#85: Sandwürmchen

Sandwürmchen

• designer: Peter Lew
• publisher: Drei Magier Spiele
• date: 2004
• BoardGameGeek rank/rating: not ranked/6.1
• age: 6+
• # of players: 2-6
• print status: OOP?
• cost: $13.98 (cardhaus.com - this is a clearance price!)

Six baby sand worms have hidden themselves in their native habitat - sand. The folks at Drei Magier Spiele were kind enough to put it in the box - a lot of it! - so that the baby sand worms would feel right at home. Your job is to find them & remember where they have hidden themselves.

Yes, it's a pretty standard memory game (remember where the worms are hidden) but with some nice little twists. First, there's the sand. While some of it inevitably ends up on the table & on the players (it's very fine sand), it's really cool to dig with your finger for the worm, looking for a bit of color that says "I was right!" Second, there's the two-sectioned structure of the game:

• In the first part (the majority of the game), players flip over cards that tell them which worm to search for... if they're wrong, they leave the worm they've found on the surface & the next player gets to search. If they're right, they claim the card, re-bury the worms, and then have the opportunity to turn the game box in order to confuse the other players.
• The second part of the game occurs when all the cards have been distributed... the final six cards (one of each worm) are given to players in order (starting with the player with the least cards) - they place it next to the spot in the sand where they think that particular worm is hiding. When all the players have placed cards, the answers are revealed - and players who are correct get both the card & the worm!

The final score is the number of cards (1 point each) + the number of worms (2 points each)... and there's a tiebreaker, but I don't remember what it is. (Buy the game & read it yourself.)

As you've probably guessed, this is an "adult supervision" game... the combination of a box full of fine sand & small children is a recipe for disaster. (The rules suggest placing a towel beneath the box so it doesn't grind sand into the table surface when it's being turned.) Don't let that scare you away, however. My three-year-old begs to play this game - he loves digging up the worms & actually can play it pretty well.