Boop the Halls Game Review by Guest Writer George Gensler!
If you have read my reviews of boop. and BOOoop., you know how much I love Smirk and Dagger’s Boop games. The newest version is Boop the Halls, a Christmas edition with new versions of everything, including game play! My nephew hasn’t beaten me at this one, though. But only because he hasn’t played it yet. Happy Holidays!
What’s in the box?
It’s Christmas time and you know what that means. Kittens and cats everywhere are climbing Christmas trees and the kittens and cats in Smirk & Dagger’s Boop the Halls! are no different. Instead of a bed this time, they’re booping all over the Christmas tree! There are four tiers to this Christmas tree, plenty of room for the eight white kittens frolicking in Christmas presents; the eight white cats playing with Christmas ornaments; the eight black kittens playing with ornaments; the eight black cats wearing knit scarves and hats; the six ornaments (three gold and three red). As always, the cats, kittens, and ornaments are solid wooden pieces with good heft and easy to grip for smaller fingers. In a departure from the two previous Boop games, the game board is four-piece base that fits together like a jigsaw puzzle, plus three other inch-high layers. Well, inch or so.
How to play Smirk & Dagger’s Boop the Halls!
First, assemble the tree by fitting together the base, then stacking the three top layers. Each player chooses a color and takes their cats and kittens and ornaments. The cats become the reserve and game play begins with the kittens and ornaments. The gold ribbons on the opposite sides of the base are the scoring areas for each player. The person who sang a Yuletide song most recently gets to go first.
Game play is simple, but very strategic! On each player’s first turn, they place an ornament on the middle tier of the tree (out of reach of the kittens). You can’t place a kitten or cat unless you already have an ornament on the tree (remember this for later; it’s important!). Then play continues like the other Boop games, where every time a kitten is placed next to another kitten, every kitten adjacent to the newly added kitten (including your own!), boops one square away from the invading kitten, including on the diagonals.
Upgrade your kittens to cats by placing your kittens in such a way that you can get three of your kittens in a row after all of the booping is complete. You can see now why strategy is very important when every time a kitten comes near yours, they get moved one square away. If your kitten is on the edge of the tree, it gets booped right off the tree and back into your reserve to play again.
TOP TIP: Kittens, cats, and ornaments can only be booped off the lower two tiers of the tree, so keeping your pieces on the top two tiers gives you a bit more control over them.
Don’t worry about not being able to line up three kittens in a row, because the booping is restricted to the kittens touching the newly-placed kitten. There are no chain reactions. And, when two kittens are already cuddled up side-by-side (even diagonally), they can’t be booped at all.
Each move, after the kittens have finished their booping, check to see if there are any rows of three kittens. If you do manage to get three of your own kittens in a row, you upgrade them to cats. The three kitten pieces get removed from play (or become a delightful tableau built by your opponent) and you then have three cats to play. This counts for both players.
TOP TIP: Kittens can be upgraded to cats regardless of whose turn it was, so make sure you’re checking where your opponent’s kittens will end up after booping or you could be graduating their kittens to cats.
Cats are important and not just because you need to get three in a row to win. Cats do not boop away from kittens, so it’s easier to line them up if your opponent hasn’t graduated any cats yet. Cats can boop each other, though, so be mindful of the required boops on each play, especially if you have cats or kittens at the edge of the tree. For upgrading kittens to cats, the rules apply to cats, as well, so if you have two kittens and a cat or two cats and a kitten, you remove them from the board, retire the kittens and add the same number of cats to your pool.
But what are the ornaments for?
The ornaments add a new layer of strategy to Boop. You must have an ornament on the tree to place a kitten or cat. Ornaments do not boop anything (kittens, cats, or other ornaments), but they can be booped. However, if booped, an ornament can only be booped to the same or lower tier. They cannot be booped upwards. If the only direction for an ornament boop is upwards, the ornament stays in place.
If you boop one of your opponent’s ornaments off the tree, you collect it and store it on your gold ribbon scoring area (which means that your opponent captures your ornaments in their gold ribbon scoring area if they boop your ornament off the tree). Don’t worry about booping your own ornaments off the tree. Those just return to your reserve to be added to the tree on your next turn. And remember, you must have an ornament on the tree to take your turn.
Ornaments block booping of kittens, because kittens can’t be booped onto a space occupied by an ornament. Booping a cat that’s next to an ornament causes the cat to “pounce” on the ornament, capturing it (not a problem if your own cat pounces on your own ornament, because it just returns to your reserve; however, if your opponent’s cat pounces on your ornament, they capture it – and vice versa.)
TOP TIP: Having the board game on four different tiers makes it more challenging to see where all the pieces are. If you need to, stand up and take a top-down look at the board to find the best way to place your next piece.
How to Win Scott Brady’s boop:
There are two ways to win: Naughty or Nice and, of course, there are two Nice ways to win. You either get three cats in a row (after all of the cats and kittens have been booped) or you get eight cats on the board at once. The Naughty way to win is to boop all three of your opponent’s ornaments off the tree. Here is where that first rule of play shows its importance. You must have an ornament on the board to play, so if you have captured all here of your opponent’s ornaments, they cannot play, which means you win! And vice versa!
Smirk & Dagger’s Scott Brady’s Boop the Halls! is a 2-player strategy game for players 10 and up. If you want your younger children to play, either play in teams, with at least one player 10 and up on each team or play it yourself a few times to see if your littles can manage. The pieces are so nice, though, that even if they end up making up their own game with the pieces, they’ll enjoy it. Each piece is about 1” by 1” (accounting for the shape of the kitten/cat), so very littles probably shouldn’t play with them. If you play strictly by the rules, you can get through a game in about 20 minutes. If you’re playing with very creative people, the story-telling might push it a little longer. It’s super fun, though, so you won’t mind! You probably won’t even notice.
TOP TIP: If your littles find the tiered board too challenging, you can play on the base, which replicates the different tiers, but remember to keep your ornaments out of the center square.
I am still hopeful for customized cat/kitten (and ornament) sets and a magnetic version for travel!
https://www.smirkanddagger.com/product-page/boop-the-halls
TOP TIP: Shop the Smirk & Dagger for Boop merch!
There is an expansion pack already available! https://www.smirkanddagger.com/product-page/boop-the-halls-little-dickens-of-an-expansion
If your littles are too little to play, you can buy the Boopable Boop Plush for them to cuddle: https://www.smirkanddagger.com/product-page/the-boopable-boop-plush
And you can take your love for Boop to the streets with this Boop Black Knit Hat: https://www.smirkanddagger.com/product-page/boop-black-knit-hat
٭٭٭٭٭Highly recommended
Sehr geil