Qwixx at this point in time is probably a classic roll and write. Or at least one that has been in Target and general retail longer. That begs the question if it is a good game, though. You can find plenty of good games at Target, but even more really bad games there. Qwixx might not be the most complicated roll and write, but is it a fun one?

How To Play Qwixx

Qwixx is a simple roll and write where on your turn you roll six dice. There are two white dice and four dice of different colors. The goal of the game is to fill in as many numbers as you can on the four colored tracks. The red and yellow go from 2 to 12 and the green and blue from 12 to 2. As you fill in numbers, you can not go back on a track, so if you skip from 2 to 5, you can’t fill in the 3 or 4.

Firstly, all players can use the combined total of the two white dice to fill in on a track. That is optional for everyone. Then, the player who rolled the dice, they can use one white die and one of the colored dice to fill cross of a spot on that color row. Then the turn passes and the next player rolls.

The twists for this are that the game can end two ways. Firstly, if you can’t place a combined total, you cross off a -5 point spot. If you get four of them, the game is automatically over. The other way is that once you have five numbers filled in for a color, you can lock the row. To do that you need to get a 12 in yellow or red, or a 2 in blue or green. And when a row is locked, no one can add to that row and it removes that color die from the game. Once two are locked, the game ends.

What Doesn’t Work?

This is a very luck dependent game. You might end up, just so you don’t take a -5 penalty, skipping over a number of numbers. Now, the fact that you don’t need to use the white dice not on your turn, or that you don’t need to use both the white dice and a white and color on your turn gives you some flexibility. But sometimes you just roll all high numbers or all low numbers and end up skipping a lot.

I also think that a lot of gamers are going to find this game too simple. It is very much a filler game. I played it twice last night in under thirty minutes while refreshing myself on the few rules. But it is meant as a family game, and I’ll talk about that more in who it is for.

What Works?

I think that the push your luck element of the game is actually pretty nice. You only roll once, but when do you fill in two things versus one. The more you fill in on a row the more points you get. So do you risk it that your opponent won’t lock things, so you can fill more slowly but with less gaps. Or do push to fill in as fast as you can so you can hopefully roll correct combinations and lock the dice?

I also like that it is a very simple roll and write. I love my more complicated roll and writes, but sometimes I want something that is purely a filler. My shelves aren’t short of filler games, but a lot of them are that twenty minutes or thirty for a single game. Qwixx is going to be a pull out, teach, and play in 15 minutes one for me. It fills a spot in my collection that I don’t need many games in. But Qwixx works quite well.

Who Is It For?

So, I already have talked about this as a filler a lot. But that is really what it is. I think it also is one of those games that you can take home and play with almost anyone. I can take this to play with my family. Or it’s one that’d easily fit into a a pocket for gaming at a brewery.

But this is for having at the non-gamers place so that you have a game to play. Or to have in your collection as a gamer so that you can play something simple with non-gamers. If you only play with gamers who are used to stuff more complex than Ganz Schon Clever, there probably isn’t a need for this, unless you want a really fast and small filler.

Qwixx Final Thoughts

I like Qwixx for what it is. Qwixx, as I keep on coming back to, is a light filler or a roll and write game. It isn’t going to be a game I play a ton of. But it is also going to be a game that I keep in my collection. Why, if it isn’t a favorite roll and write? Because I can pull it out and teach it so fast.

And I think often we get a lot of board games into our collections that are big. But there is generally space in most gamers collections for a few fillers. And Qwixx is going to be one of those for me if I want something really fast. I won’t replace some games, like Hanamikoji at two players. But for a higher player count, it is good.

My Grade: B-
Gamer Grade: C-
Casual Grade: A

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