Game: Orchard

My daughter got a great card game for her birthday. It's called 'Orchard'. 

Game: Orchard
Game type: Card
Age range: 3 and up
Skills required: Only the identification of four colors
Cost: About $9
Basic idea: Players work cooperatively to collect fruit before the raven gets it.

The simplest games are often the best. This game has cards representing a path, each of four fruits, and baskets.

To set it up, you put the path cards down, lay the four fruit cards down in piles, give each player a basket card, and put the raven at the end of the path farthest from the fruit trees.

The die has a color matching each fruit, a raven, and a basket. On your turn, you roll the die. If you get a color, you take the card that matches (blue=plum, red=cherry, etc) and put it on your basket card.

Play continues with each player rolling and taking the fruit card the die indicates.

If the player rolls a basket, the player gets to choose two fruits for his/her basket.

If the player rolls the raven, then the raven moves one card closer to the fruit trees.

This is a cooperative game. It pits (ha!) all the players against the raven. If the players collect all the fruit before the raven reaches the end, the players win. If the raven gets to the end first, the players lose.

So, in my sample game shown, play has continued. Much fruit has been taken and the raven is moving down the path.

Eventually, some fruit is gone, but the game goes on.

In this sample, all the fruit was taken before the raven reached the end.

Yay! We win.

The whole family enjoys this game. The kids have even created a 'No Raven, No Raven' chant when we play. It's also helping our three-year-old with turn-taking. {Parents: this is a very quick game. Another big plus for us}

'The Orchard' was purchased at Piccolo Mondo toys. Look out--if my kids are invited to your birthday party, this just might be one of the gifts.