Renegade Game Studios Blood of an Englishman Board Game, Multicolor

This is a great, quick two-player asymmetrical card game.One person plays as Jack, attempting to build beanstalks to obtain three treasures. The other plays as the Giant, trying to complete a pattern of Fee Fi Fo Fum, to catch the beanstalk burglar.The deck is made up of 50 cards: two sets of three treasures, two sets of Giant cards, and four sets of cards numbered 1-9. To start the game, the cards are randomly arranged in five columns of ten cards each.Jack must build beanstalks of 6 numbered cards in ascending order, capping each with a treasure. Jack can move three cards per turn, enabling him to counteract the Giant's moves while still edging towards getting all the goods.The Giant can only make one or two plays per turn, but they are big plays: removing a beanstalk card from the game completely, or moving a stack of four cards, for instance. The Giant must bide his time, attempting to get the cards labeled Fee, Fi, Fo, and Fum at the front of each of four columns, or in an interrupted group in a single column.Each game takes about 10-15 minutes to play, at a reasonable pace. It's easy to get into "analysis paralysis," though, so beware of playing with your "optimal moves only" friends. It's simple enough for kids to play and learn, and intricate enough for adults to be entertained. I've seen comments on here that the game skews towards Jack---I have to disagree. The Giant can't compete with Jack head-to-head (Jack makes three single-card moves, Giant can make two), but the whole point is that Jack and the Giant have to pursue different strategies to win. In my experience, the Giant wins as much as Jack. The game often finishes with a tense rush at the end, as Jack gets close to the third treasure and the Giant cards get more and more dangerous as the beanstalk cards disappear.My wife and I have loved this game, and hope you will too.

This is one of my top 5 games right now. For what it's worth, we own around 150-175 games. Have a blast playing with the kids. Great theme and the gameplay really truly fits the theme.I was on the fence with purchasing because there was not much info on the game online, but pulled the trigger and do not regret it one bit.You play this 2 player game as either Jack or the Giant. Each have their own respective strategy for a win...the giant can bash his way to a win, align his fee fi fo fum for a win in multiple ways, and Jack has to collect his treasure to win, but each have multiple means with which to do so. So not only is there replay-ability in the randomness of the cards, but also challenges for differing levels of play. For instance to make it more challenging I'll attempt to win with the giant, solely through destruction. It took me about 40 or 50 plays through, but I finally did it!Overall, the game is great, a total blast with pieces for everyone - great art, fast but in depth gameplay, great thematic elements, light enough to encourage interaction, one of our funniest moments was my daughter beating me because she said she was going to beat me through destruction, so I kept working against that, but she then pulled a trick out of her sleeve and beat me with a horizontal fee fi fo fum!

It’s really hard to find games that my wife likes and I begged her to play for weeks. I knew the scary looking giant would be a turn off so I put happy face emoji stickers on every giant card and she got a kick out of that. I finally got Anna To play after work, before dinner. I bought this game because I heard that a lot of couples liked it, and Anna likes card games. But, she doesn’t like to learn new games. I could tell she really didn’t want to play but she put her best foot forward :) She played as Jack and I played as the giant (I also changed the traditional story: we’re friends, and Jack thinks I’m not careful enough with my treasures so he wants to show me how easily someone can steal my treasures). Well, Anna/Jack got all three of my treasures pretty handily. She then shocked me by saying we should play again ... right now. Wow, okay ... and so we did, and so she stole all my treasures again!!! Well, I’m super happy that she likes the game and I thought it was a lot of fun. Can’t wait to play again :)Then, a couple nights later my son asked me to play it with him. He played Jack and I played the giant again. I almost won a couple times, but then he pulled off the win. Fee Fi Fo Fum I’m gonna get the next dum dum!!!Great game. It feels like there is a lot of depth to the game to figure out :)

Bought this game on cyber monday for $9. This is another homerun for Renegade Games. Simple box, a deck of beautifully illustrated cards and the Jack and the Beanstalk theme. Simple filler game? Simple to learn and to play, but not simple to win. This game is very cerebral and requires like Chess to be three moves ahead. This is a thinking person's filler game. Plenty of replays because after each game you are going to think about why you either won or lost. If you are going to play as Jack, you better go for the win early. If you are playing as the Giant, be patient because as the game goes, your chances of winning get better and better. There is a lot of thinking involved if you are going to win this game. My 10 year old picked it up pretty quickly, so great family game night starter game or end of the night game. Very happy with my purchase and Renegade is certainly on a roll. If you are on the fence about this game, don't hesitate, the price is great. Only issue is you will need space to lay out the castles/5 rows of 10.

I purchased this game and had it imported from America when it was not available in the UK.The reviews looked really good, and the gameplay seemed solid, but i have played this maybe 15 times and it just is not a fun game to play.The mechanics are fairly solid, different sides win each time(Giant, Jack), but it just isn't very fun for me and my family(2 sons 17 and 15, 1 girl 10 and my wife) and none of us really like playing it. It seems like a really good idea, but when playing is just not very 'fun'.There is nothing actually bad about the game, it just isnt very fun to play, its superbly well made and the graphics are great.