Designed by: Jacques Zeimet
Hamsterrolle is a stacking game with a difference – rather than building towers, you’re trying to get rid of your pieces in a giant hamster wheel!
Each player takes a set of coloured wooden pieces (7 in all) and in a two player game players can take two sets. The large wooden wheel is placed centrally between all the players, with the cone-shaped starting pawn at the bottom. The first player adds a piece to the wheel, starting the ‘building’ in a certain direction. Play moves clockwise and players have to follow a simple set of rules:
Also, if you think you cannot go successfully, you may pass “constructively“, in which case you must take a piece from the lowest (physically speaking, the farthest from the current section) section of the wheel and add it to your hand. Play continues until one person has got rid of all their pieces, at which point they instantly win.
I've only played Hamsterrolle once or twice, and I think there are other stacking-type games I'd choose over it; but it wins the 'most circular board game ever' award, hands down.
There's certainly an element of Take That, as players can deliberately position their pieces to make them nigh-on impossible to build on.
Low. It's a fast-moving game, and when it's not your turn you'll be watching the antics of the other players.
None, except the almost innate sense of balancing, weight distribution and so on
Very simple rules and quick play make Hamsterrolle extremely accessible, and the random placement of pieces give a wide variety of nuance, if not actual game experience.
2-4
Players
6+
Years
15-30
Mins
Sam says
I like Hamsterrolle for its silliness and it's certainly a unique experience. I haven't found it generates the same weird hysteria that stacking game Bandu does, which is a favorite here at GNG. But it's a good one to break out for people who aren't crazy about rules.