YORKTON - The Meeple Guild is going to be providing some added ‘mini’ reviews over the next several weeks targeted at making for a better holiday season.
The season can be hectic, and it can be expensive, so we’ll offer some low-cost game alternatives to play with family, neighbours and friends as a way to relax a little.
At the heart of these games is the greatest game system of them all – a standard deck of cards.
A 52-card deck (54 with Jokers), opens a world of games to players. Add a second deck and dozens of other games are playable. Add a few D6 dice, some buttons as markers, and more games are playable.
A bit of time on the ‘Net and you will find hundreds of free game rules.
So, to start, follow here the next few weeks and we’ll cover some rather varied games and we’ll start with a few with a Halloween flavour as that is sort of the start of the festive season.
For week one we have Three Hags from designer Mark S. Ball.
This one is a two-player shedding and climbing game combo, using a pared down deck – you strip out the spades and play with the remaining 39 cards.
The idea here is to empty your hand first, playing singles, pairs, and triplets (3-of-a-kind or a run) to the table. The opponent may follow but only if the play a higher value ‘set’ – thus the climbing aspect.
The game gets its name from the Queens being designated ‘Hags’ here – seemed Halloween-ish to us. They are the lowest-ranked of the cards but have strength in certain combos.
Continuing with the theme Kings are ‘Imps’ which are basically wild cards.
Jacks are ‘Brooms’ which when matched with a Hag are a powerful combo, and the Jack of Clubs is the hugest value single card in play.
Whoever empties their hand first scores points based off what the opponent still holds in-hand. The first one to 75 points wins.
The game takes a little to grasp the combo structure but ultimately plays as easily as the highly familiar Gin Rummy, and actually plays more quickly.
This is a game that can easily hit the table over coffee, and allows some chatting along with card play once you get into Three Hags as it plays so smoothly.
A good start to our card game excursion. Check it out in more detail at www.riffleshuffleandroll.com/three-hags
