Robert Wolf
United States
Springville
Utah
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I was introduced to S'Quarrels shortly before Christmas and I also got a chance to play S'Quarrels at the recent SaltCON game convention. We had 6 players, including the game inventor. After a brief introduction to the game, we got to playing.
The Goal:
To Store the most Acorns before WINTER hits. Players select a predetermined score (such as 50) to play to. After playing multiple rounds, the first player to reach the determined number wins the game!
The Setup:
Shuffle the cards and deal 7 cards to each player. Each player discards any Action cards and draws cards to get their hand back to 7 cards...in other words, your hand starts with NO action cards.
The Play:
The play is easy...draw, store, discard.
Draw - The player MUST draw at least one card and can choose to draw as many cards as they need to get to a maximum of 7 cards in their hand. If an action card is drawn, it must be resolved immediately...the different action cards are:
QUARREL - ALL players select a card from their hand, and at the same time turn their cards over. The highest card wins all the cards.
HOARD - All other players race to smack the ‘Hoard Pile.’ First one to have their hand on top of the deck wins! The WINNER takes the entire hoard pile and play continues from the winner immediately.
AMBUSH - Player randomly takes one card from each player’s hand then stores and discards.\
WHIRLWIND - Collect ALL players hands, shuffle them together, and then deal the cards out to everyone starting with the player that drew this card and going clockwise.
WINTER - This card ends the round...time to count up your points.
Store - The player may store any Acorn Cards in their hand, but they must be stored in groups of three...for example, there must be 3 cards showing 1 Acorn. Once a player starts storing, they CANNOT draw any more cards.
Discard - After they are done storing Acorn Cards, they MUST discard an Acorn Card face-down to the Hoard Pile.
Round End and Scoring:
When the Winter Card is drawn, the round ends and each player counts up their score. Each set of three cards count for their face value...for example, 3 Acorn Cards with 4 acorns on each counts as 4 points. There are also 2 special Acorn Cards, The Golden Acorn and The Rotten Acorn. If you end up with the Golden Acorn, you score +5 points. If you end up with the Rotten Acorn, your score -5 points.
Keep track of the points scored and play as many rounds as it takes to get to the goal score.
Review:
S'Quarrels is a fun and very simple card game. It is easy to understand and easy to teach to new players. I really like the randomness of the end of the round...after all, you never really know when Winter is going to hit. The theme is fun and kids seems to love it. It is a great game for younger kids, but older kids will enjoy it as well...overall, it is a great game for the whole family!
Overall, give S'Quarrels an 8 out of 10.
Check out other reviews on my blog.howlingfungames.com
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