Do you love games like Scrabble which are tactile and strategic but perhaps words aren’t your thing or you are looking for a new change? Then please consider Qwirkle. This is about colours and shapes. It is quick to pick up, fun to play and comes in travel, standard and jumbo sizes to suit any budget or occasion.

On your turn you will be playing tiles onto the crossword style arrangement to try and get yourself sweet points to tally up. Your tiles will come in different colours; red, orange, green, yellow, blue and purple. Each depicting a different symbol too; square, diamond, circle, star, a cross type shape and a x shape. As you can tell the last two are not the correct technical terms, but there are six colours and six symbols. On your turn you can play as many tiles as you wish or are able to. You must place your tiles into a single row, although to maximise your scoring, you will want this to intersect with more than just one row. Every line that you create or add to on your turn will score you points. You can either match colours or symbols in a line. If you cannot or do not wish to play any tiles you can discard any number of tiles as your turn instead. At the end of your turn, you will draw your hand back up to six.

What you are trying to do is create “qwirkles”. Not least because they score the most points, but if you create one you get to say “qwirkle” and that is a fun word to say. A “qwirkle” is a set of either six different colours of the same symbol or six different symbols of the same colour. These are worth a bonus six points on top of their basic scoring.

The game will end once all the tiles have run out, at that point the scores are compared, and the highest score wins. There are a few strategy tips here from me to you to try and grab yourself the top spot, don’t be afraid to save tiles for a later mega turn or a “qwirkle”. Try not to create scoring opportunities for others, and always remember there are three of each tile in the game.

If you like any of the Scrabble, Rummikub or Bananagrams games, then Qwirkle is a seriously good choice for you to try. We have the travel version and it is great for playing anywhere or taking camping.