Keri is working for a few days reviewing Global History with some of her students, so Sadie and I have some time on our hands. On Monday afternoon, I picked up a box of X-Men, Days of Future Past heroclix game pieces. Sadie helped me to open the game pieces that night and she got two Angels (I got one). I promised her that we could play games the next day. Game playing is an important skill to teach children, and I'm not talking about video games Board games and strategy games are important, skill based games that can teach logical thinking. I may be starting with some complicated games (see the next round for balance a being struck), but I love spending time with Sadie as she does with me. I play her "imagines" (her word for stories) and she plays heroclix; a fair trade off I must say. We ran an errand to Home Depot (I have to go back because, once again, they sold me the wrong stuff!) and then returned home to play and eat lunch.
I explain characters' names a lot
Anyway... Sadie got some pieces of her own and I got to play a solo game. I must admit that I am rusty at playing heroclix and playing with a three year old doesn't help. Those are my excuses for getting Mystique killed very quickly. The game was The X-men -vs-The Brotherhood of evil mutants. For those of you who know the movies, the comic book line-ups are a little different. In this version, Professor X is alive and Nightcrawler is a main player. Mystique from the movies is part of this game, but most of the other villains aren't in the movies. Destiny, one of the other villains can control the outcome of the dice roll by making the player roll again (once per turn). I'd like to see her in the movies; clairvoyance is cool.
The Battle for The Savage Land
The X-Men
The Wolverine, who won a Tony Award, is on this team, of course, as are other characters who're in the movies. You've got Halle Berry, who won an Academy Award, Patrick Stewart (too many awards to mention) and more. The best piece on this team is Professor X; he can see through anything or anyone to shoot. An awesome ability coupled with psychic blast and he can take out a villain single handily.
The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants
On this team we have very little star power. Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique) does have an Academy Award, but that hardly trumps the pure star power of The X-Men. Sure The Blob and Pyro have been in the movies, but not Avalanche or Destiny. The best piece here seems to be Avalanche (who?) who can special attack all characters within a range of five spaces.
Jennifer Lawrence is down!
As previously mentioned, Mystique was knocked out of the game pretty quickly. It was my fault for the following reasons: I forgot her special power, I forgot her shape-change, I forgot Destiny's probability control and I probably forgot some other things as well. The next time I play I've got to pay closer attention to detail (I'm funny like that). It took me a couple of turns to figure out Wolverine's special healing power which is called regeneration in this game. The Blob (in a black XXXXXXXXXLarge tank top) seen here is pretty formidable, but Prof. X wiped him up. Avalanche (in the silver helmet) did do some damage, but the X-Men won. Sadie got to play with her Angel figures and roll the dice. She also loves the movement markers which are poker chips with pictures of characters on them.
Angel is flying high
The next round for the day is...
Monkeys don't wear pants
The set up is simple
We've got a spin on the classic game Ants in The Pants - Monkey Dunk! Sadie is just getting the hang of it. The lessons with this one are manual dexterity and patience. The game is suggested for ages 4 & up.
The new version of the classic is called Monkey Dunk. We call it "jumping monkeys" which is much more fun to scream at the top of our lungs. The concept is the same, press down on plastic tiddlywinks type pieces and get them into the target. Instead of pants, as with ants, the monkeys jump into a swimming hole. I guess this is more sensitive to the types of people who would have ants in their pants. We don't want our children mocking anyone; mockery is not a lesson taught in children's board games (that comes later).
I agree with the age of 4+ for this one. Sure, we have fun, flippin' monkey fun! But Sadie doesn't have the strength in her fingers to make the monkeys jump very far. It almost gets frustrating for her, but when we play together she cheers at the monkeys. Whether I make them jump, she makes them jump or we work on it together she cheers when they jump into to swimming hole.. Once she gets the skill down we'll have plenty of fun. My master plan is to teach her to play games and love playing games much as Keri and I do.
The next night...
The next night we tried Monkey Dunk again. This time we worked at sorting colors and practicing making the monkeys jump. She got one in. Eventually we'll be able to play with the timer which is a swimming elephant that pops up out of the lagoon/swimming hole. Sadie is overjoyed that she can get the monkeys to jump.
I've ordered Chutes & Ladders, the My Little Pony version. It should be in next week, or sooner. That'll be the next post. I'm also thinking of playing some solo games of Pandemic. I'm hoping Keri will play at night. We haven't played that one in a while and I miss it.
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