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Wir sind die Roboter
Agame in which you have to syn- chronize your own rhythm with that of the others? This sounds suspiciously like Wolfgang Warsch’s The Mind. But can this work with children as well? This is exactly what Wir Sind Die Roboter is hoping to prove.
Each action board shows a racetrack that players move along – but not with
figures, fingers or words, but only in their mind. On your turn, you start your move with a “beep” and end it with another “beep” at the item determined by your hidden hand card. The other members of the team know only the speed: slow, normal or fast. If players manage to guess the correct item, the team receives three chips. The object of the game is to collect
as many chips as possible within eleven robot moves.
The two “beeps” often are worlds apart. The fact that the team has to adjust to three different speeds and that one player might move much faster in his mind than another player makes Wir sind die Robo- ter a tough nut to crack to begin with, especially in a game with many players. If the timing doesn’t work out at all, it might help if the players enumerate in their mind the names of all the items along the track – slowly, normally or fast, of course. This way, sooner or later players will come to terms with the cooperative task amazingly well – and, above all, will learn how much they can achieve if they adapt themselves to the other players’ rhythm. Katrin Reil/sbw
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Hans im Glück
The game is a real trendsetter in the matter of minimalism: When players in Hans im Glück, by Peter Wichmann, gradually convert lumps of gold into a cloverleaf, players can still learn something akin to “less is more”.
As in the fairy tale of the same name by the Brothers Grimm, children make trades across the animal kingdom, from big animals to small. Two dice determine what you can trade: The red die indicates how many chips of one kind you have to give up, whereas the blue one shows how many chips of a different kind you get in return. For instance, you can convert four lumps of gold into two horses, or three pigs into one goose.
Because of the uneven distribution of the numbers rolled, the actions often cost more chips than they yield. If, for this reason, you occasionally are not able or not willing to trade, you may take lumps of gold instead and thus increase your supply. The end of the chain is to exchange a goose (or geese) for a four- leaf clover – the player who gives up
enough fowl to claim the lucky clover wins the game.
In Hans im Glück, you primarily need one thing indeed: luck. In most cases, your own scope for action is pretty limited, and you have only one possible action. There- fore, it is a good alternative that you may also pass a complete turn. In any case, pre- schoolers and children of early elementary school age will have plenty of fun; and
even adults might find the swap mania from lumps of gold into a cloverleaf grip- ping and entertaining. Katrin Reil/sbw
Wir sind die Roboter (NSV) by Reinhard Staupe; for 2–6 children, about 5+ years; duration: about 15 minutes; price: about 9 €.
Hans im Glück (Haba) by Peter Wichmann; for 2–4 children, about 6+ years; duration: about 10 minutes; price: about 7 €.
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