Sleeping Queens by Gamewright Games

We bought Sleeping Queens today at B & N for 50% off and played three games tonight. My kids really dig this one.
Here’s the breakdown.
Components: cards of three types – queens, power, number
There are 12 queen cards and each has a number of points on it. These cards are the ‘victory points’ of the game. You play until some gets 5 queens or 50 points in queen cards. They are set out in the middle of the table (or floor) face down. They are asleep at this point. There is one special queen, The Rose Queen, who allows you to choose another queen in the same turn.
Power cards – There are several types of power cards, kings, knights, dragons, sleeping potions, jesters, and wands. Playing a king awakens a queen which you then place in front of you. Knights steal queens from other players. Dragons stop the knights. Sleeping potions put other players back to sleep, returning them to the board. Wands cancel the potions. Jesters allow you to turn over the top card of the draw pile. If it is a power card, you keep it and get another turn. If a number cards, you count around the players, starting with you, the number on the card. The last player counted gets to draw a queen.
Number cards – these are used mainly to generate new cards into your hand. They are discarded as singles, two of a kinds, or an addition equation (a 1, a 2, and a 3, 1+2=3).
Play: Set up the queens. Shuffle the deck and deal 5 cards to each player. Choose the start player. Play a card and do what its action indicates. Then draw back up to 5 cards in your hand.
That is it.
How our games went:
This was fun. My kids immediately took to it. There is some ‘take that’ fun with the knights, dragons, potions, and wands. The jesters add a bit of mystery and suspense because you don’t know what card will turn up or who will get to ‘awaken’ a queen if it is a number. The Rose Queen really livened things up and was put back to sleep as soon as she appeared. We had to house rule that part though because everyone knew where she was. So we shuffled several of the queens together with her then laid them all back out to conceal her place. The art on the cards is great. Whimsical but clear and colorful. My son kept looking for the Fire King, his favorite.
All in all this was a real winner for us and we will play it often.