Ants work together a lot and are hard workers. In 111 Ants you have to collect a row of twelve ants and put them in the correct order by swapping them with other ants. However, this is not possible just like that, so you have to work very systematically. Read in our review whether collecting ants is just as easy as in your backyard.
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Each ant has a number from 2 to 111 and at the start of a game you have to choose to save an ascending or descending row. You need to get rid of ants that are disrupting the line and exchange them for a new one, but you can only get it when you get rid of an ant to the left or right of the new ant. There are three cards face down on the table, one of which you can take on your turn to trade. The card you put down is visible to all players, so you can sometimes use other people’s junk. A round ends when a player has completed his or her row. Then the points of the ants are added up and the player who reached sixty points first wins.
Thus, you will have to make strategic choices to complete your row. Sometimes this will force you to get rid of a precious ant, but otherwise your row will never be complete. At the same time you also want to save the most points. It is therefore unwise to focus on a select group of ants, because in this way you always have to get rid of connecting ants. You better plan ahead by putting low ants in the front and high ants in the back while trying to stop dozens of them in between. It takes a few pots before you realize which choices are the best and what useful options you have at your disposal. Especially in the beginning it is difficult to build a nice row. Fortunately, it is quick to pick up and learn and the card game invites you to play several rounds in a row more often.
Photo: Joost Klein Middelink–
The nice thing about it 111 Ants is that you can also score points if you have not completed a complete row. As soon as one player has completed an entire row, the game stops, but the other players can choose a connecting row of ants with which they also earn points. This makes it useful to build a connecting row as much as possible and let it grow. If you get ants in here with a lot of points, you can earn almost as much as the winning player. At the end you even have a good chance of victory.
So you can win by finishing your row as quickly as possible so that the game stops and bothers your other players while you earn points yourself, or save as many cards with many points in the hope that you still earn them. In our experience with the game, the players who finished quickly also often seemed to have less valuable cards, so round winners do not necessarily automatically win.
Thus 111 Ants a nicely balanced game where everyone has almost the same chance to win, while you have to think tactically which cards you discard. A nice card game to play in between bigger games, if you only have a short time for a game or if you want to play a less complex game. It is easy to learn and plays nicely.
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