How to play Hues and Cues

The basics

Setup

1. Lay out the board in the middle where everyone can reach it.
2. Shuffle the color cards and put them face down as a draw pile.
3. Hand out pieces. Each player takes the 3 pieces of one color. Put one next to the score track around the board's edge. Keep the other two for guessing.
4. Set the scoring frame aside. You'll only need it at the end of each round.
5. Pick a first cue giver. The role moves clockwise after each round.

Seat people so everyone can see the board from a similar angle and in good light. Colors that look identical from one side of the table can look clearly different from the other, and dim evening lighting makes the blues and purples hard to tell apart.

A round, step by step

1. Draw and choose. The cue giver draws a card without showing anyone. They pick one color on it and note its coordinates, a letter and a number that match the grid.
2. One-word cue. The cue giver says a single word that points to that color.
3. First guesses. Starting to the cue giver's left and going clockwise, each other player puts one piece on a square. Only one piece per square, so the good spots go fast.
4. Two-word cue. The cue giver now gives a two-word cue to steer people closer. If they like where the guesses already are, they can pass instead and go straight to scoring.
5. Second guesses. Skip this if the cue giver passed. Otherwise the order reverses to counterclockwise, so the player who guessed last now goes first. Everyone places their second piece on an empty square.
6. Score. Place the frame and add up points (see the scoring rings below). Then everyone takes back their guessing pieces.

What counts as a fair cue

The cue must point to a thing or idea, not to plain color names or the board itself.

Groups often add house rules for borderline words. Agree on them before the first round, not mid-argument.

The scoring rings

The cue giver places the frame so the target color sits in its center. The frame covers the target and the squares touching it. That gives you three rings to score:

Each guesser scores both pieces, so the most one guesser can earn in a round is 5: one piece on the target and one beside it. The cue giver gets 1 point per piece inside the frame, from any player, up to 9.

Colors on the edge of the board score the same way. There are simply fewer squares around them.

Move your piece along the score track as you score. The track runs around the outside of the board.

A scored round, start to finish

Say there are four of you. Dana is the cue giver and picks a warm, dusty pink. Her first cue is "salmon." Ben, Cara and Eli each drop a piece. Ben lands right on the target, Cara is one square to the side, and Eli goes for a deeper orange two squares off.

Dana's second cue is "smoked salmon," nudging people toward the grayer side. Going the other way round, Eli moves closer and lands inside the frame. Cara hits a square just outside. Ben plays it safe next to his first piece.

Note that Eli's first piece, two squares away, touches the outer edge of the frame, so it still scores 1. Pieces further out than that score nothing.

Making the second cue count

The second cue is where a good cue giver earns their points. Look at where the first guesses landed before you speak. If they're clustered on the wrong side of the target, use the second cue to pull them across. "Salmon" to "smoked salmon" shifts toward gray. "Sky" to "stormy sky" shifts darker. If everyone's already close, passing locks in your points and stops anyone wandering off.

End of the game

*The current rulebook from The Op only covers four or more players. Older printings group three players with four to six, so two turns each is the usual call.

Highest score wins. On a tie, the tied player who was cue giver most recently takes it.

The rulebook also suggests an easier variant for younger players. The cue giver skips the card, picks any square on the board, and jots down its coordinates privately before the first cue.

Common mistakes

• Going clockwise twice. First guesses go clockwise, second guesses go counterclockwise. It keeps the last player from always getting the leftovers.
• Stacking pieces. Each square holds one piece. If your spot is taken, go next door.
• Forgetting the outer ring. A piece just outside the frame still scores 1. Check the squares touching the frame's edge.
• Cue giver forgets to score. The cue giver earns points every round. Count their pieces in the frame before clearing the board.
• Giving a second cue every time. If the first guesses are tight around the target, passing ends the round with those pieces in place.
• Using two words for the first cue. The first cue is one word only. "Ocean" is fine. "Deep ocean" is a second cue.

Hues and Cues is a strong pick for big, mixed groups. It's on our best party board games list alongside other games that work at 6 or more.