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Eat Me If You Can! Board Game Review and Rules

Eat Me If You Can! Board Game Review and Rules
How to Play | Review | Final Verdict | Comments

How to Play

Setup

Depending on how many players there are, the characters for the game are chosen.

  • 3 Players: Wolf, The Kids, One Pig
  • 4 Players: Wolf, The Kids, Little Red Riding Hood and her Grandmother, One Pig
  • 5 Players: Wolf, The Kids, Little Red Riding Hood and her Grandmother, Two Pigs
  • 6 Players: Wolf, The Kids, Little Red Riding Hood and her Grandmother, Three Pigs

The corresponding cards are shuffled and one card is dealt to each player. The card dealt to each player determines which character that player will be in the first round. All of the victory tokens are put into the center of the table.

Playing the Game

All of the players besides the player who is the wolf, chooses whether they are going to sleep or set a trap. Each player sets the dial on their house to the nightcap (sleep) or trap symbol to indicate their choice. When everyone has made their choice the wolf decides who they are going to attack.

Choose Action in Eat Me If You Can

The player on the left has chosen to sleep. The player on the right has chosen to lay a trap.

First the player who was attacked by the wolf shows off their choice of sleeping or setting a trap.

  • If the victim was sleeping, the wolf gets the amount of victory points printed on the house from the bank. The victim loses the number of points printed on the house.

    Sleep During Wolf Attack in Eat Me If You Can

    This player chose to sleep when the wolf attacked. This player loses one victory point (value of their house) while the wolf player earns one victory point.

  • If the victim set a trap, the wolf player loses the amount of points printed on the victim’s house. The victim earns the number of points printed on their house.

    Lay Trap in Eat Me If You Can

    This player decided to lay a trap when the wolf attacked. This player earns one victory point (the value of their house) and the wolf player loses one victory point.

The rest of the players then reveal the choices they made. If a player slept they earn the amount of points printed on their house. If a player sets a trap, the player earns no points.

Not Attacked in Eat Me If You Can

These two players weren’t attacked by the wolf. The player on the left choose to sleep so they earn three victory points (their house value was three). The other player chose to lay a trap so they receive no victory points.

If a player ever runs out of victory points they only give up points they currently have (players can’t go into negative points).

Whichever player lost points during the round, gets to choose which role each player will take in the next round.

End of Game

The game ends when a player has 10 or more victory points. If two or more players have 10 points, whichever player has the most points wins the game. If two players are tied and one of the players earned points as either the wolf or victim in the previous round that player wins the game. Otherwise the first tied player clockwise from the wolf wins the game.

Winning Eat Me If You Can

Review

If I had to describe Eat Me If You Can! I would have to call it a “my first deduction game.” Eat Me If You Can! is a very basic deduction game that focuses on whether you can predict what the other players are going to do on a particular turn. The game is so simple since once the roles are assigned every player has to make just one decision. The players that aren’t the wolf need to decide whether they are going to sleep or lay a trap. The wolf player has to determine who they are going to attack. That is basically all there is to the game.

With the game being so simple I think Eat Me If You Can! was designed as a family style game. The game is so simple that young children shouldn’t have any trouble understanding how to play the game. They may not understand all of the strategy to the game and might not be great at lying/deceiving but I can’t see young children having problems understanding how to play the game. With the fairy tale theme and the simplicity I think children should enjoy the game quite a bit. Eat Me If You Can! would work well as a game to teach children bluffing style games.

In addition to being easy to play, Eat Me If You Can! is a really quick game. Unless there is a lot of back and forth in the game, most games of Eat Me If You Can! will last around 10 minutes. That length is about right for Eat Me If You Can! A longer games would remove a little luck from the game since the luck could even out a little but I think the game would become dull if it lasted more than like 10-15 minutes. Eat Me If You Can! is a good example of a microgame since it is a small game that is quick and easy to play.

Despite being such a simple game there is still some strategy to the game. A lot of the strategy comes from deciding which player will get each role every turn. I really liked that the player who lost points in the previous round gets to pick the roles for the next round since it allows that player to control the next round and makes it easier for them to catch up. There is strategy to how roles are given out since different roles give players different opportunities to score points. Generally you probably don’t want to give the highest valued house to the player who is in first since they could just extend their lead by either sleeping and the wolf doesn’t attack or by setting a trap and catching the wolf. Instead you want to give them either the wolf or the lowest valued house in order to reduce the number of points that they can score in a particular round. Giving the wolf to the player in first place could be really useful especially if all of the players lay out traps since the wolf player is then guaranteed to lose points.

The rest of the strategy in the game comes from the head games between the different players. The game relies heavily on the idea that players are always second guessing their decisions. For example the wolf will generally not want to attack the highest valued house since they would assume the player would lay a trap. The player who occupies the most valuable house might think the wolf won’t attack them though so they might sleep in order to try and earn the high amount of victory points. The opposite could also be true in that the wolf may attack the lowest valued house but that player lays a trap thinking that the wolf was going to attack them. This back and forth could have been a really interesting mechanic

Eat Me If You Can! had the potential to be a good bluffing game but there just isn’t enough to the game in my opinion. Since you only have one decision to make every turn you are basically just guessing what the other players are going to do on a given turn. Unless you are great at reading other players or the other players are terrible at hiding their intentions, there isn’t much skill or strategy to the game. You basically are just guessing and whichever player guesses best will win the game.

Since Eat Me If You Can! is basically a guessing game, I found it to be kind of dull for adults. I wouldn’t refuse to play the game if someone wanted to but I think there are better bluffing games out there that have a few more mechanics that make them more than just a guessing game. With the simplistic mechanics and the theme I think Eat Me If You Can! was made more for families with younger children than for adults. I think children will enjoy the game because it is easy to play and has a theme that would appeal to them. For families with younger children I would probably add at least one star to the rating that I gave the game.

Component wise the game is decent. I thought the artwork was well done. The component quality is only decent though. All of the components are made out of cardboard. The cardboard is of a decent thickness and shouldn’t get damaged too quickly. I personally thought the dials on the houses turned harder than they should. One of the dials in particular was actually surprisingly hard to turn.

Final Verdict

Overall it is kind of hard to explain my thoughts on Eat Me If You Can! I like the simplicity and quick nature of the game. The mechanics are interesting. The artwork is nice. Unfortunately the lack of mechanics make the game feel like just a guessing game. Unless you are really good at reading people or the other players are terrible at hiding what they are doing you just have to guess. That doesn’t make for a terrible game but it makes for a dull game.

If you are looking for a bluffing game that feels like more than just a guessing game, Eat Me If You Can! is probably not going to be the game for you. If you have younger children though I think you will enjoy the game quite a bit more than I did. While Eat Me If You Can! is not a great game, if you can get a good deal on the game it may be worth checking out.

If you would like to buy Eat Me If You Can! you can purchase it on Amazon.