Saturday, June 2, 2012

Ran King, Ran King, Let Down Your Apples

Day 31 - Ranking
Designed by Stefan Dorra and Ralf zur Linde

Ranking is a fun game to play with a small group of friends. I would recommend this game to those who enjoy Apples to Apples, and in my frank opinion it is much better than Apples to Apples (so, even if you don't enjoy Apples to Apples like myself, I think you could enjoy this one). The game is similar because each round a topic is chosen, and the player decides what item of theirs best fits the topic or category. In Ranking, players are choosing tiles with pictures of items and then they take turn comparing two different tiles moving one up in rank and the other down. The object of the game is to obviously get your tile ranked the highest and score the most points, but this gets a bit tricky because if other players catch on to what tile was yours, they can bring down your points and you may end up with nothing. I really like the idea of comparing two of the tiles and the ability to bring down your opponents if you can correctly guess which one is theirs. The game has a lot of bluffing going on which is always a good time and while you are comparing items, players come up with valid reasons for ranking the items they chose. This gives the game a fun story telling type element to the game.

The components are of good quality and their are more than 100 picture tiles and around 100 different categories as well. The game is made for 3 to 5 players, but I think the game could have been made to expand to more players. The artwork is pretty good. My only real complaint with the game so far is only that when you are putting tokens on people's tiles it quickly covers up the picture on that tile (I'm not sure what the best way around this would have been, and it really isn't a huge deal). The game also tries to be a bit clever and break up the work Ranking to fit the theme of the game by saying that the winner of the game becomes the Ran King (this confused us all a bit, and I felt it was a bit of a stretch - they could have had the king theme without declaring someone a Ran King). Tonight I played the game with 7 people, including myself, and so we had 2 teams of 2 while we played. I'm thinking when we play again with 7 people and it could still work out pretty well. Anyway, the game only takes 30 minutes or so allowing for a quick rematch, an earlier bed time, or time to play another board game. Team Nathan and Nicole were the victors tonight (congratulations again on the win). Next time you get dragged into playing Apples to Apples, tell your friend that they need to purchase Ranking instead, or make a note of it and give it to them for Christmas or their birthday and that is How Lou Sees It.

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