Frog Juice is an out-of-print Gamewright game that quickly became a favorite for my family. It’s similar to Sleeping Queens, in that math is not the primary goal of the game. However, math is a useful part of the game to help you cycle cards through your hand.
Much like Sleeping Queens, the math can be as simple as x=x. This means even very small children can play the game – as long as they don’t chew on cards! My daughter chewed on one of the cards once. Luckily, we don’t play it so frequently that we’ve memorized what that card is.
How to play Frog Juice
The game starts with everyone getting four cards. Four cards are laid face-up in a line in the middle of the table. The goal of the game is to get the most power cards. Whoever gets the most ingredient cards adds two points to their score. Incomplete spells, cards in the hand, and cards in the center of the table don’t count, just the captured power and ingredient cards.
Perhaps my favorite part of Frog Juice is that you refill your hand at the BEGINNING of your turn. This means I have to do far less of reminding my kids to draw back up. After refilling your hand, you can do one of three things. Use a power card, play a spell card, or do a math equation to capture ingredient cards from the center.
Frog Juice modifications
The instructions just say to use addition, but our only requirement is that you have an equal sign between the cards from your hand and the cards from the table. The way we play, you can use as many cards as you want and any operation you want. Next, you can add ingredients to a previously played spell, from your hand, directly from the center of the table, or by asking each person in turn. You end your turn by discarding a card into the line-up in the center of the table.
Strategy of Frog Juice
We LOVE LOVE LOVE Frog Juice!!! The math it encourages isn’t over the top, and neither are the “take-that” sort of components. There’s some skill and strategy. For example, you can do a really great equation that uses most of the cards in your hand. But if it leaves a power card, well, then you’ll have to discard that power card. This allows someone else to sweep it up with a witch. So you want to be careful with your equations, that you’re not leaving just a power card to discard.
You also want to be cautious with playing your witch card. (The witch is used to sweep up all the cards in the center.) While there are four witch cards, there’s only one All Purpose Witch Wash card. So if either you have the All Purpose Witch Wash card, or it’s already been played, then it’s safe to play your witch card. (You can use the All Purpose Witch Wash card on your own witch as she’s sweeping, and capture both those power cards, plus whatever your witch was sweeping.) But if not, you might want to hold off on using your witch.
Ingredient cards
There’s also the matter of ingredient cards. You need ingredient cards to complete your spells, but if players have been overzealous at capturing ingredient cards, you might not be able to complete your spell. For example, Ye Olde Prince to Frog Spell needs one prince. There are only two princes in the whole deck. If people have already captured them in their ingredient piles, you can’t complete that spell.
