Thinking Man’s Bingo?
Take It Easy! is a very quick, fun board game that feels like bingo with strategy.
In Take It Easy! you get an oddly shaped – though symmetric – playing area on a square board. You place hex tiles that line up in the 3 possible directions – vertical columns and the 2 diagonals.
Your goal is to make each of these “rows” of tiles contain pipes of the same color. If the entire “row” holds the same color, you score points for each tile. If it doesn’t, you score zero.
There are several variations described in the rules, but the most basic are these. One player is the caller. He picks one tile blindly from his stash and tells the other players which one it is – either by stating which three numbers or three colors it shows. All other players look through their face-up piles of tiles to find the matching hex. (All players have an identical set of tiles in their possession.)
You can place the tile anywhere on your board, but once placed, it cannot be moved. Determining the best location for that tile is where the strategy comes in. Can you place it where all “rows” still have a chance of being completed for a score? Eventually, you are likely going to have to sacrifice a “row” so that another one might still give you some points. Not every tile will be played during a game, so you never know if the tile you really need will show up at all.
When enough tiles have been called to fill everyone’s board, the game ends. As mentioned, you score points only for “rows” where the pipes are the same color (and number, by default) for the entire length. You add points for each tile in such rows. The player with the highest total wins.
Play It More Than Once
You might to consider each full board just one round and have a full game consist of several rounds where each player takes a turn being the caller. Take It Easy! is one of those rare games that you will want to play again immediately afterwards, because you just know you can do better next time.
You can play the game solo as a puzzle. It is possible to have a perfect score where all “rows” line up perfectly.
The variations add greater challenge for those who think the basic game is too easy. (Yeah, right!) One of the variations requires that you play your tile adjacent to a tile already on your board. Other variations involved the little sun and moon icons found on the tiles.
Take It Easy! is so easy to learn and so quick to play that you’ll come back to it time after time in search of that elusive perfect board.
Check the price of Take It Easy! on Amazon.