Peruke

Game 4 of the “Bailey Family Summer 2023 Board game Bonanza” is “Peruke”, played by myself, Jack (_8), Toby (5) and Dennis Bailey (my dad) (71).

“Game A of the “Playing with a Grandparent subset.””

Firstly this was the first time we had invited any of the grandparents to a boardgame session. We also played “Dodo” and regular marathon heavy lifter “Isle of Cats” which I will cover as well later.

Now I actually mentioned Peruke very briefly in my UKGE roundup a few weeks ago but here is a better more in-depth version of that review.

Peruke is an enjoyable and engaging little game that is suitable for both children and older relatives (as you can see). It’s simple yet surprisingly deep where players strive to collect as many points as possible by tactically stealing and protecting their discs and outwitting their opponents.

In Peruke, each player receives a set of discs numbered from 1 to 6. These discs have two sides: a safe side and a vulnerable side. At the beginning of the game, players arrange their discs horizontally in front of them, all showing the vulnerable side. The objective is to roll three dice and utilize the numbers rolled to make strategic choices:

1. Make a disc safe by flipping it to the protected side.
2. Seize an opponent’s disc if it is vulnerable and matches the rolled number.
3. Convert an opponent’s plain disc into a vulnerable target disc.

Whenever a player successfully takes an opponent’s disc, that disc is removed from the game and becomes part of the taker’s score at the end of the round. The round continues until a player loses all of their discs. If a player ends the round by capturing an opponent’s last disc, they also claim all the remaining vulnerable discs in play, including their own, and add them to their score. Any safe discs remain with the player and contribute to their final tally.

At the end of each round, players sum up the values of their collected discs, repeating this process for the same number of rounds as there are players. The player or team with the highest combined score emerges as the winner.

Production values are what they are and I could probably recreate this exactly in my workshop at school in about 20 minutes but it adds to its charm.

All of the boys really like the game as did my dad. It’s super quick to explain and games are over fairly quickly.

Overall, Peruke is simple enough for non-gamers and younger kids but has enough going on for more serious gamers to be engaged.

There are actually 2 versions classic and black. They are made with slightly different plywood (I think one poplar and one birch). Essentially when the Ukraine invasion happened plywood supplies became strained and everyone has to get different ply from other sources. I got the black version as I preferred the look but they are the same game.

Would 100% recommend it (although you could recreate it easily at home).