Game Schooling - Qwirkle

We added Qwirkle to the stack of games at our house over Christmas break this year. It came highly recommended from a educator friend, and is the winner of several game awards. I've heard is described as scrabble with colors and symbols rather than letters. MindWare describes the game in this way:

Qwirkle is as simple as matching colors and shapes, but this game also requires tactical maneuvers and well-planned strategy. Earn points by building rows and columns of blocks that share a common shape or color. Look for opportunities to score big by placing a tile that touches multiple pieces with matching attributes.

We've now played Qwirkle over and over (since our Christmas purchase), and every time we play, the high score gets higher! We're beginning to wonder how high it's actually possible to score in this game. One of the keys seems to be flexible thinking - the ability to shift from one plan to another and see all the various ways to play the same piece. There's also some balance to be had between cooperating with other players and throwing a wrench in the perfect rows and columns!

For serious Qwirkle players, MindWare has created Expansion Sets, Qwirkle Cubes (like the tiles, only multi-sided dice!), and Travel Qwirkle.