Friday, October 16, 2009

Phase 10 - a great way to spend an afternoon

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we spent the weekend in a cabin in Maine, one without electronics. While we enjoyed the out of doors, there were sometimes when we could not venture out due to rain and so we broke out two games: Boggle and Phase 10.




Boggle is always a favorite at our house. I love word games. Phase 10 though is a newer one for us. My father-in-law and his girlfriend enjoy the game but we have always pacified them by playing but never really got into it. This weekend though, the game got very serious. Even though DH kept calling it a stupid game, we all enjoyed it. DS actually stayed up with the adults to play until 1:30 am. Phase 10 is played in multiple rounds (a minimum of 10 rounds, but could be extended to many, many more depending on the luck of the draw). One of our games took over 3 hours, so do make sure that you have time to play. During each hand, you are trying to create a specific type of hand i.e. a run of seven cards. As you meet each set, you are allowed to move onto the next phase. Winning the game is a combination of getting through the last phase and having the lowest score (points are accumulated by adding up the cards in your hand when a player goes out).

DS was so enthralled with this game that he had to get it the next time we went to the store. It wasn't very expensive. I think less than $6.0o and makes a great stocking stuffer for those of you thinking of Christmas. Best of all, it is one of those games that require family time - something you can never have enough of.

3 comments:

MrsMomma said...

We love playing Phase 10. It's a great game! Sometimes to make the game move a little faster, and also to keep things interesting, we work on which ever phase that we want to, so then you can go by your hand, what you have. Say if you've been dealt 5 red cards in the first hand (when you'd normally be trying to get phase 1), then go for phase (is it) 7, the one with 7 cards of one color. That way, no one will catch on to you picking up red cards and discarding other colors. We really watch the cards being played and held around here. Makes for very long games at times, lol. But like I said, we only do that sometimes, to shake things up. Most times we play it straight through, and let me tell you, I can speed right through the runs, but as soon as I hit that two sets of four... gah! The breaks are put on! lol

We also like Skip-bo, Rummikub, and Yahtzee. Every now and then instead of math, we'll play one of these games. My ds (5yo) has been playing UNO for years, and he loves math!

Andysbethy said...

We love Phase 10 with my parents and sisters. I can't wait until my kids are old enough to play. Board games and card games have gone out of fashion for much of the nation, but we still love them around here!

MrsMomma said...

so sorry it's taken me so long to get back with you. Yes, I recommend Rummikub. You really have to think. Rummikub is tiles but you can play the same game with playing cards. (Rummy)