Tag: games

Floats McGoats: A Timberdoodle Family Friendly Strategy Game Review

With children ranging in age from 2 to 19, it can be challenging to find games everyone can enjoy.  The age range for Floats McGoats from Timberdoodle was pretty wide, and so I was excited to give it a try.

What is Floats McGoats?

The backstory: A boat full of goats has capsized, and you must save your goats by getting them safely on a raft. Each player (2-4 players) has both adult and baby goats in a specific color. Players add boards to the raft to secure their goats. Each goat has to be surrounded on all three sides. During their turns, players roll the dice to determine if they are moving boards on the board, moving goats, adding new goats, or adding new boards.

Players have to use strategy to get enough of their goats onto the board and safely secure them on the raft. There is some luck involved in the dice roll, but the winner is often determined through strategy and logic.

Our Experiences with Floats McGoats

The boys were automatically excited to try it just because of the “funny name”.  It took me a few minutes to read the instructions to understand what needed to happen, and then I explained it to my seven-year-old and my eleven-year-old. Within the first few minutes of play, they had the hang of the game and were enjoying themselves.

We took the game in our camper on a recent trip, and they played multiple rounds each day. Throughout the weekend, they played with my husband, my eighteen-year-old daughter, my nineteen-year-old son, and myself. While the two-year-old cannot really play Floats McGoats (though he did enjoy trying to steal the goats while everyone else played), everyone else enjoyed the game.

What We Loved:

  • A Game For Multiple Ages
  • Quick Rounds
  • Teaches Logic and Strategy
  • Fun and Educational

Our Recommendations

Overall, Floats McGoats was a great game. With busy lives and active boys, games that last for hours really do not work for our family. However, each round of this game took us only 10 to 15 minutes, which was awesome. If you have more time, you can play multiple rounds, and as players learn more, strategy games may take a little bit longer.

The recommended age was 10+, but my seven-year-old had no problems learning how to play. With a little parental support at the beginning, I think most elementary school students could learn to play, and it is also enjoyable for teens and adults.

Some educational games feel like education made into a game. However, Floats McGoats feels like a game that happens to be educational. My boys never realized they were learning strategy and logic.

I would recommend it to any family looking for a fun game to enjoy together, or to parents who want a way to encourage their children to work on logic and strategy.  Visit Timberdodle to find out more and purchase your game.

Hnefatafl or Viking Chess Timberdoodle Review

Our family owns a fairly impressive array of board games; we get at least one new game every year for Christmas, but we often pick up games throughout the year. Included in this collection are several chess boards. With this in mind, I was intrigued by the opportunity from Timberdoodle to review the game Hnefatafl, also known as Viking chess.

What is Hnefatafl?

When I first saw that the game was called Viking chess, I wondered if it was just chess with different pieces. I’ve seen a variety of themed chess games (for example, we own a Lord of the Rings chess game that uses figures from Lord of the Rings for the pieces) that are played just like chess but with different pieces.

However, Hnefatafl is not chess. It is similar to chess in that it is a two-person strategy game in which you move pieces around on a checkered board. However, the board is set up differently, the game’s goals are different, and it has its own set of rules.

There are two distinct sides in Hnefatafl; there is the side of the king, and their goal is to get the king safely to any of the four corners of the board. The other side’s goal is to keep the king away from the corners and to capture the king by surrounding him.

Our Experience with Hnefatafl

Our game arrived at our home a few days before we were to leave for a camping trip. Since we did not have time to try it out before we left, we packed it into the camper and brought it with us. I’m so glad we did because there were many rounds played on that trip (and continuing at home).

I was expecting it to be a big hit with my eleven-year-old, and he does enjoy it, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much my seven-year-old also enjoyed it. He was happy to challenge his siblings, dad, and even his cousins to rounds of the game.

Playing with family in the camper.

We found that defending the king seemed to be a bit easier side to play, so we made sure to let people take turns being on different sides.

My daughter was quickly reminded that despite the term “Viking chess,” it is not actual chess when she got so busy trying to take her brother’s pieces that she forgot to watch the king and lost in just a few moves.

Most of our rounds only took a few minutes to play, although they did become a little longer as everyone started to figure out more effective strategies. I was grateful that the rounds were short, as I find that games that go on and on tend to lead to drama in our home (I’m looking at you, Monopoly), and it’s also harder to find time to fit those into our days. However, this game works great for them to play while I finish fixing dinner or when they have a few minutes before the next activity.

After several weeks of learning to play, my seven-year-old son pulled it out while we had an extra teen in the house, and it turned out he had the game and had been playing for years. They loved getting to play with him and learn so extra strategy from someone who had been playing for awhile.

Learning More Strategies

Who Would Benefit from Hnefatafl?

While it will undoubtedly vary from child to child, children as young as five or six could learn to play Hnfatafl, and it is a game that adults can still enjoy.  The game helps work on attention to detail and strategy. It will make a great addition to your family’s game collection.

Overall, we may not be able to pronounce Hnefatafl correctly, but we can highly recommend it for children and adults who enjoy strategy games. We love that it’s great for a variety of ages, easy to learn, only takes two players, generally each round is not too long, and it helps develop skills like attention to detail and strategy.   You can find out more and order your set from Timberdoodle. It is also included in their fourth-grade curriculum kit.

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