four players, but rules for a two-player variant are included.

Starting player is the person who most recently was sheared (had their hair cut).

Designed by Reiner Knizia and illustrated by the incredibly talented Ursula Vernon, In BlackSheep, players try to corral the best combination of cows, horses, chickens and more while avoiding the mischievous black sheep. BlackSheep is perfect for two to four players ages eight and up. -From the FFG website.

There's a lot of randomness here, but also room for elementary strategy. Players make poker hands from two shared cards (figurines of ranked animals) and three of their own (these are actual cards). There are three such hands playing simultaneously, with players adding one or two cards at a time to any hand on their turn. When all players have played three cards onto a hand, a winner is chosen, based on the poker ranks. The winner takes the two shared cards (animal figurines), and new shared cards are added. At the end of the game, scores are calculated by summing numbers printed on the bottoms of the figurines they captured and some bonuses. The black sheep figurines are worth negative points.

From the publisher's catalog:

"Who will be the first player to get rid of the dangerous eggs of the Rattlesnakes?

Rattlesnake is an easy, fun game for kids of all ages. The game will challenge their strategy and dexterity!

Players will compete to be the first to place all their 'snake eggs' on the board, but these funny magnetic 'eggs' will clash if you make the wrong move, and then you will have to pick them all up!

The first game published by Nexus for family entertainment, Rattlesnake will be a sure hit with parents and younger players, as well as seasoned gamers looking for a fresh, quick dexterity game."

Contents
- 12 magnets
- A special die
- Playing board
- Rulebook

Microbadges

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