Games - Hare and Tortoise

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	Games - Hare and Tortoise

Hare and Tortoise is a German-style_board_game designed by David Parlett in 1974 first published by Intellect Games. It was 1978 released in Germany by Ravensburger where the game became a huge hit. It has since sold some 2 million units in at least 10 languages, including two known pirated editions. The current edition is published by Rio Grande Games (United States), Abacus Spiele (Germany) , The Board Game Company (UK)

Theme

The game is based on the Aesop's fable 'The Tortoise and the Hare' where the hare and tortoise decide to race. The tortoise wins the race by cunning while the hare fails because he overestimates himself and takes a nap during the race. The moral of the story is "slow and steady wins the race" which is incorporated in the game mechanic. In some countries the fable is retold as a race between the hare and the hedgehog (for example the game is named 'Hase und Igel' in German).

Game mechanic

The game used a (for the time) new game mechanic. Until then movement of game pieces was largely determined by the roll of dice. In Hare and Tortoise players pay carrots (the currency in the game) to move forward. The more squares the player wants to advance, the more carrots the player is to pay. The cost to advance increases according to the price of the previous square plus the target square:

1 square = 1 carrot
2 squares = price of 1 square + 2 = 3 carrots
3 squares = price of 2 squares + 3 = 6 carrots
4 squares = price of 3 squares + 4 = 10 carrots
and so on...

Players can earn carrots in various ways - most notably by moving backwards to designated squares (10 carrots per square). This game mechanic creates an interesting and dynamic race usually with no clear winner until the very end. The players start the game with 65 carrots. The gameboard features 65 squares. There are no generic squares instead the board is divided in several types of squares such as hare (draw a luck card), carrots (get extra carrots for each turn skipped) etc.

The factor of luck can be eliminated completely from the game by agreement between the players not to land on 'hare' squares.

Awards

The game is the first game to win the Spiel des Jahres award in 1978. It won the 'Speelgoed van het jaar' (Toy of the Year) award in 1979 when the dutch translation was released.

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