Having been weaned on board games growing up, I’ve already begun stocking a closet for the day when we all sit around the dining room table for family game night. Of course with a one and four-year-old our current options are somewhat limited. Chutes and Ladders, Hi Ho Cherry-0, and Memory have become old standbys. But recently we came across a new game to add into our rotation.
Rivers, Roads & Rails, originally published by Ravensburger in the late sixties, is basically an illustrated version of the game Connect, a matching game that follows the same principles of dominoes.
Each tile contains at least one road, one river, and one rail. A player can only play a new tile adjacent to a played tile if the sides match, and the player that uses up all his tiles first wins. In the process of playing tiles a map begins to form of a twisting and bending transportation network, complete with scenic waterfalls, woodland landscapes, ponds, and charming urban development. Comprised of 140 picture tiles, the end result is always unique. You can play the game competitively, or cooperatively like a free-form jigsaw puzzle. So far we prefer the latter approach, turning it into a game to see how many of tiles we can use, which on more than one occasion resulted in a map that began on the bedroom floor, extended out the door and continued down the hallway.
We scored ours at a garage sale, but you can still acquire the game brand new for under $20.
(images: Ben Partridge)
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I am a BIG HUGE FAN of Ravensburger -- they make such lovely games and puzzles!
I love that! We are big board game people at my house too. I have a (different) vintage Ravensburger game I thrifted and it's great.
Wow talk about down memory lane!
I totally had that as a kid it was hours of fun! I wonder if my folks still have it?
Pretty sure you don't mean weaned... raised probably. Weaning is the process of doing without, usually mother's milk but also managing without something...
Game looks cool. Thanks for you rec.
This looks like such a fun game for young ones! Thanks for sharing.
This was my absolute favorite game growing up! It's great fun even as an adult :)
I had an hand-me-down mod version called Connect (I think). The tiles had black, blue, and/or red lines. LOVED it.
We just got an board game called Carcassonne which is similar to this but it's more of an adult strategy game. If you're looking for a grown-up version, try it!
@JudiAU, wean has another meaning:
wean on, to accustom to; to familiarize with from, or as if from, childhood: a brilliant student weaned on the classics; suburban kids weaned on rock music.
For what it is worth, neither the OED or Webster's unabridged give that definition.
Wow, word war. :)
I've never seen anything like this in game form, but it looks awesome and would like to find it. My grandmother had something growing up (that was probably from the 70's or early 80's) that was a lot of square cards like this, and you put them together to form a house and garden scene. It was open-ended, however, not competitive.