Gameplay

The set-up of Snack Rabbits is fairly quick, you all take a colored dice, shuffle some cards (and add a game-end-card) and lay out five cardboard-fences numbered 2 to 6. On those cards there are veggies that score you points at the end of the game. Each card has an indication to what numbered fence it is added. On your turn you can decide for a fence and roll, if you hit the number or higher, you get all the cards for that fence.

There are not many moments that feel as devastating in board gaming than trying for a 2 and rolling a 1, missing out on some juicy carrots.

Alternatively, you can take another dice instead of trying to get some veggies your turn, to have better odds on later rolls (in case of a success you lose all added dice). The veggie cards you get are part of a set collection. Every veggie is available in a different amount, whoever has the most of a specific veggie gets this amount as points, for all the other players you get one point per card. For example: There are 10 onions (arguably the best veggie), you got 5 of them, so you get 10 points. Another player got 3, so those are 3 points.

There is a game end card in the mix, when it appears you stop adding more veggies (so not all veggie cards are in play), roll for the last ones available and count your points.

Thoughts

I enjoyed my first play already, but over the time Snack Rabbits established itself as one of my favorite games to chuck some dice and push your luck. It provides both immediate results in getting one or a few cards, but also gives an overview about which rolls are important and let’s you decide your timing very well with the option to take more dice.

Granted, this is a dice rolling game, and there are rounds that can be utterly frustrating, and when you are on the back foot and can’t come back it can feel a tad long. Also it can feel quite obvious what the supposedly best choice can be in many situations, but for me this game still provides ample opportunity for decisions.

But in the end, I really enjoy it and suggest it quite a lot when the idea is to play something quick and fun. You are invested in every dice roll, tension is both high and ridiculously serious and games can swing with a spectacular roll for the six-spot that collected card over card in an instance. It’s just plain, uncomplicated fun with loads of table talk and emotions.

Appearance

The theme is cute, as you are rabbits trying to steal some vegetables from a farmer. Because the farmer has a name (Bauer Benno) and is probably no big corp you can feel a little guilty, but as Watership Down tough us, life is tough in the rabbit-world.

The artwork is nothing to write home about, but is cute and feels very fitting and every relevant information is very easy to grasp. The components are solid as you would expect from Amigo, and the game comes without plastic both in packaging as in components. The dice are pretty light wooden dice in pretty nice colors, and I found them to be good readable.

Accessibility

The rules are pretty light and easy to explain, as you can do a quick demo of some example turns and show how it works. Setup is quick, you need to shuffle the deck, put in a game-end card, everyone grabs a dice and you are ready to go. On average the games takes us under 20 minutes with set-up and teach, no matter the player count.

Considerations

As for player count, I prefer this game at three players, but also really enjoy it with two. I think four players is okay-ish, but it just takes some more time until you can roll your dice again, which feels longer after you had a few bad rolls in a row and have the feeling being out of the game.

This game shines as a three-player game with the right balance between table talk and quickly being able to roll again and push your luck.

As Snack rabbits is part of Amigos small box series, it is pretty affordable (about 10 euros, used copies around 2-4 euros) and available in Germany, but finding a copy might be not that easy outside of Europe. There are some localized versions as well, but in general it seems that Snack Rabbits never really gained any traction and there aren’t many used copies floating around.