Lou May Have Had the Winning Carrot, But I Killed the Most Bunnies!

Day 64 - Killer Bunnies
Designed by Jeffrey Neil Bellinger
Guest Reviewer: The Wife

Lou has asked me to review tonight's game. I first played Killer Bunnies 6 years ago and with a very large group of people. I was so intrigued by the game play and the fact that in the end, the winner is determined by randomness. (Yes, there is a way to improve your chances, but really it comes down to fate smiling down upon you.) Surprisingly, I didn't introduce Lou to this game even after my enjoyable introduction to it. He was talking about it one day and reminded me of it. We borrowed it and knew it would have to be in our collection some day. We purchased it last year on a whim and have enjoyed many nights with this devilish rabbits.

Game play is pretty simple. To start, you place two cards face down in front of you in a first and second position. You will play the first card on your turn. Draw a card.  And then move the second position card to the first and place a new card in the second position. So there is a little planning required on your part. There are Very Special cards that can be played directly from your hand and you also can have Special cards face up off to the side that you can also play.

Basically it all boils down to you  need to collect carrots and you want at least one Bunny in the Bunny Circle while you destroy your opponents bunnies. Why the destruction? You are only capable of winning if you have a Bunny in the Bunny Circle. (At the end of the game, if you have carrots but no Bunny in the Circle, your carrots go to the person with a Bunny with the most Kaballa Dolla.) The game ends when all the carrots are collected and this is where the randomness of the winner comes in. Throughout the game, you have collected carrot cards. At the beginning of the game, a mini version of the carrot deck was shuffled and set off to the side. The winning carrot was already picked by the last card in that mini deck. You pray that you have chosen wisely as you have purchased, traded, and stolen carrots. One by one the losing carrots are shown until finally the winning carrot is revealed. Whoever possesses the winning carrot is the winner. It doesn't matter how the game was played. It doesn't matter if this person only has one carrot while someone else has all the others. It all comes down to that initial shuffle of the mini deck.

This can be a REALLY frustrating game for people who don't enjoy luck based games. However, for me, this randomness takes some of the pressure off to perform splendidly at every moment. And on top of all this, the cards are DELIGHTFUL! So cleverly written. Quite frankly, that is what makes the game worth it, and that is How The Wife Sees It.