Our New Favorite Game

I saw the game Castles and Knights (by Haba) in a store a few months ago, and thought it looked very intriguing.  When I ordered it for to give to Mr. SP for Christmas, I had a very good feeling about it, and it turns out that this game actually exceeds my expectations and hopes for a board game!  It has been a huge hit around here.

The object of the game is to work together to build towers out of blocks for the castle.  You are only allowed to build the tower using the orange stretchy tool, and everyone works together to try to build the towers before King Duncan arrives at the castle.  If the towers crumble too many times, King Duncan wins.  One of the first things that endeared me to this game when we opened it up to play was the working together component, and the idea of everyone winning together or losing together to wooden block.  This concept takes the emotional stress out of board games for some of us that need that, but is still kind of competitive for other people in our family who need tension and goals to make a board game interesting and fun.

In addition, it turns out that this game is highly flexible in how many people can play and how hard the building task is.  You can play with a timer, but we don’t because it’s too hard.  You can try to build numerous towers before King Duncan arrives at the castle, or just one tower.  We go for one tower, and that is plenty challenging enough.  The game is easier with two people, and harder with four people because it requires a lot more communication and cooperation.  Best of all, this game has proven to be exciting for pretty much all the kidlets, even Squirmy who likes watching commotion from his bouncing seat.

Mr. SP and I enjoyed building a few towers this afternoon.