Gamewright - Abandon All Artichokes - A Heartless Card Game,Green

I previously played this game with a friend and loved it! Abandon All Artichokes is from the makers of Sushi Go Party! which is also a fun and fast card game, so I knew I would have fun!I love the sturdy tin packaging for this, I only wish it were square instead of artichoke shaped.This game is quick to learn and the art style is very cute and endearing! Players start with a small deck of 10 artichokes with the goal of getting rid of them all. You'll get help from the other vegetable cards placed in the "garden row" in the center of the table - each one with a different effect that passes artichokes and other vegetables around, composts them, or discards them. The first player to draw up a five card hand on their turn with no artichokes wins!Play is mostly self-explanatory, but newbie players may get confused dealing with the nuances of their own discard pile and the compost pile and where to put cards. I recommend reading the directions closely and maybe watching a tutorial online.

I bought this after an IG family I follow recommended it. The rules are kind of hard to figure out at first it took us a few plays to get the hang of it but now it's one that my husband and I can play quickly when we just want some quality time but don't have a baby sitter.

2024 Updated reviewI have to update my review, because 3 years later, we still go to this game. This is an easy game to return to. I'm finding that I really appreciate games that you can pick up and play - the rules do not need to be referenced and if so, it's quick and painless.I play this with my 16-year-old cousin. He likes this game because it doesn't require too much brain power, especially on a school night.I still hold to my previous opinion that the game is not easily played intergenerationally. Even though I know how to play, I still need to read the text on the cards and weigh the odds (how many artichokes are in my draw deck, how many does the opponent still have - what is the likelihood they have so many artichokes in their hand, etc). You can play this game simply - maybe young children will need an adult to read to them what a card does and they can probably memorize what each card does. Kids are good at that. Adults like my parents, not so much, especially because they have a hard time reading/seeing and they don't like having so many different things to keep track of.What they did enjoy was Sheriff of Nottingham which also has different decks of cards to manage. Stealing is a timeless pastime, what I can say.2021 Original reviewWe have been playing games at dinner nearly every night since Covid started. We mostly have been doing party games with some modifications. For example, I use a white board, and draw in a track so everyone at the table can see the progress for Dixit and we only go for five rounds.So I thought maybe we can move up to the next level. We tried this game out with my parents, in their 70s and 80s, my husband and my cousin who is 13. My dad had already tried a deck building game and he needed a lot of help. I thought this game would be easier to play. My mom who has never played deck-building (but plays a lot of games on her phone) figured that part out quickly. The rules were also broken, because I dealt the cards out for 5 people instead of 4 - just so you know, I did that on purpose, because I was more interested in just playing the game even if it's not to its full/balanced potential, just like I modified Dixit.So anyway, it went on very slowly...my dad was mostly confused and he kept trying to hide his discard pile like to keep it secret? But he won anyway at the end, because he had no artichokes. His prize for winning was for the game to be over. As soon as he won, he walked off and said he was done. So um, there you have it. The person who was MOST confused ended up winning - which then you MIGHT be able to draw some conclusions, like it's really random and there might not be much strategy involved and it's really just the luck of the cards. My mom said she didn't want to play it again. And my husband and cousin thought it was boring. I personally thought it was an OK game and that I MIGHT be able to convince everyone to try it again, but I would print out player mats to help with setting areas for discard and draw piles. And I think this game could work with other people...just not the people I play games with.The cards are fine, the tin is...a tin. I wish games came in a box like a normal deck of playing cards. There was absolutely no reason why it couldn't - so it added to the cost of the game unnecessarily. I would have thought it was cooler if it came in a box made from recycled paper with a picture of the artichoke on the front printed in environmentally friendly ink.These are the current games I would suggest for families with players over 70 who don't regularly play boardgames, in order of easy to get into: Trophies, Herd Mentality, Timeline, Telestrations, Dixit, Wits and Wagers, Just One, Cross Clues, Codenames

Easy to learn and quick to play. Love the silliness!

This is a great game which I learned to play online. Going from virtual game play to the in-person game was a simple transition, although I did realize there were some moves automatically handled online, which I needed to review in the (short, easy to understand) instruction booklet to know how to handle manually.The game is quick and fun -- good for two players or a larger group. The more you play, the more fun it becomes, because you will start to memorize the cards and their abilities, and be able to develop better strategies.(Side note: We have started composting the artichokes separately from the rest of the cards to make cleanup/replay easier.)It also comes in an adorable tin, which isn't very stack-able, but does look great!Overall, this is a good game for kids, families, and adults.

I am in love with deckbuilders and wanted something I could introduce to my kids. I went to the interweb seeking suggestions and this one kept coming up. It was affordable so I bought it. And I am so glad I did. My kids immediately gravitated towards it. They quickly figured out the rules, loved the art, and had a good time. They were even willing to play it again during our next game day. I will be buying copies of this game as stocking stuffers for friends and extended family members this Christmas. And I hope there will be expansions. While I think it's a perfect family game, there is still some meat in the game for many seasoned veteran gamers as a good filler game. One of my favorite deckbuilding mechanic are cards that allow you to streamline or cull your deck. This game puts that mechanic front and center so I think this game would be very appealing to many deckbuilder fans.

My kids really enjoyed this game for Christmas!

So this game was fun. But it took me like 10 times playing it to actually understand the instructions. They are very unclear now that we actually know how to play. It’s been a little better, but at first, I was questioning whether we’d ever learn the real rules of the game, so it takes a lot of patience and maybe the company should think about having directions that are easier to follow and include all parts of the game