Designed by: Eric Solomon
High Tail It! (also published as Billabong) is a race around the oasis.
The board represents the desert, with the oasis at the centre. Each player has a bunch of kangaroos they place face-down behind the starting line, on any square they like. On your turn you move one kangaroo – they can go one square in any direction (like the King in chess) or they can jump over another kangaroo, if it shares a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line. You can jump a kangaroo one square away, or you can jump a kangaroo much further away – however far behind you are that kangaroo, you’ll land an equal amount of squares in front of it! (Bear in mind your ‘landing space’ cannot be occupied by another kangaroo) And if you can jump again on the same turn, you may do so – in fact, it’s possible to make a kangaroo jump several times, taking it from last place to first or even – later in the game – over the finish line.
The first player to get all their kangaroos home wins.
Minimal - there's no combat in a race. But you can spot and spoil potential moves for the other players.
It really does depend how fast you want to play - you can bash through High Tail It! in fifteen minutes playing with your gut, but for such a simple game with simple rules, the multitude of options (more with more players) can create the odd lull whilst opponents weigh up their best move.
The rules aren't remotely brain-burny, but working out where each of your kangaroos can go *can* feel unexpectedly deep.
There's not a lot of variety in set-up and play, but the race itself can throw up surprises when someone spots a clever move.
2-4
Players
8+
Years
15-30
Mins
Sam says
The rules are only 1 complexity, but the implementation of them can encourage the odd bit of chin-scratching. What I really like about this game is when someone jumps all over the place and pulls off a great, surprise move. The very simple rules make the game seem best for kids; but adults can get a kick out of this: it's far more cerebral than it appears.