The latest game we loaned from myfirstgames is The Kids of Carcassonne. My first thought was that this was quite similar to Wooly Bully but the addition of little wooden Meeples. This was easier to play than Wooly Bully since the tiles could be put down without colour-matching, and is apparently a kiddy version of the award winning adult’s game Carcassonne, which is named after a medieval fortified town in southern France, famed for its city wall.
The tiles have cute pictures of little children in one of four colours, running along “roads” whilst “catching animals” during this traditional festival. The premise of the game is to “close” roads with children of your “colour”, after which you can place your meeple down. Person who’s the first to place all your meeples on the board (8 per player) wins.
K grasped the concept quite quickly, though I would remind her when a road is “closed” and that we can place our meeples down. She tended to get absorbed in laying down the tiles (very particular about “this is your stack to take from, and this is mine”), but was still excited to put her meeples down.
Not hard to see why, since they are really cute stocky little things! I have an affinity for wooden toys, and these had a nice feel and grip to it.
Meepletown, haha.
In the middle of the game, she’d grin and say “If you win this time maybe next time K win.” She used to repeat to the gramps’ amusement “Mummy says it’s ok to be second”, which I droned into her when she started seeming a tad too competitive. The hubs and I had started this ‘See who can get seat-belted faster’ thing to speed up our little slow-coach (it works!!), but at times when she was slower to belt herself down as compared to whichever parent belts B (you can see how this can be rigged easily), we’d say “It’s ok to be second, K” which she’s happily internalised. Hopefully this doesn’t lead to her becoming excessively slack like her mum.
Since this is a four player game, it could also be played collaboratively, aka in a pakat way. Making a deal with another player to place tiles in a way that would benefit both of you (e.g. place tiles with children of both your colours in easily closed roads) is a good strategy to speed up winning. For us, we now play it in a way that’s most enjoyable, i.e. place it anyway you like and plonk the meeples down when possible, so that it’s a friendly game of chance as to who wins. K’s been asking to play it, alongside with Wooly Bully, so we decided to get a box of Kids of Carcassonne too!
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