As regular readers of our website will know, we love playing board games. They are entertaining, fun and an excellent way of spending quality family time together (and getting the twelve-year-old out of her bedroom!). But there are times when we want to play a board game that requires a bit more brain power and is a bit more grown up, so just us adults decided to play a question-and-answer board game whilst the kids weren’t about (we did play it with them the next day). We decided to play Drumond Park’s The Best of British board game, which is part of the very successful LOGO family of games.
The Best of British board game is a game suitable for 2 to 6 players, or 2 teams, from age 12 and upwards. It takes a light-hearted glimpse into our everyday life, reminding us of the diverse, unique and hilarious everyday things, people and places that make Britain such an outstanding place to live with questions such as: Where might you encounter toucans, pelicans and puffins while on a shopping trip? What is the most popular fish used for Fish & Chips? It is a question-and-answer board where the winner is the first person to move around the board and reach the Winning Zone.
Box contents:
- 1x Circular Game Board
- 6x Different Coloured Playing Pieces
- 300x Question Cards
- 1x Rule Sheet
There is very minimal set up to play this game. Each player or team grabs a cone-shaped played piece (they are all different colours) and places it on the start space on the board. Remove the lid off the box of cards (we have an older version of the game that has a cardboard question card box rather than the newer plastic version) and you are ready to go. We recommend shuffling the cards as there are three sets of question cards, each with four questions; Picture Cards that have pictures relating to questions on the cards, Common Theme Cards – these have four questions relating to a common theme and Pot Luck – these have random questions Best of British questions.
We have played this game as a two-player game with just the adults and a two-team game with an adult and child on each team, we found that it worked best with just the adults purely just because the knowledge needed to answer the questions (although the kids, aged eight and eleven do like being included, especially if on the winning team).
Game play is very simple. The oldest player in each team becomes the Question Master, asking the other teams their questions. The team with the youngest player goes first with the Question Master of that team selecting a card from the box – the cards all have four questions with the answers on one side so don’t let anyone else see them. The first (red) question is then read aloud to the opposing team, if a picture card the pictures are shown to the opposing team and then the questions asked or if a themed card the questions are read aloud for all players on all teams. If the question is answered correctly the playing piece for that team is moved to the first red space on the board. The same team is them asked the next question on the card, if correct moves to the next corresponding colour on the board. This continues until the green question has been asked. If a question is answered incorrectly the Question Master can ask their own team member the same question for a bonus move. Play then continues with the next team selecting a card and asking the questions. This continues until a player or team gets their piece to the Winning Zone in the centre of the board. Once in the Winning Zone you must answer a bonus question to win, this means that whoever is in the Winning Zone no longer participates in answering questions and moving around the board but has to wait until an answer is answered incorrectly to get the bonus question.
Overall, we loved this game (the adults more so than the children just because of the level of general knowledge required, although there are questions that will suit all age levels). There are a wide variety of questions about cups of tea, names of pop singers, passports, football, television shows, history and lots more. As a team game it works very well as you can combine ages and different levels of knowledge.
Sample questions are:
Q. Where might you encounter toucans, pelicans and puffins while on a shopping trip?
A. They’re all types of pedestrian crossing
Q. What is the only letter in the English alphabet that is not one syllable?
A. The letter ‘W’
Q. What is the most popular fish used for Fish & Chips?
A. Cod
Q. What’s the UK’s most popular name for a girl born in December?
A. Holly
Q. Who were Randolph, Diana, Sarah, Mary and Marigold?
A. Winston Churchill’s children
We have really enjoyed playing this game. The questions are fun, unique and interesting, from the easy general knowledge to the bizarre and obscure but all things British. The rules are simple and game play is quite quick, especially as the more questions you answer from a card the bigger jumps you can make around the board as the coloured spaces are in a random pattern and not consecutive moves (so for the first question you might move two spaces, for the next you might move four but for the last you might move one).
We can highly recommend The Best of British and the more people playing, whether in teams or individually, makes the game so much better.
The Best of British is a fun game that all the family can be involved with and you will even learn some fun new fun and interesting facts with some of the excellent questions on the cards.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £31.95
For more information, visit www.drumondpark.com. Available to buy from Amazon here.
