Memorising the underside of certain tiles definitely helps, but is not essential, meaning that anyone can play from the age of 3 and up, although the game is certainly illustrated with kids in mind.

The game is soon to be available in the UK, costing around £18. See www.isimat.fr or email muellbauer@lycos.com for details

17:T74a,

Isabelle & Isabeau takes us back to the Mediaeval days when knights were bold and princesses charming! Bit like "families", but the dice make the difference.

Basic Rules:

In this game, you try to win as if you were playing a game of "pure" families - indeed you need to build two families of six similar cards to win. But the dice make things interesting.

There are 3 of them: the first is a Character die that denotes either you or one of your opponents, and the other two are Action dice. Typical actions are: draw a card, place a card, discard a card, steal a card from an opponent, swap hands with an opponent, roll again etc etc.

When it is your turn you roll the dice. You will perform one of the actions on the Action dice, knowing that the other one must be carried out by the person shown on the Character die. You choose who is going to do what, and in what order.

Isabelle & Isabeau game doesn't require any grand strategies, but the game mechanism conjures up some interesting combinations.
You may discard most of your hand only to swap it immediately with another player. You may may need to choose between the lesser of two evils yourself. Memory plays an important role: knowing who has which cards in their hand can be vital. And jokers and "veto" cards add some extra twists and turns.

In short, this is a quick, fun game with lots of "mediaeval" illustrations. Oh, and did you get the pun in the title? No? Time to brush up on your French grammar, then...

Games