Roll 'Em To Win (Yahtzee)

Member Name: keeperofthematri

Product:	Yahtzee
Date:	20/07/09 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Addictive, unpredicatble

Disadvantages: Not to be played when you have a headache!

I first got this game over thirty years ago when I was a child & it's still somewhat of a family favourite these days. The version I had was made by MB (Milton Bradley) Games which is now owned by Hasbro & contained:-

+ Pens
+ 5 dice
+ Dice shaker
+ Pad of Yahtzee scoresheets
+ Playing "tray"


Gameplay:-

Each player is allowed to roll the dice a maximum of three times, although you can end your turn after one or two rolls. Any of the dice can be "saved" to make up one of the categories on the scoresheet with the remainder being re-rolled. Once the third role is complete the player must place a score into one of the categories on the scoresheet. If there are no suitable categories left the player must score a category as zero. There are thirteen categories which are:-

Upper Half:-

+ Ones (score all the "1" dice rolled. Maximum score is therefore 5)
+ Twos (score all the "2" dice rolled. Maximim score is therefore 10)
+ Threes (score all the "3" dice rolled)
+ Fours (score all the "4" dice rolled)
+ Fives (score all the "5" dice rolled)
+ Sixes (score all the "6" dice rolled)

If a player scores 63 or more points on the Upper Half then a bonus of 35 points is applied.


Lower Half:-

+ Three Of A Kind (score all dice. Examples of this are:- six, six, six, four, two or five, five, five, six, three etc)
+ Four Of A Kind (score all dice. Examples of this are:- five, five, five, five six etc)
+ Full House (score 25. Three of one number & two of another eg: three, three, three, one, one)
+ Low Straight (score 30. Four in a row eg: one, two three, four or two, three, four, five etc)
+ High Straight (score 40. Five in a row eg: one, two, three, four, five or two, three, four, five,six)
+ Yahtzee (score 50. Five of the same dice eg: two, two, two, two, two etc)
+ Chance. (score all dice. There is no special combination needed for this category).

If you manage to score one Yahtzee any subsequent Yahtzee can be scored at 100 points. The winner is the person with the most points when the game ends.

Note: In some versions of the game the straights are called big straight / large straight / little straight / small straight etc. There is a slightly different version of the games in Scandanavia which has different categories & different scoring.


Verdict:

This game is a bit addictive, but obviously not something you'd want to play with any sort of headache due to the constant shaking of the dice. Part of the game is down to chance & part down to the strategic choices you make on each turn. The categories in the lower half are, usually, harder to get a score in than those in the upper half so some players try to complete these earlier on in the game. It should be remembered though that the upper half carries a bonus of 35 points & that only the high straight & the Yahtzee in the lower half scores more than 35 points. So, if it comes down to a choice of getting your bonus in the upper half or crossing out something in the lower half you should usually do the former as those few extra bonus points may make the difference between winning & losing.
You can, of course, play the game without any sort of equipment at all is you have pen or pencils, paper, some dice & a knowledge of the categories & scoring. It's an unpredictable game that anyone can win with a bit of luck & judgement can win.
Various versions of the game are available with Amazon currently offering the original Yahtzee for £10.95. Yahtzee can also be downloaded to your PC in various one player & multi-player versions. Some versions also allow you to play multiple games of Yahtzee at the same time with the second game scoring double points, the third game triple points etc.
All in all, this is an easy game to learn, which is addictive whether played against opponents or on your own on the computer.

Summary: Addicitve dice game