We piled up number tiles in NMBR 9, the next game in our A-Z game shelf play-through.
Basic Info: NMBR 9
Players: 1-4
Time: 20 Minutes
Designers: Peter Wichmann
Artists: Fiore GmbH
Publisher: Z-Man Games
In NUMBER 9, players stack numbered tiles in an effort to get the highest values off the ground floor as possible. Whoever stacks them most effectively wins.
The game is set up with the number tiles (digits 0-9) in the center of the board, and the cards shuffled and placed nearby. That’s it!
Each turn someone draws the top card of the deck, which identifies the numbered tile all players need to place that turn. Players simultaneously take that tile and play it in front of them.
Unless the newly placed tile is the first on its level, it must touch at least one side of another tile on its same level. The tiles can also be placed on top of the others, but each such tile must cover squares on at least two other tiles, all parts of the tile must be supported by tiles on the next lower level (i.e. no holes underneath), and it must still touch at least one side of another tile on its same level.
Once all the tiles have been placed (two of each number for each player), the game is over, and players total up their points. This is done by removing each tile and scoring as you go. The tile is worth a number of points equal to its face value multiplied by its level, where any tile on the table is level 0, and the levels count up from there.
Player with the most points wins.
We tried out NMBR 9 at our local game cafe after hearing buzz about it in early 2018. We liked it so much that we picked it up a couple of months later.
This is the perfect quick filler game. The tiles fit together in the most delightfully annoying ways that we always have fun with it. Every time it comes out we play at least twice, too.
How is it as a 2-player game? NMBR 9 works great as a 2-player game. In fact it scales well for any player count, and with more sets of the game you could play with eight or more.
How about the art and component quality? The tiles are good quality and that cards decent — that’s all there is to this game! The game insert is really nice too, keeping all the tiles in their places. Though, the game doesn’t really need to be in such a large box, and if I wanted to free up space on my shelf, I could just toss all the tiles into a much smaller box.
Will this stay in my collection? Yes, absolutely yes. This is among our most played games. We love pulling it out as a quick game at the end of the night, during dinner or while waiting for a pizza delivery.
