Team3 - Those Who Build Together

BGG Link:

Retail Price: $20

Player Count: 3-6 (best at 3)

Age Range: 14+ (5+ in our experience)

Play Time: 30 mins. (consistent with our experience)

Complexity: 2 out of 10 (consistent with our experience)

Mechanisms: Cooperative Game, Dexterity

Designer: Alex Cutler, Matt Fantastic

Artist: Reinis Petersons

Publisher: Brain Games

Educational Value:

• Strategic Thinking

• Problem Solving

• Spatial Reasoning

• Creative Communication

• Teamwork

Flavor Text:

“Three monkeys have started a construction company, and the building blueprints are coming in quick! Now the monkeys have to work together to complete their blueprints before time runs out.”

Overview:

Team3 is a game that plays off of the concept of the three monkeys, of which one can’t see, one can’t hear, and one can’t speak. You must work together, each without one of your abilities, in order to construct specific structural patterns out of geometric blocks.

Setup:

• Separate the Blueprint Cards into their 1, 2, and 3 start difficulty levels, and then shuffle each stack

• Give each player a role card

  • The player with the longest arms gets the Architect

  • The player to their left, takes the Supervisor

  • The last player then takes the Builder

• Place one set of shape tiles in front of the Builder if you are using the 1 star Blueprint Cards, or both sets of the tiles if you are using the 2 or 3 star Blueprint Cards.

Gameplay:

At the start of each round, the Architect will draw a Blueprint Card, and place it in front of themselves where only they can see it. Then the Builder must close their eyes, and the Supervisor will shuffle around the building tiles. The Architect will then start a 3 minute timer, and start trying to communicate what's on the Blueprint Card without speaking. Each role is explained below:

• Architect - can’t speak or make any verbal sound, but must communicate the Blueprint Card to the Supervisor using non-verbal cues

• Supervisor - can’t see the Blueprint Card, but will watch the Architect, and then can verbally instruct the builder on how to build the structure

• Builder - must play with their eyes covered, and use verbal instructions from the Supervisor, to try and construct the pattern on the Blueprint Card

At the end of 3 minutes, if you haven’t completed the pattern correctly, you fail that Blueprint Card. You lose, if you fail an amount of Blueprint Cards, equal to the number of players in the game. You win, if you are able to complete as many Blueprint Cards, as the number of players plus the difficulty level (ie 3 players and 2 star level cards, means you would need to complete 5 Blueprint Cards).

Luck/Strategy:

There is very little to no luck in this game, other than possibly due to the fact that some cards are slightly harder than others. This game is one that is highly dependent upon your team, and having one player who maybe doesn’t fit well with the others can really throw a team off. As you play more with the same players, it definitely becomes easier to read each other, and understand each others non-verbal cues.

Artwork:

There isn’t a whole lot of art here, but the box art is really cute, and the colors of all the components are very vibrant and eye catching.

Theme:

There isn’t really a theme to speak of here, it is purely an abstract dexterity game.

Replayability/Fun Factor:

There are 70 different Blueprint cards, spread across 3 different difficulty levels, and realistically even if you got the exact same card two times in a row, due to the limitations in communication, and the fact the Builder can’t see the blocks, it is almost infinitely replayable. With that said, this isn’t a game you are going to want to play for hours on end in a single setting, as the novelty does wear off. This game is going to be challenging for most people, and how fun it is really depends on if the people playing enjoy a challenge. Some players will feel driven to defeat the game, having a blast along the way, and others will feel that it is too stressful to be a fun experience. Also, if certain players get frustrated, it is easy for them to blame their teammates, but conversely when a team is successful it really builds some comradery.

Conclusion/Audience:

We have had a lot of fun (and a little frustration) with this game. Ultimately, this is a game I would highly recommend for families of any age, because all you really need to know in order to play, are your colors. However, this isn’t exclusively a kids game, and we have found it equally fun to play with a group of adults. In our experience this game works well with preschool kids, all the way up through high school and beyond.

+ Easy to learn and play

+ You can really make the game as long or short as you want

+ Very nice and vibrant components

- Could be stressful for players who don’t like to be overly challenged

- Could cause conflict between players if they struggle to work together

Final Score:

Jared - 7.5

Abigail - 7.5

Other Games You Might Like:

Animal Upon Animal, Mental Blocks, Rhino Hero, Tinderblox

This game was purchased from my friendly local game store, and is available here. This isn't an affiliate link, but just my way of trying to support my FLGS, who carry great games at even better prices.