Board Game Review - Running With the Bulls

Have you ever had a desire to throw yourself in front of a bunch of charging bulls?  Well, Calliope Games has a way to do it that’s safe for you and for the bulls.  Their game Running With the Bulls lets you help direct your own group of “runners” as they try to race across the city of El Toro to a variety of possible destinations. 

The runners and the bulls are represented by colorful dice and the city of El Toro is filled with whimsical artwork with lots of little nuances to make you laugh. 

The game is played over three days (rounds).  Each day, all players roll their dice to determine their starting point at the top of the city.  The larger bull dice are also rolled and will start alongside the runners.  

Players then play cards to manipulate the dice on the board and hopefully make sure their runners get to the destination worth the most points without getting trampled by bulls.  After everybody plays a card, the bulls and runners move one space down the board and then check to see if any bulls trample any of the runners.  

The process of playing cards and moving down the board continues until runners and bulls reach the destinations at the bottom of the board where they receive points, bonuses and penalties depending on the destination.  Then reset bulls and runners to the top of the board for the next day.  After three days, the highest score wins. 

We’ve played this a few times now and everybody has had a lot of fun with it.  Gameplay is a bit chaotic and random at times but has a certain degree of strategy depending on how you can use the cards to manipulate your path.  Everything plays out pretty quickly so even if you have some bad luck with the dice or the cards, the next round will begin quickly and you get a fresh start.  Overall, everybody I played with really enjoyed it and are glad to play again.

3.5 out of 5 stars

#Boardgames #RunningWithTheBulls #CalliopeGames #Dice