Chateau Roquefort

Subject: General
Category: n/a
Ages: 6 and up
# of players: 2 to 4
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Memory

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 3, especially younger players
Gaming value: 4
Aesthetic value: 4
Price value: 3
Ease of play: 3 (takes a bit to learn)
Younger adaptability: 5

My comments: This is a really nice game to buy your 6 year old, and it should be for the price, though you will likely find yourself playing with friends after he goes to bed. The game comes with 4 sets of hefty, solid, good-sized mice, roof tiles, a waffle-like board, field tiles pictured with stones or cheese on them (3 of each type of cheese), 3 field tiles with holes in them, and smaller cheese markers to collect. It is interestingly packaged in that the bottom of the box is used not only to store pieces, but also to construct the board (so be careful when you first take apart the components in a new box.)

To play, you first talk everything off the plastic insert, which is a grid of deep holes, in the bottom of the box and dump out the mice and cheese markers from the holes. Next you place the field tiles in random order, including all 3 fields with holes in them; 1 stone tile is left over. Next you place the waffle-like board over all the filed tiles, and then you place the various roof tiles over everything. Don't forget to fold up and place the ramparts on each corner! Start with one of your mice in a corner.

The object of the game is to collect 4 different types of cheeses by moving 2 of your mice onto separate fields with matching cheese. Each round you get 4 actions, and your choice of actions are uncovering (removing a roof tile,) running (ie. moving through the fields, 1 action per field, or putting another mouse into a turret) or sliding (which is the big attraction.) So you remove roof tiles and move your mice to the cheese squares to collect the marks, no problem. But once a turn you can slide, in which you take that one left over field tile and insert it under the waffle-like board such that you slide all the field tiles in that row over one, causing a tile to fall out the other side--and maybe slide a field with a hole under a mouse so it drops into plastic insert and taking it out of the game.

The box and all the components are very well made--the box top even took a hit from my 6 year old when he jumped back and landed on it without tearing or bending. You have to first remove and then reassemble the entire board to put everything away, and then remove everything again the next time you play, though the game travels well. It is definitely a fun game to play with the kids!

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28089