I picked up Hoity Toity for a steal off of a Tangathon a few months ago in the interests of giving a Euro game an honest try.

The three people playing were myself, my wife, and a friend of the family. I play mostly what one would term Ameri-trash. The more pretty bits the better. The lack of dice in the game was a bit unnerving at first. My wife is a non-boardgamer and I wanted to test her limits with this game. Seeing it wasn't a wargame or political game she was okay with the subject matter. My friend was a gamer at one time, but only rpgs. His limit on boardgames has been the same material my wife plays.

The game is published in an English format by Uberplay. The components of the game were of decent quality. It contains six wooden triangular blocks that serve as playing pieces, several large auction item cards, and a smaller set of cards that are used to show each player's actions during their turn. The card stock was a bit flimsy. The corner on one player's auction house card got bent during our first game.

The rules were well laid out and easily understandable. My wife had a little trouble understanding them as they were being read, but once we started playing she quickly grasped what the idea of the game is.

Each turn each player decides if they are going to the auction house or to the castle. Depending on where you go limits your actions. If you are going to the auction house you can either place a bid on one of the two items showing in the auction house or you can try and steal the money collected from the auction. If you are going to the castle you can have an exhibit, try to steal from the exhibits, or use a detective to catch the thieves at the exhibits. Points are scored by having exhibits or by catching thieves at the exhibits.

The game is basically a game of outguessing your opponent. A lot of haters of this game have said that it is glorified rock-paper-scissors, but I see a lot of depth in your decision making. Instead of an all out guess, most of the time you are making an educated guess based on what where people are on the board (i.e. how many points they have scored in exhibits and catching thieves) and what their previous exhibits have looked like.

We played a couple games and I won both games. I kept thinking to myself that the game would have been a lot more fun with six players. That sentiment was echoed by the other two players afterwards.

My wife liked the game and is willing to give it another try. This is about the depth of game she is comfortable with right now so I may try and get some more Euro's with similar depth to maybe foster a budding Euro-gamer.

My friend also liked the game and wants to try more games like it as well. I may try to one of my Command and Colors games on him, though, and see if I cannot recruit another Ameri-trasher instead of another Euro-gamer.

I did enjoy the game and it has piqued my interest in euros. I still prefer slogging it out on the plastic battlefield, but I can see this game and others like it to be interesting for playing with non-wargaming friends. Basically, it opens up new possibilities in gaming for me.