Pocket full of rye
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked into a pie …

Hmm… a blackbird pie doesn’t sound all that delicious to me… but if it’s what the King wants, it’s what he shall receive! Now the question is, which baker will be able to please the King with three delightful pies first? Time to find out!


What Is It?

A counting/simple addition game where players try to play blackbird cards into unbaked pies until they hit exactly 24 so they can bake it up to serve it to the King! There are only odd-numbered cards (1-9) available, so plan accordingly!

Players can also use Royal cards to get a simple ability to help them sneak a pie out from under their opponents!


Who Is It For?

I think that kids, maybe 5 and up, and families would be the best audience for this one because it’s light and encourages math and counting skills, which is great for younger kids. My group found it to be a great filler though that they’d like to play again, so adults will enjoy as well! It does have some light strategy, so I definitely see it reaching a broad audience.


Contents and Quality

There’s not a ton in this small box game, but what is there is pretty nice! The cards are a good, sturdy quality, with nice art as well. The box is nice quality too; my cardboard insert got a little squished, probably just a manufacturing error, but it’s not a big deal and it still holds everything in place nicely. The pie tokens are awesome; really nice, thick wooden tokens screen printed with the pie design.

My only complaint is that the rule book is tiny so it’s kind of annoying to handle and read, especially because the font (although very fancy!) is not super easy to read either and is yellow-ish with red outline. So it’s not my favorite, but luckily it isn’t very long and once you’re through it you don’t really need to reference it much, so it’s not the end of the world.


PROS

  • Nice art and quality
  • Cute and unique theme
  • Great to teach kids simple math skills (or let adults brush up on them if they’re bad at math…like me)
  • Short, simple, and easy to learn and play
  • Nice level of strategy
  • Great filler / good for a wide range of gamers

CONS

  • Luck of the draw; sometimes you can only play a card that helps the next person complete a pie because there aren’t that many options
  • The Royal cards get obtained in a weird way, in my opinion. They seem incredibly powerful (I was able to complete 2 out of 3 of my pies using them in one playthrough) so it almost seems like instead of auto-adding them to your kitchen when you flip one out to replace a card played in the center, you should have to spend a whole turn picking one up from the harvest row. But, I realize the game is also for kids and families, so I see why it’s a bit easier at the same time
  • The rules aren’t super detailed in some cases. For example, there’s no rule for if you have no valid play, which is possibly since you can’t play over 24, but it is also pretty unlikely, so it’s not a big deal.

Difficulty

Overall this is a simple game with very light strategy, so I’d give it a 1.5 or 2 out of 5 for difficulty rating. I think this would be a game easy to teach to practically anyone!


Final Thoughts

When I first learned about this game I was interested in the literary theme (this was a favorite rhyme of mine as a kid) but not super excited about the math element. However, I not only thought these went really well together as a theme and mechanic, but I really enjoyed it! More than that, my group liked it too, and some of them aren’t always the keenest on learning new things. I’ve been leaning more and more toward lighter games so that I can play more in a typical day, and this one is a great addition to my collection. If you get the chance, check this one out!

My Final Rating: 7/10

Happy Gaming~

Additional Information:
Designer – Dann Kriss
Publisher – Dann Kriss Games
Artist – Ruslana Shybinska
BGG

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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