Last year one of D’s friends bought him Mapominoes (European version). I’m not sure why, but we never seemed to get around to playing it. I think birthday’s are often overwhelming with gifts so some things inevitably end up to one side.
Anyhow, D recently asked us to play and we LOVE this game. Such a super clever concept and one that is teaching the children so much about Europe and we have loved it so much we have just about the Africa version.
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What is Mapominoes?
Mapominoes is a bit like dominoes, with a twist. The cards are European countries, and you can only play your cards against countries that they border. When D and I first played this I wasn’t sure how it would work but it’s really very clever.
For younger children, it’s great for them to get a handle on the geography of the continent and to see which countries share borders and which are islands. D quickly worked out that having Russia and the Ukraine was better than having San Marino or Iceland.
There are transit cards which you can use as the seas and the more you play the more tactical you can make the game. The game is simple enough for younger children to grasp and enjoy and there’s also a lot of strategic play that can be brought in for older players.
Variations
There are a few different ways to play the game and it is definitely one that will see us get more strategic about as we learn more as we play it. There are different sets you can buy such as Africa, or the USA, and it’s a great fun way to get to grips with geography as well as learning about capital cities and population as each card has this information on. I can already see lots of different possibilities for how we might use these in the future.
Mapominoes is made by Wild Card Games and it’s worth a quick look on their website as they look to have a lot of fun games available. If you’ve played any of their other games let me know as I’d be interested to hear about them.
