Kids•Reviews•Teaching with Games

Multiplication Mastery: A Look at Plundering Times from SimplyFun

This post is sponsored by SimplyFun. Math is perhaps my favorite subject for pairing with board games. It comes so naturally whether a game is intended to help players with their math or not. But when the game seeks to do just that, the results are a match made in homeschool heaven and that’s exactly what Plundering Times does for multiplication!

Plundering Times is a new game from SimplyFun and designed by one of our favorite game designers Reiner Knizia! This is a quick mathematics game where you are trying to place your numbered pieces onto the board so that the answer is as close to the number on the island as possible without going over.

Game Play Overview of Plundering Times

At the start the game, all players gather their dragons on their mat and select 6 to place face up towards them.

Everyone has four treasure chests that they need to assign to the island boards. On the backs of the treasure chests are 1, 2, 3, or 4 gems. Looking at the island numbers and the numbered pieces face up in front of them, players will strategically choose which islands to place each of their treasure chests.

During the game players will add their pirates to the island boards one at a time until each player has two pirates on each island tile. These two pirates will be multiplied together, and then if there are any dragon icons above them, they’ll add that number equal to the dragon icons to their total, giving them their final answer.

If the number exceeds the center number, they remove their pirates and get nothing from that island. If that answer is equal to the center number exactly, they get a bonus gem. Then any players left on the island select treasure chests, with the player who got the closest to the island number selecting first and so on. Repeating this process for all four islands.

The player with the most gems wins.

Plundering Times is Easily Customizable for Players

One of the best parts about this game comes first from the customization. Your players might be in different levels of multiplication mastery and you’re able to quickly and easily help make the game accessible for each player.

The player boards are double sided with one side showing a times table. If you have any players that may be new to multiplication or are still mastering their facts, I recommend using this side of the board to begin with so that they can use it as needed during the game. It’s okay for some players to use it while other are not.

You’re also able to decide which numbers you’d like to place on the island boards. There are two decks, one with smaller numbers and one with larger numbers for a greater challenge.

Being able to tailor the game to meet your needs makes Plundering Times a great gameschooling choice!

Excellent Practice for Multiplication

Plundering Times provides kids a fun and engaging way to practice their multiplication skills. Math games that serve as both a fun game and a great learning tool is something that SimplyFun does so well!

During play, it engages kids’ working memory and long term memory by combining both the mathematical element of needing to calculate numbers quickly, and a memory element!

Not only must you draw on your long-term memory to retrieve multiplication facts you’ve mastered, you’re also needing to remember where you’ve placed your best treasure chests so you can hopefully select them at the end of the game.

Something that struck me while playing was that it wasn’t as simple as figure out the best number pairing to use, then place those pirates on the board.

You’re in fact doing many many more math calculations during the game!

First you look over the board to see where you might want to place your best treasure chests. So you’re running through all the possible number pairings from the jump based on the 6 pirates you have available to you.

Then you need to hold those calculations in your head using your working memory so you don’t forget (something I kept doing again and again — this game is tricky for adults too!) while you’re trying to execute your plan. However, it’s likely that someone else will choose a location that you wanted to go to, so you’ll have to regroup and come up with a new calculation for that island.

As you place your dragons one at a time, you’re adding a new dragon from your supply so that you always have 6 numbers to choose from. It’s entirely possible that the number you thought you’d draw to complete your perfect pairing just isn’t there when you need it to be. When that happens, you guessed it, you’ve got to do a bit more calculating!

I loved watching my kids realize that their plan A just wasn’t going to happen and they needed to figure out the best plan B (or C!) to get them as close to the center number without going over. The last thing you want is to not get a treasure chest, so players are performing more mental math to get them to land where they need to. If they went big with that first number, they may be in a pickle.

Great for Homeschool

We love the educational games from SimplyFun and Plundering Times works great for our homeschool!

Games take only about 15 minutes and thanks to the easy customization, I’m able to make sure it works for both our older students who have a better grasp on multiplication and our younger students (in the second grade range) who are beginning to explore the concept.

It was an instant add to our educational games shelf. I love having a multiplication focused game for our older students. Like many of the other games from SimplyFun, Plundering Times is one I know I’ll be setting up a lot for the kids to play throughout the school year on our game days.