"Sleeping Queens" card game review

My brother came to visit over the holidays, and one of the gifts he gave my kids was the game Sleeping Queens by Gamewright.  We have played this game enough times that I feel I can give it an informed review.

It is stated that the game is for ages 8 and up, but my kids are 5 and 6 and they really love it.

As a kindergarten teacher, I really love it too.  The kids started working together with another adult on their team, but now they work really well together, and they usually beat me at it.

The object of the game is to be the first to collect a certain number of queens by “waking” them, or to a set number of points, as each queen card has a point value.

The concept of the game is fairly straightforward. There are a number of queen cards that are placed face down in the middle of the play area, much like the game memory. In fact, the game of memory really is a mini game within this game, and also great for kids. 

The remaining cards are all shuffled and dealt to players in hands of 5 cards.

These cards consist of standard numbered cards and “face” cards.

The number cards reflect standard playing cards with four cards each of the numbers 1-10, but again the game design is really great for kids as each card has a pictorial representation of the number ( four poodles, five crescent moons, etc.)

The number cards are used mostly for discarding, in hopes of scoring a face card, but the numbers come in to play in two interesting ways. First, any doubles may be discarded together, and any combination of cards that have a sum equal to another card may all be discarded in a “chain”.

Again, this simple mechanic provides addition practice for kids, and provides a real world application (playing a fun game) for math.

The numbers on the cards come into play again when the jester card is played, but more on that later.

The “face” cards are further divided into kings, attack cards, defense cards, and jesters.

When a king is drawn, he may be traded to “wake” a sleeping queen and take her into your play area.

When a Dragon is drawn, it may be used to “steal” a queen that has been awakened by another player and is in their play area.

When a sleeping potion is drawn, it may be used to put another player’s queen to sleep, and back into play.  Players need to take note of the location of the queens in the center of the game area, especially when playing for points.

A knight card can be played to block a dragon from stealing a queen, and a magic wand cancels the sleeping potion.

The jester card is risky. When the jester is played, the player immediately draws another card from the top of the deck. If this card is a face card, then the player may keep it or make another play. If it is a number card, then the player must start counting with their self in a clockwise direction around the table. The player that is counted as the number on the card may draw or “wake” a queen for free.

There are also two special rules concerning the queens. One of the queens allows the player to draw an additional queen, and two of the queens do not get along preventing one player from having both in their play area.

My initial reaction to the game was that I wanted to make it more complicated, I wanted more special rules as there are a wide variety of characters and themes that could be played off, but after playing with my kids again and again, I would say that it is just about right.

The artwork and overall design of the cards is great (as you can see from the pictures I took). It is accessible to kids, but nice to look at for older players as well.

I think that adults will tire of the game before too long, largely due to its innate simplicity. However, if you have kids, even children as young as mine, then I would wholeheartedly recommend buying this game. Not only does it provide “at bats” for addition practice and memory, but I also helps with general number sense, and recognizing the numbers with their quantities. Younger players can count the objects on the cards to help with addition.

It is also a lot of fun to play with kids, especially when they work as a team, and super easy to “cheat” your way into losing in the beginning and gradually increase the difficulty for the little gamers. For eleven bucks, this game is a really great deal.