AD – Gifted Item
I am a big fan of board games, we play them a fairly regular basis. And, as the autumn comes and with it cosy afternoons as home, I am always keen to add a game or two to our shelves.
The team at Fiesta crafts recently sent us their Discover the World Game and it’s been a huge huge hit here with the older two – so much so that they’ve been off playing this game on their own when I’ve been doing things with H. D can be a bit hit and miss with games, but this one he has really taken to and we have all enjoyed playing it so far.
The aim of the game
The aim of the game is to be the first player to collect ten destination cards – this is done by travelling from country to country to each destination. When you arrive your arrival card either provides a challenge or grants your swift entry and on to the next destination.
What’s in the Box
The game includes:
- Large fold-out game board – this is a world map
- six playing counters
- 2 dice
- Destination cards
- Arrival Cards
- Journey Cards
Everything is well made and sturdy and the cards are a plastic-coated type so they should stand the test of time I hope. The game board is a super colourful map.
Happily, everything has it’s own storage section within the box so it’s easy to tidy away and quick to set up again.
Playing the Game
Before the game begins, each player chooses their starting point – you can choose any country on the map and simply place your counter there. Once all players have done this, they each take a destination card from the top of the pile. This tells you where you are heading to.
Players then take it in turns to throw the die, moving their counter towards their destination. Along the way, you might have to take a journey card (which sees you move forward more or divert to another country) Once you reach the destination you take an arrival card. If you’re lucky you are admitted swiftly and it’s on the next destination. If not, you might have to undertake a challenge with another player to see who wins the card.
The winner is the first player to get ten destination cards. If there are more than four players then this can be changed to the first to win six destination cards.
What We Thought of the Game
We really enjoyed this game a lot, and the children soon were able to locate countries on the map as they drew their destination cards, and they are getting better at working out the fastest routes across the map!
It’s a clever game with a simple idea but it’s one we have enjoyed playing together – there’s a lot of learning to be had with this game and I have been really impressed with it. I think it’s going to be our favourite Geography based game. There’s a lot to learn in this game and the destination cards themselves could be used as a game as they’re packed with facts and figures about each country. My older two had lots of fun saying hello in the various languages.
It’s interesting to see how the children changed their approach to this game. At first, they opted to start in the centre of Europe, but realised that that means you have a lot of small countries to travel through which takes a long time! They soon started their games in the USA or South America, where there are sea links to Africa or links across to Asia and Australiasia. It was a good opportunity to talk about why a Euro-Centric view isn’t always right!
I absolutely love this game and it’s been a regular for the children this last week or two. They’ve already rapidly improved their geographical knowledge and we have all learnt a few facts along the way too.
It’s aimed at children aged seven plus but Em, at six has really enjoyed this game too.
