A Good Game for the Beginning Gamer

My 5 year old son and I have been collecting the new games from the LEGO company and playing them to see which ones are good...and we have come to the conclusion that the "Minotarus" game is the best of the lot...

The game is built around a very simple mechanic, but delivers some fairly complex tactical choices for each player. I have found it fun to play and it seems to offer each player tactical options with each die roll....great for developing the little guy's strategic mind....and not so boring that dad can't get in to it as well!

Basically each player has three warriors that they have to move through the labyrinth, avoiding the Big Black Minotaur and get all three of the warriors to the center of the board  before their opponent to win. The game is based on a D6 with 1-4 being moves and 5 being the option to move a blocking (grey) piece to thwart either the opponents warriors or the Minotaur. On a 6 the player can move the Minotaur 8 spaces. If the Minotaur contacts a players man, he has to return it to the home corner and start again...the first player to get three warriors to the center square wins the game.  Super clean and simple but with a degree of tactical possibilities make it a "real" game IHMO.




 

...and of course my son seems to get the best of me nearly every time...a true gamer in the making! We use the Minotaurus game as the break from TV cartoons and computer games which seem generally to have little tactical or strategic subtlety. ...(and lack of course the dimension of having actual figures to move!)