Qwinto Review

Is Qwinto the Qwick game and Qwinner?

Qwinto is a 2-6 player roll-and-write game, marketed for players aged 8 and up, but children aged 6 or 7 should be able to play too. It is a quick and easy to learn game, which lasts around 15 minutes.

Set Up & How To Play

At the start of the game everybody has a scoresheet and a pencil, then there are three coloured dice (purple, orange and yellow) which players take turn in rolling. The scoresheet is deceptively simply looking, it includes three coloured rows of shapes, with the colours corresponding to the dice colours. Most of the shapes in the rows are circles, but some are pentagons. The sheets also have a section at the bottom where you add up your final score.

So, how do you play this game? On every turn, a player chooses which dice they want to roll, this choice is important as it will determine which coloured row they can fill in. If they roll all three dice, they will be able to fill in any of the three rows, but if they only roll the purple die, the number will have to go into the purple row. After the dice roll, you tot up the sum of the dice (if more than one is rolled) and you can write that number on the scoresheet. If the number does not take the fancy of the person who rolled the dice, they can decide to re-roll once per turn, but everyone must fill in the number on their sheet every turn.

In addition to filling in the row corresponding to a colour of the dice rolled, there are a few additional rules: all numbers in a row must increase from left to right and no numbers can be repeated in a column nor a row. A player that does not enter a number must mark a ‘misthrow’ box on their scoresheet which results in -5 points. Everybody takes turn in rolling the dice and the game ends when any player fills in all four misthrow boxes or completes two rows.

So, how can you score points? Players can score points in a number of different ways. Firstly, if you complete a row, you get the number of points on the far-right box, this is the highest scoring way to get points. Second, if you complete a column which includes a pentagon shape, you score the number in the pentagon shape. Finally, if you do not complete a row, you score the number of points equal to the number of spaces filled in. As described above, for every misthrow box you will take away 5 points. As you might expect, the person with the most points wins.

Overview

I realise on writing the set up and gameplay that the game sounds….quite basic and dare I say….boring? Rest assured, that Qwinto is anything but. The rules are simple enough to learn, but the strategy involved to do well in the game is surprisingly deep. Considering that Qwinto involves such few components, three coloured dice, a pencil and a simple notepad, the game is brilliant.

The one minor criticism of the game is that the rules do not, and cannot, explain the necessary strategy to enjoy the game. Really, Qwinto needs at least one run through to demonstrate the tactics. Even though the game lasts only 15-minutes, there is a pleasing depth to the game. Every turn involves a nice number of choices, especially early on in the game. For example, there is a natural inclination to go for the most points, which would involved completing a row. However, if you focus entirely on doing this, it will leave you open to problems later on. Let us say you have filled in 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 in the purple row. This in itself would be an achievement; however, now all that another player has to do is roll a single purple dice and there is now nowhere you can place fill in the number, which results in you losing 5 points with a misthrow. This is just a simple example of some of the strategy involved. The choices come thick and fast in Qwinto: how many dice do I throw? Which colours? Do I settle for this number or do I risk a re roll? Which row and which column do I fill? Importantly these choices are fairly straightforward and happen quickly. I have never had a game affected by ‘analysis-paralysis’, Qwinto really rattles along.

As with every dice-rolling game, there is an element of luck involved, but whenever your get a number you do not want it never feels particularly unfair. Whenever you get a duff roll resulting in a misthrow, you can always think back regretfully as to how you could have done things differently which could have avoided the mistake. Also, quite often when a bad roll comes up it impacts the whole group, rather than just one player. This leads to some fun moments. There was a time when me and the other player wanted a roll of anything but a sum of seven with two die. First roll: 5 and 2….Second roll: 4 and 3! Disaster! There is maybe less strategy and more luck left in the latter stages of the game, where these situations are more commonplace, but the game is no less fun.

As I have made fairly clear, I love this game. Like many people, I fell into ‘judging the book by its cover’. Qwinto looks a bit basic, sounds simple and comes in a teeny tiny box. As an aside, I cannot come to criticise the look of the game too much. There is no theme and the design is functional, but the components are good quality. It has the feel of an old classic, like Yahtzee or Checkers or Noughts and Crosses, and we don’t criticise these games for their look so I won’t criticise Qwinto! On a similar note, I think it would be unfair to compare this to a big complicated game, as it isn’t trying to be one. Gloomhaven this is not. This game perfectly achieves what it aims to be: An easy to pick-up and quick to play roll-and-write game. Although I have not played all of the roll-and-write games out there, this is certainly my favourite. I would recommend it to anyone. It works well with kids, families and non-gamers. The game plays in 10-15 minutes or so, and perhaps won’t sustain a whole board game session, but you will find yourself playing games back-to-back-to-back-to-back-etc. as the game is so addictive. You always think you can do better next time and want to try again!

In short, I love this game and think everyone should buy it. For such a small box and low price, it should have a place on your board-game shelf.