This text is part of the special school break notebook
Hard to get children and teenagers off their screens during spring break? To reconnect everyone together around a family activity that combines laughter and reflection, nothing beats a good board game!
In the “player” family, I ask: the youngest with not yet very developed attention (he has just slipped under the table), the mother already tired of listening to the rules, the grandfather who is dozing a little, the grandmother who wants it to be quick, the father who gets angry trying to decipher the hermetic language of the rule book, and the teenager who only wants one thing: to go back to TikTok. In these conditions, it is not easy to offer a game that will please everyone. Of course, there are always the unshakable ones Skulls, Love Letter or Happy Salmon to guarantee immediate pleasure at all ages — you can find our reviews of these titles on our website and, if you don’t know them, in a word: go for it! —, but if, like us, you have played so many games that the cards are as worn out as old beer mugs, yet another game loses a little of its charm. It is time to renew the pleasures, for example with Sir Sir.
Hello calves, cows, knights
In the medieval world of Sir Sir, everything is free ! Livestock animals (horses, rabbits, geese, etc.), but also knights, farms and farms, are distributed in full view, in several rows of cards. Each round, players will simultaneously point to the row of their choice while shouting “Sire! Sire! » then his number. If you are alone in a row, good for you, you pocket the cards present, which join your livestock. But very often, certain rows of cards, much more lucrative, interest several players. In this case, a card is removed, the players concerned take nothing and the game resumes. Sir Sir is therefore a game of tricks, not so far from the game of the seven families. The more of the same card you have, the more it multiplies its value, with interesting variations that reward risk-taking: only the person who has the most churches gains 10 points, for example. Or, we score 1 point for a single pig… but 15 points if we manage to get all 5! The game thus forces us to concentrate on our combinations, while keeping an eye on our competitors to better remove from under their noses the card which ended their series. We were won over by Sir Sira fast and intense game that can be explained in two minutes, with just the right amount of wit to excite the little annoying person in all of us.
Bees in space
The theme ofApiary pique the interest! Humans disappeared and bees evolved to take our place. Better: equipped with an organization based on mutual aid, they succeeded where we failed: to conquer space. Apiary is a worker placement game, inspired by the German school. Little chance, few frustrating interactions between players, but an unstoppable mechanic where each decision has an effect on the game in the long term. The key word here is: concentration. You’ll have a burning brain, that’s for sure. If discussions and negotiations were at the heart of Sir Sir, here, a tense silence prevails, everyone tending to develop in their heads the perfect sequence for their next turns. The mechanics are classic: in turn, you place one of your four workers somewhere on the board to resolve an action: space exploration, exchange of resources (honey, fibers, wax, etc.), card draw, development alveoli, etc. But the number of possible actions is confusing, while their implication remains a mystery for a long time. Why explore space rather than build a farm when both yield resources? Why develop your hive instead of developing your workers? We feel trapped in the dream of a slightly crazy mathematician. The abstract mechanics ofApiary will leave even the most seasoned players in the fog, to the point, let’s put it bluntly, of wanting to close the box during the game, promising to come back one day (which we probably won’t do). Never). That would be a serious mistake. Suddenly, during the first introductory game, everything finally makes sense, with an emphasis on collaboration between players, faithful to the hive theme, which brings a real freshness to the genre. Apiary is a playful marvel, a jewel crafted to perfection whose flavor you only perceive after having peeled the first layers of the onion: you will want to cry a little at first, but once well prepared, it may occupy your table for a long time.
This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Duty, relating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.