To the slow-and-steady goes the race, learn to pace yourself in Hare & Tortoise.
Written: Jan 29 '06 (Updated Jan 29 '06)
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Pros: Fun to play with 4-6 players, kids and adults play on equal ground, great educational-game.
Cons: Can be difficult to explain to new-players, really needs 4 or more players to shine.
The Bottom Line: This unique game takes the classic fable and creates a very playable game for the whole family. Once past the short learning curve it's full-speed to the finish line.
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| openroad's Full Review: Hare and Tortoise |
Hare & Tortoise
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Release date: 2000
Street Price: $20 - $25
Game Details: 2 - 6 players
Ages: 12 and older
Game Time: 45-60 minutes
Awards: Spiel Des Jahres
German Game of the Year 1979
----- Game explanation -----
Thanks to the crew at USA-Based Rio Grande Games those of us in North America have a chance to play this very addictive game from Germany. At its heart Hare & Tortoise is a racing game, only unlike most games of this genre there are no dice involved in movement. As with most racing games the object is to finish the race in front of everyone else, however in H&T the way you move around the board is completely up to you. The title is somewhat misleading as there are no tortoises as playable characters in the game. Each player takes a hare token and begins the game with 65 carrots. Carrots are the 'fuel' that power your hare through the game. Moving around the spaces requires you to spend your carrots to advance, the more spaces you move in one turn the more carrots you'll expend. Besides carrots each player also starts with 3 lettuce cards. You must 'eat' all three lettuce cards before you reach the end of the race or you can't cross the finish line.
Various spaces on the board will affect your carrot supply in various ways, cause you to move forward or backward in race positions, and cause various interactions with other players. You'll have to predict your opponents moves enough to stay one step ahead (or behind) them in order to keep the carrots flowing into your hand. However, blessed are the poor in carrots near the finish line. To win the race (and the game) you must have less than 10 carrots in your possesion to cross the finish line. Carrots, lettuce, and speed, it's coleslaw for the mind as you try to outwit and outrace your fellow hares to the finish line. Will you be the slow and steady or fast and furious player?
----- My experiences with the game -----
To start the game each player takes their 65 carrots, chooses one of the six different colors of Hare tokens, and receives a player-reference card. On the front of your reference card is the movement cost calculator to find the correct carrot cost for each move. The back of your card shows the Hare-Space resolution chart. I'll describe both of these in detail below. All players start on the starting line (duh!) and decide who goes first by rolling the die.
Tortoise Space: After reading my introduction you're probably wondering where the Tortoise aspect of the game comes into play. Unlike most games you can not only move forward but also backward when you need to. To do well at Hare & Tortoise you'll need to know when you race forwards and when to back up a few spaces. The only legal space you can move backward to is the Tortoise space. When you back up and land on a Tortoise space you receive carrots from the bank equal to 10X the number of spaces you moved backwards. If you move five spaces back to land on a tortoise you don't pay anything for the move and receive 50 carrots from the bank.
Carrots, Moving, Etc: Moving forward seems simple at first until you start moving longer distances. Each player starts with 65 carrots in various card amounts, these must be spent wisely as it's much easier to spend carrots than to get more. Movement costs accrue the further you move and quickly adds up. The game takes the distance for each space moved and adds them together for your total carrot cost. For example, moving four spaces costs 10 carrots; 1 + 2 + 3 + 4. Going 10 spaces will cost you 55 carrots while moving 5 spaces twice on two separate turns only sets you back 30 carrots. As you can see there's a lot of strategy in how you move and when you decide to back up and reload on carrots. You don't need to figure out each and every move in your head thanks to the handy player-reference card movement chart. If you want to move your token 15 spaces you simply look and chart and pay the back the amount listed to the right of the 15-space box.
Lettuce Space: In between moving forward and back you'll somehow have to get rid of all three lettuce cards you start the game with. There's only four lettuce squares on the game board, with 6 players there's a huge battle for each lettuce space. To 'eat' a lettuce players much spend one whole turn on the lettuce space without moving. After 'eating' their lettuce each player takes carrots from the bank equal to 10X their current position in the race. For example, a player in 4th place (positioned 4th furthest away from the finish line) has just eaten a lettuce card, they now take 40 carrots from the back and resume moving next turn.
Hare Space: To mix things up a bit you always have the option of landing on a Hare space. This is a 'wild' space where you roll a die to see what action occurs. Each player receives a playing card with the Hare-Space actions on the back in a mini-spreadsheet. On the left is listed each number on the die from 1 to 6. Along the top are the possible positions in the race from 1 to 6. To find which action occurs you slide your finger from your current position in the race until you line up with the number rolled by your die. This chart causes the Hare-Space to definitely favor players in 4th, 5th, and 6th place as the results are more favorable the farther back you are. It really doesn't make much sense to intentionally land on the Hare when you're in 1st place. Possible actions include: Lose your turn, eat a lettuce card free, pay no carrots for your last move, take/give 10 carrots, go forward/back one race position, and several more.
Winning the Game: Like many other things in Hare & Tortoise winning the game requires thinking ahead and carrot-counting to be successful. Before crossing the finish line you must have all 3 lettuce cards eaten and have less than 10 carrots in your hand (not counting carrots spent to move over the finish line). There's one last lettuce space 7 spaces before the finish line, and let me tell you it gets pretty crowded around there. If you have too many carrots to cross the finish line you'll have to either keep moving backward until you get far enough back you can spend all your carrots in one big forward move. Usually there's quite a race to the finish for first by at least two or three players which makes for a decidedly tasty victory! Unlike most games losing players continue playing for 2nd, 3rd, etc. until all players have finished.
----- Bottom Line -----
While this game looks like a 8 year old drew the box cover and it's a sister-game to Chutes & Ladders, there's enough depth here to satisfy most any adult. In spite of it's appeal to grown-ups kids still like to play even if they don't have the treachery required to be an expert Hare-Brained player.
Having no kids of my own my experience with smaller kids and this game is limited, but young teens get into it enough they enjoy playing multiple times. As a learning game Hare & Tortoise is excellent as it teaches not only math and deductive reasoning but pushes players to think ahead and requires peer-to-peer interaction. If you really want to push the learning up a level give your kids pad of paper instead of a player reference card and make them figure out the carrot cost for each move. I've found kids will put their brain to work for a game much faster than a page of math problems. I only gave this game 4 stars since it's a bit tricky to teach new players, the best way is to explain the basics and then just play a game with them. You also might get tired of Hare & Tortoise if you play it too much as the basics of the game never change. As a different and unique game for the whole family you can't go wrong with Hare & Tortoise.
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Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!
openroad
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 23.00
Type of Toy: Board Game
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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