A great time to play is

when the Christmas chaos is too much and you both need some serenity. Chill out, think hard.A little like Hive, Tantrix is a strategy game that uses painted bakelite hexagon pieces. Unlike Hive, there are no bugs just a never ending, loop de looping roller coaster of coloured lines that YOU yes, YOU must use to make the longest line of your chosen colour! Its easy, you think. I played 30 minutes of RollerCoaster Tycoon on the computer once. Itll be a doddle. While your experience is admirable, remember that other players can block you and change your line when you least expect it! Then theres Gobble, another variation of play. Split the tiles between you and fire your engines its a race to see who can play all of their tiles first! And if you werent overwhelmed enough, theres another 34 puzzles for you to wrap your heads around! Guaranteed to fill a rainy December afternoon. And the day after that. And possibly the day after that.