Kid
Alter 5
Spezial
Witches confronting the Broom!
WITCHES’ DUEL
Mumbo Jumbo the Broom wields magic!
Today I would like to introduce you to a childrens‘ game that you should try by all means: Hexenduell – Witches’ Duel from Haba. Of course the game is first and foremost a game for children, ages 5 and up. But we have found out that adults can have a lot of fun with the game, too, getting their magical stones to safety.
The idea is very simple, but not so the handling of the broom. That needs a lot of dexterity.
Each player embodies one of four witches entering the magic duel. But not the other witches are your opponents, but the bewitched magical broom. Each witch in her turn must induce the magical broom to transfer her own magical stones into the witches cauldron, using mag(net)ic forces. This in itself would not be very difficult, were it not for the guardians of time, that apply enormous pressure to get to try their luck and dexterity for themselves. The first player who manages to move his four magical stones into the cauldron must only call out “Mumbo Jumbo little
broom – make the witch’s powers loom!” and will be named the new Chief Witch.
Using plain language that means: One player uses the magnetic witch piece to move the magnetic broom in a way so that the broom shoves one of the player’s glass pieces into the separated area in the middle of the board. While he does this all other players in turn embody the guardians of time and try to roll a time symbol. If one player has achieved this he passes the die to the next player. The last player to roll a time symbol calls “Witch Stop” and the turn of the player moving the broom ends, and it is the next player’s turn. His goes on until the first player has managed to place all his pieces in the secure area. And this can take time – the round glass pieces may only be touched with the round broom and the broom more often than not slides along the glass marbles and moves them into the wrong direction.
Of course, there are some rules for using the broom:
The witch figurine must always touch the board while pushing the broom
The active player may only touch the witch figurine, never the broom or the glass marbles
The glass marbles may only be pushed by the broom, not directly with the witch figurine.
All in all a really beautiful game which not only trains the hand-eye-coordination, but helps children to develop their understanding of pressure points and results. As the children not pushing the broom are busy rolling the time die, they are always involved and their attention is engaged, they are never bored. The rules do not especially mention this, but a child can easily and very well play this game alone and experiment – how do I best use the witch to achieve the best results with shoving the broom, and all that without the pressure of the time guardians.
The board is very big, so the children have lots of room to push the glass marbles around, and the graphics are very nice and beautiful.
I only found a small detail worth criticizing – the witch amulets of the players fit exactly into the space meant for keeping the secured glass pieces – so you have to put the strings onto the amulets immediately and fix them securely because once an amulet has ended in one of the recesses it is a lot of work to get them out again (I have tried it!)
On the positive side, there is the very beautiful design of the game and this time also a very thoughtful planning – the punch-out pieces that need to be taken out to form the obstacles have been left in the board to ensure that the board keeps its shape during transport! Wonderful idea!
I hope that you and your children have lots of fun and some brilliant time with this game!
Christoph VAVRU
Spieler : 2 - 4
Alter : 5 and up
Dauer : approx. 15 min
Autor : Constanze Endlich, Helmut Hecht
Grafik : Felix Scheinberger
Titel englisch : Witches‘ Duel
Preis : approx. 25,00 Euro
Verlag : Haba 2010
Genre : Dexterity game
Zielgruppe : For children
Mechanismen : Move and collect pieces
Kommentar :
Big board
Very attractive design
Also enthralling for non-active players
Very good as a family game, too
Vergleichbar:
All games using magnetic effects
Atmosphäre : 7
Christoph Vavru:
An exeedingly beautiful and also challenging game for children and families
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