Game: Rüsselbande

Thread: Re: Can't find Russelbande rules...

ibleedorange — 2008-11-10T01:42:39+00:00

thank you!

Thread: Re: Can't find Russelbande rules...

MWChapel — 2008-11-10T01:32:27+00:00

Rules in english

Thread: Can't find Russelbande rules...

ibleedorange — 2008-11-10T01:29:57+00:00

Anyone know where I could print off the rules for Russelbande? I have it in Korea but I need them in English!

Image

olavf — 2008-11-03T18:43:49+00:00

Dutch cover

Image

shebby — 2008-02-21T01:32:45+00:00

The little piggies are ready to play!

Image

shebby — 2008-02-21T01:28:50+00:00

What you get in the "Piggy Back" edition by Funtastic

Image

porter235 — 2008-02-18T22:54:03+00:00

A big game of Russelbande on Family Day.

Image

chezzilla — 2008-01-27T00:39:02+00:00

Image

melissa — 2007-06-14T03:12:15+00:00

You tell me - was I photographing the game or the tablecloth?

Image

BrewB — 2007-05-16T01:36:12+00:00

Russelbande - We like it - Age 4

Image

cagriggs — 2007-02-03T21:41:05+00:00

Game Box and Components

Image

cagriggs — 2007-02-03T21:40:17+00:00

Back of the Box

Thread: Piggyback Brigade with Kids

cagriggs — 2007-02-03T21:33:37+00:00

Thanks to the Hot Deals forum, I found this game for an excellent price and since I'm always looking for game to play with my sons, I just had to buy it. It has been a hit with my kids and with their friends when they have come over to play.

Set-Up
The game is very simple. A board is randomly created using the eight board segments that come with the game. These segments have either 2 or 3 spaces on them and they are put together to build a winding path for the pigs to travel down. The object of the game is to be the first to get your pig (or pigs) to the end of the path. On a player's turn, he or she has the option of taking one of the board segments that all players have passed and moving it to the end of the path, lengthening the game. After the board is set-up, every player selects their pig. If only two or three are playing, each player gets two pigs.

Gameplay
On a player's turn, he rolls a special die numbering 1-4 and moves his pig based on the number he rolled. If a one is rolled, the player moves one space and may roll again. In addition, if a player's pig is in last place when he rolls a black three, he may also roll again if he wants. As players move their pigs, the animals will inevitable end up on the same space and this is where the game gets exciting for kids. When the pigs share a space, they land piggyback on top of each other. Whenever a pig with another pig on top of him moves, he carries all other pigs on his back. It can be a big advantage to get on the top of a huge stack of pigs. The first player to make it to the end of the path is the winner.

My View
My sons and their friends have really enjoyed this game. Part of the reason is that there always seems to be a chance to catch up. If a player is in last place, they have an extra chance to take an additional roll of the die. A player can also quickly make up a lot of ground if he gets on the back of the pig in front of him. The piggyback mechanic also seems to balance out very well for the players. If one player is on top of a stack of four pigs, he will eventually be the last to move off the stack. What always seems to happen is that the pigs behind him end up on his back, at least one or two of them. So the game is very well balanced. And of course the kids love having huge stacks of pigs on the board. It's funny to land on another player or to complain when someone lands on you. Even moving a huge stack of pigs can be fun for the kids.

My sons also love playing with the pieces. They will sit and the table after a game and work on stacking the pigs in any way they can. The rule book has numerous pictures of possible pig stacks, so my sons have plenty of ideas. The game is easy enough for my two-year-old to understand and play and enjoyable enough for my wife and I to have fun playing with my sons. The piggyback mechanic makes up for the simplicity of the role-and-move mechanic, making this a children's game I have to recommend.

Thread: The Piggyback Brigade

Vaughn — 2006-12-25T04:58:24+00:00

Ages: 4-99
Players: 2-7
Time: 20 minutes

The box is sturdy with a colorful mural cardboard insert.
The game consists of a specialized die, 8 large tiles, seven wonderful wooden pig meeples (all in different colors) and seven corresponding colored wooden tokens.
The tokens are about the size of a quarter hence the 4 and up age recommendation. *Little kids will eat stuff*.
The pigs and tiles are large which make them easily manipulated by small hands.
Nothing makes me cringe more than a child trying to fingernail a Carcassonne tile off a table.

Speaking of which the eight tiles are configured much like the river add-on in Carcassonne. The game board will always be different. I believe the instructions said there were milliions of possibly configurations.

Once you have the board set up you line the pigs up at the start of the first tile, the person with the next Birthday coming up starts. Play then continues clockwise.
The six-sided die is numbered 1-4 in yellow and then 1 and 3 in black.
If you roll a yellow number you simply move your pig and the next person goes.
If you roll a black 1 you move 1 space and roll again.
If you roll the black 3 and you are in last place you move 3 and roll again.
The real fun comes when you land on another pig. You don't just stand next to him on the square, you actually (and you probably knew this already) get to piggyback onto him! The pig meeples are cut so they fit perfectly on top of one another. You can actually stack them in all sorts of crazy ways but for the sake of completing the game in 20 minutes you should probably stick with the standard stack. Younger kids could have a ball playing with the wooden pigs and stacking them in circus formations. As long as you don't let them have the smallish tokens they should be fine.

The tokens are actually used as place setters. When one pig gets close to winning another players can take the first tile and move it to the end of the last tile thus giving them some time to catch up or at least hop on top of the leader and let them carry them off to victory together. Others continue to take the tiles from the back and put them in front of the leader until everyone that wants to do this has done it once. When you move the tile you place your color token on the board so people don't add 2 or more tiles to keep this fun game going all night.

I played with 4 kids; 7 and 14 year old boys and 10 and 11 year old girls. The owner of the game was the 7 year old and they all had a blast playing it. My dice boot went over really well also. It kept the die from flying all over the room and knocking into the tiles and they also had fun watching it roll down the boot.

I recommend this game. The piggyback them is hysterical. The game reminded me of a cross between Candyland and Carcassonne and as much as kids love Candyland wouldn't we all love to see them play more Carcassonne?

8/10

Image

melissa — 2006-07-29T13:21:40+00:00

Otto showing how the game is played