Hey, That´s My Fish!

This snappily titled game is a good one for introducing kids to tactics. For all it’s cartoon-style imagery, it’s a fairly combative game where getting in each other’s way is central to success.

The ‘board’ is made up of hexagons that are laid out on the table, making up a modular grid. Each hexagon represents a section of ice containing between 1 and 3 fish. Over the course of the game the ice melts, and it’s the players job (using penguins!) to collect more fish than their opponents. Each player will have between two and four penguins (depending on the number of players) in their own colour, and the game starts by placing these one at a time at a location of your choice on the ice.

Then on a given turn, each player moves one of their penguins to a new location – they can move in any direction in a straight line from their own hexagon to another, as far as they like (though they cannot jump over other penguins). The active player picks up the hexagon their penguin just left – and collects the fish on it.

Thus as play continues the board is shrinking, and it’s your job to keep your penguins both picking up as many fish as they can, but also not getting isolated on a remote hexagon far from the action. It’s this latter aspect that makes Hey, That’s My Fish more intriguing and combative than it first appears, as shrewd play can remove opponents from the action and starve them of fish!

At the end of the game the player with the most fish is the winner!