Matthew BaileyToday we are going to be looking at Girls vs Ghouls, a really interesting hidden identity area control game that I didn’t have quite at the beginning of the Halloween period otherwise, I definitely would have got the review for this out sooner.
Regardless of the fact that it has obvious Halloween links, this is a game that, if you are looking to introduce your kids to hidden identity games, which traditionally are quite tricky with younger children, this is the one to do it with.
The publisher, when they sent me this, was really good in the fact that they warned me that this was a 14+ game, but as with most things at Little Board Gamers, I’m perfectly happy to take a look at stuff regardless of what age it says on the box, and I’m so glad I did because actually this is the perfect entry point to hidden identity games for much younger kids and my boys loved it.
The hidden identity element, while it does matter, isn’t completely essential to playing the game, and if you want to introduce young kids to the way the game plays, you can actually just play the game knowing what everyone’s identity is, and it does work. It then just becomes a strategy and deduction game where you’re trying to work out what cards people are playing, which of course is the beauty of it, but it works.
It’s also worth noting that unlike most hidden identity games that feel more like party games, this definitely feels like a board game, which also makes it a lot more palatable for people, especially kids, who aren’t normally used to the genre.
Girls vs Ghouls is played over three rounds, where you are secretly working for either the Girls or the Ghouls, trying to take control of houses and attract trick-or-treaters to your side. In games with an odd number of players, there is also a Reporter who is trying to make the two teams finish with exactly the same score.
You start by placing the eight house tiles around the board, with some controlled by the Girls and others by the Ghouls. Each player is secretly dealt an identity card, chooses a character and places them on the pavement outside one of the houses. You then receive three Treat cards and two Trick cards. You are allowed to discuss your identity, bluff and lie throughout the game, but you can never show anyone your cards.
On your turn, you can move your character up to two spaces in either direction around the neighbourhood, although moving is optional. You must then play one card from your hand, choosing from four possible actions.
Treat: Play a Treat card face-up to add candy cubes to your current house. Orange cubes represent good candy and attract trick-or-treaters, while black cubes represent bad candy and repel them. Whenever a house has both colours, they cancel each other out in matching pairs. It’s such a small little moan (which is a testament to how well made and balanced this game is), but I found the fact that the black cards say negative numbers such as “-2” when you are adding black cubes a bit weird… but whatever.
Trick: Place a Trick card face-down at your current house. These are revealed at the end of the round and can flip a house to the other team, reverse its candy colours, double the number of cubes or cancel another Trick card. Real tactics come into play here as you’re trying to work out what cards other people might have laid there, and if you think someone is a Ghoul and they’ve just placed a card at a Girls’ house, this could be an invert cubes card or it could be an invert house card, and you have to try to second-guess that. At the end of the round, you quite often end up with this one house that everyone’s fighting over, and this ends up creating some big chain reaction, which always works well and is interesting.
Peek: Discard a card to secretly look at all the Trick cards currently placed at your house, without changing their order.
Sneak: Discard a card to move your character to any house on the board.
Both of these last two also work quite well as a way of wasting a card when you don’t really want to put it anywhere or you don’t really want to lay any cubes.
You continue taking turns until everyone has played all five cards. You don’t draw replacement cards during a round.
At the end of each round, all the face-down Trick cards are revealed and resolved in the order they were played. This can dramatically change which team controls a house or how much candy it contains, meaning that things aren’t necessarily as they first appear.
Once all the Tricks have been resolved, the house with the most black cubes is cursed and flips to the opposing team’s control. The house with the most orange cubes then attracts the trick-or-treaters and earns the round’s Victory Points card for whichever team currently controls it. These cards are worth one, two and three points respectively across the three rounds.
Once a house has earned a Victory Points card, it is closed for the rest of the game and can no longer change ownership or be affected by cards. All remaining candy cubes are cleared away, everyone receives a fresh hand of three Treats and two Tricks, and the next round begins. If houses are tied for the most cubes, the player holding the First Player token decides which one is affected.
When I first played this, one thing that I incorrectly assumed is that you would really easily be able to work out who was on what team, but actually you can’t very easily because it becomes really difficult to track what people are doing and who laid what card.
Equally, because you’re really restricted as to what cards you’ve got in your hand, sometimes rather than laying positive cubes on the house you want, you might lay negative cubes but then lay a Trick card that you know is going to flip those negative cubes to positive cubes.
So it is a bit hard to work out, and this works really well because it really gets you thinking. While you usually get it by the end, it’s not always that obvious, and even if you do work out who’s on your team, or if, as I said previously, you play the game without the hidden identity element, it’s still actually a really good game. That’s a real positive when you’re trying to play this with young kids.
After three rounds, both teams add up the Victory Points cards they have collected, plus one additional point for every house they control, including closed houses. The team with the highest score wins.
However, if the scores are tied and the Reporter is playing, the Reporter wins instead. If there is no Reporter, the team with more Victory Points cards wins the tie.
Now, the components are really nice. Everything is really high quality. It’s worth noting here that I’ve got the deluxe version, which comes with a few extra things such as acrylic standees as opposed to cardboard ones, nicer inserts, a nicer first player token and a nicer box. While these are really nice, they are definitely not absolutely necessary, and the standard version is well worth the money as well.
It’s also worth mentioning there is an expansion pack called the Hidden Talents expansion pack. This gives each player an extra power that they can use during the game and also gives the Reporter more of a chance to win.
These are a nice little addition. We didn’t play our first games with this, and I’ve only actually played one game with it, purely because of the time restrictions of me trying to get this review out before Halloween, but for five pounds when you order it off their website, this is definitely something I’d recommend you get and just play with, especially once you’re used to the game.
It doesn’t add any massive mechanics or complexities, but it is a nice extra thing to have.
Hidden identity games are always a bit hit or miss for children, but Girls vs Ghouls is by far the best “my first” hidden identity game I’ve played. It’s a really good strategy game even without the hidden identity bits, it’s really simple to play, and you could play this with what I would say are moderately young children, definitely well below the age 14 box suggestion.
It’s really lovely to look at, the artwork is great, and it’s also worth mentioning that the artwork is really inclusive, giving a wide range of characters to choose from, which is really nice to see in a product aimed at children.
Girls vs Ghouls is an absolutely delightful game. I can’t recommend this more. I will put the link to the main website for the company down below, and even though I appreciate you’re probably not all looking for Halloween games now, this is definitely a game that, if you’re looking to get your kids into a hidden identity board game, is worth adding to your collection.
Link to publisher’s shop if you want to buy. Note: this is NOT AN AFFILIATE LINK and I gain nothing from you purchasing the game. – https://www.girlsvsghouls.com/collections/games
Disclaimer – A copy of the game was kindly provided by Holly House Games. All our thoughts and opinions are our own.
