Bucket Brigade (1998)

About this game

Bucket Brigade is a card game with a racing track by Reiner Knizia. Players use colored cards (numbered 1 or 2) to move four colored tokens along a track. The color that wins the race makes cards in that color worth +3 at the end of the round. The other three, depending on how far they advanced, are worth anywhere from +2 to -1. If a color moved farther, its color are worth more points -- but you probably spent more of that color to move it there, giving you fewer points! Irony. The new Bucket Brigade edition by Face 2 Face Games uses the exact same rules, score levels on the racetrack, and card distribution as the original, but instead of Honeybears, the racing tokens are firemen ascending a ladder.

Does it fit your group?

• Group size. Works with 3 to 5.
• Rules load. At 1.3/5 this is a light game — explain it in a few minutes, good for a table that has not played much.
• Age. The publisher suggests 7 and up. That rates the rules rather than the artwork, so judge the box yourself for younger players.