Saturday, November 08, 2008

#39: Das Faultier

Das Faultier
  • designer: Dominique Tellier
  • publisher: Eurogames
  • date: 1991
  • BoardGameGeek rank/rating: not ranked/5.68
  • age: 7+
  • # of players: 3-6
  • print status: OOP
  • cost: sorry... I couldn't find a copy for sale
Race games are easy to teach to kids (well, and adults). The goal is simple: be the first person/hedgehog/car/hare and/or tortoise to arrive at the finish line & you win.

Das Faultier (English: "The Sloth) is the anti-race game. All of the players are sloths and the goal is to the LAST player to get to the finish line. If you fall asleep on the way there, so much the better. (The snore tokens pictured with this mini-review are for just such occasions.)

The game is brain-dead simple - roll the die, move any sloth on the board if they are
  1. not sleeping
  2. not stacked beneath another sloth
Obviously, the idea is to push your opponents closer to the finish while protecting your own sloth from forward momentum by routing him down the longer paths, hiding him beneath other sloths, and putting him to sleep. There even are some spaces on the board which give the player whose sloth is placed there an action card - some are good & some are bad... basically, they just increase the craziness.

I'm not cheering for this game because it's the most strategic offering for kids... I'm cheering for this game because it has a lot of hosage in a light & silly package - kids & adults who don't usually like "mess with the other player" games don't mind this one because that's pretty much the entire game.

Kids as young as 5 can play, but they probably will do better by age 6 or 7. It's best with 5 or 6 players.

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