(Note, this post contains links to the games mentioned. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

I’ve played Outfoxed! a healthy number of times. I have played with kids as young as four, and as old as seven. I suspect maybe it would get a little dry for kids who are 9 or 10 as it’s meant for ages 5+, but let’s see. Anyway, here’s why this game has been so successful and hit the table so frequently when I’m around little ones.

What’s It All About?

You can head over to BoardGameGeek and read countless reviews and even get the manual, so I’ll keep this short. In Outfoxed! you’ll team up with other players to roll cute dice to reveal suspects and move around the board to find clues that will help you to figure out which tricky fox is the thief. The game has a fun decoder tool that will let you know how the clue you found relates to the thief. The game is for 5+ and works great at that age in my experience. It plays 1-4 players, and it still plays well at two players.

Cooperative Team Game

My kids love cooperative board games. I can get them to play head to head in Hive Pocket, Sleeping Queens, and Kingdomino, but if given a choice they’ll pick the cooperative game very time. In fact, when I introduce a new game one of the first things they ask is, “is it a team game?” This is understandable as I don’t purposely lose games to let kids win, so it’s only natural that they would prefer playing something that we can win together without direct conflict.

Entertaining for Adults

Finding a game that is simple enough for a kid to play with a parent, yet not so simple that it bores the parent to death is always a struggle. Outfoxed! does a good job of being interesting enough to keep an adult entertained. It’s also fun for the adult to watch their kids work through the logic puzzle that’s required to identify the remaining viable suspects as more clues are discovered. It goes something like this…

Dad: “The decoder said that our thief doesn’t have a hat, but he does have a scarf. So could this fox with the scarf and the cane be the thief??”

Kid: “No!”

Dad: “Why?”

Kid: “Cause she has a hat!”

As more and more clues and suspects are revealed the deduction gets slightly more complicated. It’s good fun for a kid! It feels sort of like reverse Guess Who?

The kid will need to puzzle through to learn which suspects can be eliminated because they don’t match the information that has been revealed. Eventually, you’ll be able to narrow it down to a single suspect.

Colorful

Outfoxed! has great components. The dice are fun, the colors are bright, and the illustrations are all kid appropriate and obvious. The entire package is very pleasant. Even the box and insert are great!

Not too Long, Not too Short

Outfoxed! only takes 30-45 minutes to play through. A great length for kids and adults!

Adjustable Difficulty

When a dice roll fails, the fox moves closer to the edge of the board where he will make his escape and cause the players to lose the game. You can adjust how many spaces the fox will move on each failed dice roll to adjust the difficulty. We normally play by moving the fox 4 spaces when we miss the dice rolls. We found that moving 3 spaces was way too easy, and moving 5 spaces is pretty dicey (dad joke) but still doable.

Strongly Recommended

If you’re looking for a game to play cooperative with young kids, you can’t go wrong with Outfoxed!

Highly recommended. I like this so much I have purchased it multiple times to gift to others.

Try it out, might be fun!

Bored? Don’t want to look at a screen? Solo print and play board games to the rescue! I’m a casual gamer at best — I probably only get to play a lightweight board game once a week, and maybe a heavy board game a couple of times per year. I love games. I love the systems, the design that keeps things tight and engaging, and the social interaction. Solo games are a great way to scratch the itch when you just can’t get your friends together for a game night.

Here’s my first impression of the print and play board game Ada Lovelace: Consulting Mathematician.

This print and play game only requires two pieces of paper, six six-sided dice (6 d6), and something to write with. You’ll play the role of historical figure, Ada Lovelace, and try to collect enough evidence and scour enough rooms to solve a crime. You’ll chuck dice and choose polyominios to draw on the floor plan — Tetris style. While placing your polyominos to fill rooms is one way to earn points, you’ll also attempt to surround special blocks that contain pieces of evidence in order to gain special abilities. You’ll loop through this cycle of anxiously anticipating dice rolls, mulling over which polyomino to pick and where to place it, and considering whether to simply fill the room or shoehorn the polyominos to try to surround a piece of evidence. You’ll do this this across four rounds before time runs out and the game is over.

Ada Lovelace: Consulting Mathematician has a great flow, and the way it is laid out helps you save the game state in case you need to do something else for a bit during your game. You’ll use a printed Dice Manager as a place to set your dice and easily visualize your polyomino options. By looking at that Dice Manager you’ll know if they are reserve dice, dice you already rolled and put away, or if they have already been assigned to the Dice Wheel. I found this set up to be very useful, as I could roll the dice, place them on the dice wheel, and quickly understand the game state as a glance.

“You have a case, but it is unconvincing. Your reputation is in tatters.”

I only got 40 points on my first attempt. My second attempt I managed to get 39… According to the score chart in the rule book that puts me at… “You have a case, but it is unconvincing. Your reputation is in tatters.” To win you need 75+ points. Not easy! I’ve only played once, but next time I play I think I’m going to pay more attention to my polyomino placement so that I don’t make it impossible to complete rooms. I had a few rooms that could only be completed by the “wild shapes” that I just never happened to grab before the end of the game. In my first run I found seven pieces of evidence, and completed two rooms (the two halls). I also managed to get some extra points from evidence abilities.

There you have it. Try it out, it might be fun! Some more links on the game follow.

Ada Lovelace: Consulting Mathematician on BoardGameGeek.com has links to more reviews, the printable files, and forums with answers to common questions — and more!

The developer’s website has some interesting tidbits about the developer and some of his other games.

Check out my introduction of Raging Bulls, another simple yet fun print and play game!

Board games are great. I have bought, sold, and traded for quite a few over the past few years. One thing to know about board games is that their prices can fluctuate wildly. It’s not uncommon to find relatively new games on sale for 30-40% off of the MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) on major online shops like Target, Walmart, and Amazon.

Of course, it’s always best to support your FLGS (Friendly Local Game Shop) if they have the game you want. These local shops keep the hobby alive and build the community.

CamelCamelCamel.com: This website provides price history graphs for most products listed on Amazon. You can also specify a price point and receive an alert when the product price falls to that point or lower. If you’re not in a hurry to buy something you can set an alert and pick it up when it reaches an all-time low price. You can see in the screen capture below that Skull (awesome game) fluctuates between 25$ and 15$ quite frequently.

Reddit r/boardgamedeals : The r/boardgamedeals subreddit is full of board game enthusiasts who watch price swings like hawks. You will often see people mention “CCC all-time low” on this Reddit sub. This means that the current price is the lowest price ever recorded on CamelCamelCamel.com.

Here are some of my favorite Social Media Accounts the track Board game deals:

@Tabletop_Deals https://twitter.com/Tabletop_Deals

@Bgl_Deals https://twitter.com/Bgl_Deals

@BoardGamePrices https://twitter.com/BoardGamePrices

@tabletopbellhop https://twitter.com/tabletopbellhop

Facebook Online Board Game Deals Page: https://facebook.com/OnlineBoardGameDeals

These resources are mostly focused on U.S. prices. There are some similar resources available for people in other countries but I am not as familiar with them.

If you’re looking for more (and frankly for practically every reputable price drop source) you can find a list on the r/BoardGamedDeals subreddit page.

Here’s another comprehensive blog post with money saving tips on BoardGameSquad.com.

Of course, if you’re trying to control your spending, or cull your board game collection, avoid all of these sites at all costs. You have been warned.