Matthew BaileyGame 21 of the “Bailey Family Summer 2023 Board Game Bonanza” is “Hedgehog Haberdash” played by Henry (2) and myself.
The concept is simple. You each take a coloured hedgehog and take turns rolling the dice. 1 leaf = take 1 leaf 2 leaves = take 2 leaves Wind symbol = steal 1 from another player. Each leaf has 2 coloured ends, and you can only take leaves of your colour or you must give them to another player. What, on the surface, seemed like a case of taking leaves out of the bag and putting them where they go, all of a sudden becomes very involved.
Firstly, because of the awesome hedgehogs, you can only see the colours of the player on the leaves, so when you steal from a player, you need to try and keep track of where all of your colour leaves are as they come out of the bag.
Secondly, if you draw out a leaf with none of your colour, you then have to make a tactical decision on where to put it and then potentially how much of each colour is hidden under hedgehogs and how many are left in the bag.
This means this game can be played with a 2-year-old (as we did here) as a simple colour match, or you could happily play with adults in the sense of trying to push your luck, “card count,” and play with probability.
This is a simple game but one we all oddly love and punches well above its weight.
I will say 2 negatives. The card stock is noticeably thinner than usual HABA fare, and one of the pairs of glasses got damaged taking them off the punchboard. I could see the hedgehogs not surviving a toddler attack. The bag is made of this fake velvety material that both Jack and I hated the feel of. I can imagine kids with sensory issues finding it very uncomfortable to use.
All in all, though, a fantastic little game I really recommend. It is really sweet and oddly quite compelling. One thing I would say is the texture of the bag is fairly unusual, and I could imagine neurodivergent people with sensory issues finding it very difficult to hold and touch.
Henry found this one a little bit harder, largely due to the fact that you are getting pieces with two colours and have to narrow it down to which one you want, but he did enjoy playing and had a good time (which, as just turned 2, is a good thing).
