I wanted to kick this forum off by talking about a board game that is very near and dear to my heart. It's one my grandmother had on a shelf in the dining room and that we therefore frequently played whenever we would visit and see family. I have many fond memories of me and my cousins getting very passionate, with moments of sheer frustration and others of glorious victory. I'm sure the adults put it down so they could have some time to themselves, but I would rather play the game than converse even now anyway.

'Mens, erger je niet!', or 'Man, don't get upset!' in English, is a board game originally from Germany, but I obviously played the Dutch version of it instead. Depending on the version you buy it can be played with either 2-4 players, or even up to 6 if you get a larger board.

It's a board game of the 'genre' Cross and Circles. The board is split in 4 sides by a Cross, and the ends of the cross are further connected to each other with circles or tiles. A lot of traditional family board games will follow a very similar approach to this with their board layout, even if the exact layout differs a little bit:



As for the game in question, 'Mens, erger je niet!', its board looks like this:



Rules:

Every player chooses a color and gets 4 pieces, which start in the 2x2 square (the out-zone) of their respective color. After the turn order is decided, players must roll a dice. To be able to start playing, one must throw a 6, with this being the requirement to move a piece from the out-zone back into the game. As a result, it's very much possible that one player gets to start playing right away while others might not be able to start until the 8th dice throw. This will be a frequent cause for frustration and glee of others during the game.

Once a player throws a 6, they can move one of their pieces from the out-zone to the starting circle on the board in their color. They may then roll again and this will determine how many tiles their new piece can move. A player can also opt not to move a piece from the out-zone onto the board if they already have a piece in play. They may instead choose to move that piece 6 tiles, and then roll again for another move.

The goal of the game is to have all four of your pieces make a full lap of the board and end up in the 4 inner tiles of your color, the safe-zone.

Of course it's not so easy as to just do a full lap. When one of your pieces lands on an opponent's piece, you kick it off the board back into that opponent's out-zone. They must now throw another 6 if they wish to bring it back to the board.

Once a piece makes it to the safe-zone, it can't go back on the board, but it can move forward in the safe-zone if your roll allows for it.

Strategies:

Some people play with a few additional rules, but I honestly found the base rule set to already be a lot of fun. The simplicity of it makes it easy to understand and play for anyone, whilst also still allowing for strategies to unfold. You can choose to play with all 4 of your pieces at once, though only being able to move one per turn, which will give you better odds of capturing opponents' pieces, but also makes you more vulnerable to be captured. Another strategy is to focus on one or two pieces at a time, which will get them around the board faster, but if they get kicked off it will set you back to square one. A strategy I often tried was to plant one of my pieces right before the starting tile of an opponent. That way I could sometimes kick a piece they just placed off right away, essentially spawn camping it lol.

At the end it can be very frustrating, as you will typically need a very specific roll to get your last piece in the safe zone. When an opponent then takes it, you have to make that piece go all the way around again.

All in all it's a very fun game, and I really hope to play it again at some point in the future.

First of all I must say: give the person who named this game a beer. I've seen very few games so aptly named or that its name can actually be said during the game.

This looks like another game derived or predating parchisi, which has seen countless versions through space and time. In Spain, for example, Parchis (yep, no legendary name for us) is played similarly with a bigger board of 68 spaces and the inner tiles working much differently. We also have other rules, like counting 20 spaces when your piece lands over the opponent's and counting 10 spaces when your piece reaches "home" which is the true goal within the inner tiles. There are also safe spaces along the board every 5 or 7 spaces, four of them belonging to the starting zones of each player.

I must say that, due to being used to our way of playing, I'd have a hard time acclimatating to this version you just discovered me. But it does look much more simpler yet equally competitive, could be interesting to give it a go.

I do really enjoy hearing about similar games in different countries! I'd love to have a go at playing Parchis and see if maybe the bigger board would feel a lot different.

Maybe we can meet in the middle and create a new variant lol, maybe translate the good name in Spanish?

EX Palen :

That game looks like Sorry! Except in Sorry you pick cards instead of rolling dice I think.

At least it does to me. I've seen versions of this game in North America that involve dice as well.