Tabletop games publisher Brass Monkey Games specialise in tabletop experiences built to be learned in a minute or two, with minimal setup or even experience of board games. They’re designed to be played by people of just about any age or experience level, and they’re still playable even after a few units of alcohol have been consumed. Which may well be a massive selling point!

As I noted in my review of another Brass Monkey Games title, Poorly Explained Movies, it’s quite a challenge to teach board games, and there’s always least one person at the table who refuses to listen, or says “I’ll learn as we play”; that’s also guaranteed to be the same person who gets annoyed and complains that a game is too difficult or unfair, or boring, during actual gameplay.

That problem is non-existent with Brass Monkey Games, and Fighting Words is no exception.

In Fighting Words, players take turns to throw the 15 dice, each adorned with letters (and a wild symbol that can stand in for any letter, though it can only be one letter at a time and not altered for different words), then try to make as many words as they can from those dice, intersecting them crossword-style.

With a sand timer to apply pressure, players must get their dice and words arranged as quickly as possible, and score 2 points per word once the time runs out, with -1 point per die that wasn’t used.

The player’s score is recorded on the included sheet, and the next player takes their turn. You can play any number of rounds you choose, and whoever has the highest score once everyone’s taken an equal number of turns, across an agreed upon number of rounds, wins.

As it’s from Brass Monkey Games, you can be certain that it’s beautifully beautifully packaged, with a nicely minimalist aesthetic and wittily written rules. Though the rules themselves are fairly minimal too, there’s an advanced mode of play for the adventurous, which is barely any more difficult to grasp than the basic game, though it is a little more challenging.

It’s a fun little game, and one that’s not unlike word games such as Boggle, with the added challenge of having to utilise the crossword style of intersecting words under pressure. It’s suitable for pretty much any age or experience level of player, and it’s flexible enough to be a five minute diversion, or a much longer game if you find yourself having fun and don’t want to stop playing!

Many thanks to Brass Monkey Games for providing me with a copy of Fighting yfor review purposes.