 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2022) |
 Board and tiles | |
| Years active | 10+ |
|---|---|
| Players | 1+ (4 sets included in a single box) |
| Playing time | 20 min |
Take It Easy is an abstract strategy board game created by Peter Burley. It can be characterized as a strategic bingo-like game, and has been published by Ravensburger and subsequently by several other publishers since 1983.
To start, each player takes a board with 19 hexagonal cells arranged as a 3×3 hexagon. Additionally, each player takes a set of 27 tiles which have different combinations of colored/numbered paths; [1] the paths are arranged as a triple-cross, linking opposite sides (Van Ness Serpentiles notation 300). The color of the board's playing field matches the background of the tiles for each player. [2]
One player, designated as the caller, draws a tile randomly and then announces to the others which tile was drawn by declaring the three-digit combination (e.g., "5-7-4" would refer to the value of the vertical path, the value of the path crossing from lower left to upper right, and the value of the path crossing from upper left to lower right, in that sequence). Each player then puts their copy of that tile on their board in any available spot. Tiles must be placed so the numbers remain upright (e.g., the 1-, 5-, and 9-series lines must always be vertical). [1]
The upright-number rule forces each path to be one of three numbers and determines the number of possible tiles (27):
| Path direction | Possible values |  | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vertical | 1 | 5 | 9 | |
| Lower left to upper right | 2 | 6 | 7 | |
| Upper left to lower right | 3 | 4 | 8 | |
The caller then repeats the drawing and announcement, followed by player placement, until the board is filled. Each player assesses their score and caller duties rotate to the next player until a total of four rounds have been played. [1]
The player with the highest cumulative score after four rounds is the winner. [1]
Although the selection of the tile is random, the placement of the tiles determines the ending score. The object is to complete colored/numbered lines across the board. When a contiguous path is completed from edge to edge, the score of the contiguous path is the number of tiles multiplied by the line value, so the maximum single-line score is 45 points (=5×9 vertical tiles along the center of the board). [1]
The maximum possible combined score for all lines is 307 points; [1] there are sixteen possible configurations that achieve this score. [3]
Take it Higher! is a sequel game coauthored with Reiner Knizia that uses octagonal tiles and a 3×2, 24-cell board with prepopulated square interstitial spaces. In addition to the basic game, bonus points can be scored with special tiles. [4]
Take it to the Limit! is an advanced version of Take it Easy! that uses a larger 64 hexagonal tileset (per player) on an expanded 4×4, 37-cell Nexus board, or a subset of those tiles on a 22-cell Orchid board. [5]
In 2016, Burley Games released a limited (1000 copies) "Daffodil Edition" for Take It Easy! with double-sided playing boards. The Daffodil board printed on the reverse side of the standard (19-cell) board features 21 hexagonal cells arranged as 3 adjacent 2×2 (7-cell) hexagonal "flowers". Each flower has a prepopulated free cell at its center, continuing any adjacent lines.
In addition, there are four wild card tiles, in which two or three paths are allowed to be any of the three possible values. [6] The wild card tiles are:
The game was published by Ravensburger Digital for smartphones and tablets. [7] It was released for iOS and Android in 2012. [8]
Java is a German-style board game designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling, illustrated by Franz Vohwinkel, and published in 2000 by Ravensburger in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. In the game, players build the island of Java to set up palace festivals and gain victory points. Upon its release, the game received several awards.
Scotland Yard is a board game in which a team of players controlling different detectives cooperate to track down a player controlling a criminal as they move around a board representing the streets of London. It was first published in 1983. It is named after Scotland Yard - the headquarters of London's Metropolitan Police Service in real-life. Scotland Yard is an asymmetric board game, during which the detective players cooperatively solve a variant of the pursuit–evasion problem. The game is published by Ravensburger in most of Europe and Canada and by Milton Bradley in the United States. It received the Spiel des Jahres award in 1983 - the same year that it was published.
Carcassonne is a tile-based German-style board game for two to five players, designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede and published in 2000 by Hans im Glück in German and by Rio Grande Games and Z-Man Games (currently) in English. It received the Spiel des Jahres and the Deutscher Spiele Preis awards in 2001.
Havannah is a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Christian Freeling. It belongs to the family of games commonly called connection games; its relatives include Hex and TwixT. Havannah has "a sophisticated and varied strategy" and is best played on a base-10 hexagonal board, 10 hex cells to a side.
3D tic-tac-toe, also known by the trade name Qubic, is an abstract strategy board game, generally for two players. It is similar in concept to traditional tic-tac-toe but is played in a cubical array of cells, usually 4x4x4. Players take turns placing their markers in blank cells in the array. The first player to achieve four of their own markers in a row wins. The winning row can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal on a single board as in regular tic-tac-toe, or vertically in a column, or a diagonal line through four boards.
Alhambra is a 2003 tile-based German-style board game designed by Dirk Henn. It was originally published in Germany by Queen Games in a language-interdependent version; an English-specific version was released in North America by the now-defunct Überplay. The game is an Arabian-themed update, set during the construction of the Alhambra palace in 14th century Granada, of the 1998 stock trading board game Stimmt So!, which in turn was an update of the 1992 mafia influence board game Al Capone; the original version was subsequently released as Alhambra: The Card Game.
A hex map, hex board, or hex grid is a game board design commonly used in wargames of all scales. The map is subdivided into a hexagonal tiling, small regular hexagons of identical size.
Ravensburger AG is a German game and toy company, publishing house and market leader in the European jigsaw puzzle market.
Scrabble variants are games created by changing the normal Scrabble rules or equipment.
Hexagonal chess refers to a group of chess variants played on boards composed of hexagon cells. The best known is Gliński's variant, played on a symmetric 91-cell hexagonal board.
Australia: Aufbruch ins Abenteuer is a family board game published by Ravensburger in 2005 that simulates national development in Australia in the 1920s.
Ingenious is the English name for Einfach Genial, a German abstract strategy board game designed by Reiner Knizia under commission from Sophisticated Games and published in 2004 by Kosmos. Across most of Europe it is titled as the local translation of Ingenious or Simply Ingenious, the notable exception being Mensa Connections in the UK.
Crosstrack, billed as the "unique track switching game", is an abstract strategy game designed by Philip Shoptaugh and first published in 1994. Players place special track pieces onto an irregular octagon board, winning by being the first to create an unbroken path between two opposite sides. It is an example of a tile-based edge-matching path connection game, similar to the Black Path Game, Trax, and Tsuro, Tantrix and Kaliko, and Octiles.
A connection game is a type of abstract strategy game in which players attempt to complete a specific type of connection with their pieces. This could involve forming a path between two or more endpoints, completing a closed loop, or connecting all of one's pieces so they are adjacent to each other. Connection games typically have simple rules, but complex strategies. They have minimal components and may be played as board games, computer games, or even paper-and-pencil games.
Palago is a creative art puzzle/game designed by Cameron Browne and Mike McManaway, the inventor of Tantrix. A Palago set contains 48 identical regular hexagonal tiles which can be used for a series of puzzles, a strategic two player and a co-operative multi-player game called Palagonia.
Kingdom Builder is a strategy board game designed by Donald X. Vaccarino, published in 2011 by Queen Games with illustrations by Oliver Schlemmer in German, British and international versions. A Finnish-Swedish version was released in 2012 by lautapelit.fi.
Indigo is a 2012 tile-laying board game developed by Reiner Knizia and published by Ravensburger.
Azul is an abstract strategy board game designed by Michael Kiesling and released by Plan B Games in 2017. Based on Portuguese tiles called azulejos, in Azul players collect sets of similarly colored tiles which they place on their player board. When a row is filled, one of the tiles is moved into a square pattern on the right side of the player board, where it garners points depending on where it is placed in relation to other tiles on the board.
Dominant Species is a 2010 competitive, area control board game published by GMT Games, designed by Chad Jensen. The game is an evolution-themed game in which players take on the role of broad categories of life: mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, arachnids, and insects in a world heading for the Ice Age.
Great Western Trail is a board game designed by Alexander Pfister for two to four players, which was published in 2017 by Eggertspiele. It is a complex and strategic 'Eurogame', loosely themed on the American frontier and the original Great Western Trail, in which players engage in the transportation of cattle. A second edition was published in 2021, for one to four players.