The 12 Game Gifts of Christmas: 1st Day
Christmas is just around the corner and I’ve got board games on the brain – again. I like to give and get games for Christmas. This morning I woke up with a variation of the classic Twelve Days of Christmas playing in my head, so I put together this little ditty, followed up by a few details on the games mentioned. I call it The 12 Game Gifts of Christmas. I’ll post one verse a day for twelve days.
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
A Hanabi co-op card game.
1 Hanabi Co-op Card Game
Hanabi, named for the Japanese word for “fireworks”, is a cooperative game in which players try to create the perfect fireworks show by playing cards of each color (white, red, blue, yellow and green) in ascending order. The deck consists of five different colored suits of cards, numbered 1-5 in each color. For each color, there are three 1s; two 2s, 3s and 4s; and one 5.
The catch is that players can’t see their own cards: you have to hold your cards so that they’re visible only to other players. To assist other players in playing a card, you can give them hints regarding either the numbers they hold or the colors of their cards. For example, you could point to a card and tell a player, “This is a one.” However, when you give a clue, you have to tell them all of the cards that match that property. So if the player has three 1’s, you have to point out all three of them, even if you really only want to tell them about one of them. Alternately, you can point out all of the cards of the same color: “These are blue.”
You only have eight clues at your disposal. To recover used clue tokens, you’ll have to discard a card from your hand instead of giving a clue or playing a card – your other two options on your turn. When you complete a stack by playing the 5, you also recover a clue.
To win Hanabi – and it’s certainly not as easy as it sounds – you must work as a team to avoid errors (you can only make two mistakes, the third loses you the game) and to complete the fireworks display with the numbers 1 to 5 – in ascending order for each color – before the deck runs out.
Hanabi is an awesome cooperative card game for 2 to 4 players ages 8 and up. Play time is about 30 minutes, but don’t be surprised if you’ll want to immediately play again.
Copyright © 2018 by Tina G. McDuffie. All rights reserved.
Photo rights retained by their respective copyright holders.
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