''Hare and Tortoise'' is a

Eurogame A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game, (generally just referred to as board games in Europe) is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and abstract physical componen ...

David Parlett David Parlett (born 18 May 1939 in London) is a games scholar, historian, and translator from South London, who has studied both card games and board games. He is the president of the British Skat Association. His published works include many pop ...

in 1974 and first published by Intellect Games. In 1978 it was released by

Ravensburger Ravensburger AG is a German game and toy company, publishing house and market leader in the European jigsaw puzzle market. History The company was founded by Otto Robert Maier in Ravensburg, a town in Upper Swabia in southern Germany. He began ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and received generally positive reviews critically and won the 1979

Spiel des Jahres The Spiel des Jahres (, ''Game of the Year'') is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the purpose of rewarding family-friendly game design, and promoting excellent games in the German market. It is thought that the existence ...

. It has since sold some 2 million units in at least ten languages. The current editions are published by

Gibsons Games Gibsons Games (Gibsons) is an independent, family-owned British board game and jigsaw puzzle manufacturer, and one of the oldest of its kind in the United Kingdom. Gibsons is the trading name of H. P. Gibsons & Sons Ltd. The company is now run by ...

in the UK,

in Germany and

Rio Grande Games Rio Grande Games is a board game publisher based in Placitas, New Mexico. The company primarily imports and localizes foreign language German-style board games. History In 1995, Jay Tummelson began working for Mayfair Games. At that time, May ...

in the United States.

Theme

The game is based on Aesop's

fable Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular mo ...

The Tortoise and the Hare "The Tortoise and the Hare" is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 226 in the Perry Index. The account of a race between unequal partners has attracted conflicting interpretations. The fable itself is a variant of a common folktale theme in wh ...

", in which the

hare Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The ge ...

and

tortoise Tortoises () are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin: ''tortoise''). Like other turtles, tortoises have a turtle shell, shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, ...

decide to race. The tortoise wins the race by cunning while the hare fails because he overestimates himself and takes a nap during the race. The moral of the story is "slow and steady wins the race" which is incorporated in the game mechanic. In Germany, there is another fable by a similar name, ''Hase und Igel'' ( Hare and hedgehog), made popular by the

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...

, in which the hedgehog wins because his wife is at the finish line, and the hare mistakes her for his race opponent.

Gameplay

''Hare and Tortoise'' is a strategic race game in which players pay carrots (the currency in the game) to move forward. The more squares the player wants to advance, the more carrots the player must pay. The cost to advance increases as

triangle numbers A triangular number or triangle number counts objects arranged in an equilateral triangle. Triangular numbers are a type of figurate number, other examples being square numbers and cube numbers. The th triangular number is the number of dots in ...

: * 1 square = 1 carrot * 2 squares = price of 1 square + 2 = 3 carrots * 3 squares = price of 2 squares + 3 = 6 carrots * 4 squares = price of 3 squares + 4 = 10 carrots * And so on. Players can earn carrots in various ways – most notably by moving backwards to designated squares (10 carrots per square). This game mechanic creates an interesting and dynamic race usually with no clear winner until the very end. The players start the game with 65 carrots. The game board features 65 squares. There are no generic squares; instead, the board is divided in several types of squares such as hare (draw a luck card), carrots (get extra carrots for each turn skipped), etc. One variant of the game is the agreement between the players not to land on "hare" squares, which could eliminate the factor of luck completely from the game.

Development and release

''Hare and Tortoise'' was released in 1974 and was designed by

. It used a relatively new game mechanic upon its publication, which is utilising resource management for movement. This was only previously found in the unrelated game ''Bantu'' published by

Parker Brothers Parker Brothers (known by Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. Among its products wer ...

in 1955. Until then,

race game Race game is a large category of board games, in which the object is to be the first to move all one's pieces to the end of a track. This is both the earliest type of board game known, with implements and representations dating back to at least t ...

s typically used the roll of

dice Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...

to determine movement, however, after 1974 non-dice games gradually became more abundant. In 1978, the game was released by

in Germany under the name of Hase und Igel and was re-themed, with the tortoise replaced by the Brothers Grimm hedgehog. Initially selling with difficulty due to being perceived as a children's game, ''Hare and Tortoise'' was later presented the first Spiel des Jahres award after a reluctant agreement by the company. The award significantly increased the game's sales, and a total of two million copies have sold in ten languages printed by numerous other publishers, including

in the UK and

in the United States. In 2016, the game was re-themed again to ''Around the World in 80 Days,'' which utilised a money theme instead.

Reception

''Hare and Tortoise'' received positive reviews. The Opinionated Gamers praised its accessibility, complexity, engagement and balance of luck and strategy. However, some reviewers also criticised the lack of theme, the mathematical nature and the dated gameplay. In 1979, the game became the first winner of the now widely recognized

award. The Dutch translation won the "Speelgoed van het jaar" (Toy of the Year) award in 1979 when it was released. The game was successful commercially, selling a total of two million copies.

Champions

The official world championships have been held as part of the

Mind Sports Olympiad The Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) is an annual international multi-disciplined competition and festival for games of mental skill and mind sports. The inaugural event was held in 1997 in London with £100,000 prize fund''Mind Sports Olympiad Supp ...

with David Parlett's endorsement 7 times.Mind Sports Olympiad Hare and Tortoise page http://www.boardability.com/game.php?id=hare_and_tortoise 06 September 2010 * 1997: Chris Dickson * 2007: David M. Pearce * 2008: Tige Nnando * 2009: David M. Pearce * 2010:

Dario De Toffoli Dario De Toffoli is an Italian board game designer, gamebook author, and games player who founded the games company Studiogiochi and established many games events. Born in 1953 Venice, after an early career as a chemist he entered the world of gam ...

* 2011: Tige Nnando * 2012: Mike Dixon * 2013: Andres Kuusk * 2014: Matthew Hathrell * 2015: James Heppell

References

External links

* on the designer's website * {{The Tortoise and the Hare Board games introduced in 1974 Racing board games Spiel des Jahres winners Ravensburger games Rio Grande Games games Multiplayer games