Fowltemptress' Poultry Presents: Board Games

[DesertSplash]

This is a game I'd love to purchase, and that is the most colorful team of ducks I've ever seen.

 

[Masonjars]

Hi all, it’s so fun to find other board gamers on here! We had a regular in-person group until the pandemic and a wave of babies hit…now we just play 2-player games mostly.

My hubby is an inveterate Kickstarter person, and he just showed me flock together so I came on here to share — I see now that’s already been done!

I just wish I had thought of Attila the Hen when I was picking my screen name for here!

 

[fowltemptress]

Hi all, it’s so fun to find other board gamers on here! We had a regular in-person group until the pandemic and a wave of babies hit…now we just play 2-player games mostly.

My hubby is an inveterate Kickstarter person, and he just showed me flock together so I came on here to share — I see now that’s already been done!

I just wish I had thought of Attila the Hen when I was picking my screen name for here!

I know what you mean about "a wave of babies," and I love the word choice. They absolutely do come in waves!

My husband backed Flock Together on Kickstarter the moment it dropped, practically. I think mostly because he'd have a rabid wife on his hands otherwise. I love that the creators of the game are currently using the updates on kickstarter to share the real life breeds the characters were based on. I've known about dragon chickens, but it's always a shock to me when I see a picture of one!

 

[jpalmatier83]

Thanks for the heads up on Flock Together. I was aware of Kickstarters existence, but y’all have convinced me to make my first pledge

In fact, I pledged two. I know someone else who would like it and I’d feel bad if it doesn’t eventually hit retail.

 

[Masonjars]

Be careful, it can be a rabbit hole! Haha we’re still waiting for one (totally unrelated to Flock Together) that we backed in 2020, and it’s starting to show up on store shelves. Backers are not happy…

Our favorites include Terraforming Mars, Quacks of Quedlinburg (not about ducks, sorry!), Ticket to Ride, Railroad Ink, and Tides of Time. We’ve also been playing a bunch of Not Alone online recently (thank goodness for Board Game Arena!).

 

[fowltemptress]

Be careful, it can be a rabbit hole! Haha we’re still waiting for one (totally unrelated to Flock Together) that we backed in 2020, and it’s starting to show up on store shelves. Backers are not happy…

Our favorites include Terraforming Mars, Quacks of Quedlinburg (not about ducks, sorry!), Ticket to Ride, Railroad Ink, and Tides of Time. We’ve also been playing a bunch of Not Alone online recently (thank goodness for Board Game Arena!).

I love Quacks of Quedlinburg, which kinda annoys me because I spent a couple years purposely not purchasing the game. I didn't think it sounded fun, but then I watched people playing it and could have kicked myself for not getting it sooner! Everyone I play it with is always disappointed that it doesn't involve ducks. Still spectacularly fun.

 

[fowltemptress]

Thanks for the heads up on Flock Together. I was aware of Kickstarters existence, but y’all have convinced me to make my first pledge

In fact, I pledged two. I know someone else who would like it and I’d feel bad if it doesn’t eventually hit retail.

Now for the hard part: the wait!

 

[fowltemptress]

Safranito

I figured since I've mentioned my favorite game in the first post of this thread, I probably should go ahead and feature it. And to present my favorite game, who better than my favorite feathered fowl on the farm? Ladies and gents, feast your eyes on Tex, presenting Caverna!

Once upon a time I owned a game called Agricola. It was a lot like Caverna, with one key difference: the entirety of Agricola is spent in sheer panic that you will be unable to produce enough food for your family, and not feeding your family costs you points. Despite that, for years Agricola was my favorite game. Then I found out about a newer game from the same designer, tried it out, and holy smoked sausages, Batman! There were so many paths to feeding your family that I never felt like I was on the precipice of starvation! It felt exactly like I was playing Agricola, except I didn't have this massive wad of stress inducing food mania dogging my every decision, so I was free to fully enjoy the experience of the game. The experience being, of course, building up your family and farm with the coolest dwelling and as many animals as your farm will allow. So in other words: my life.

Caverna can be intimidating for a lot of newcomers to the game. I mean, it's packed to the gills with stuff. One friend of mine looked it up online, saw a picture of the number of components, and immediately excused himself from game night.

There's no such thing as too many wooden bits!

I get it, it looks like it would be complicated to learn. But almost everyone I know learned how to play Monopoly as a child, and for every turn of Monopoly, there are several actions you can do during the same turn. Imagine Monopoly, but every round you are limited to doing one action at a time, taking turns with everyone else playing. Maybe you decide to buy Boardwalk. Then your friend decides to roll the dice to move. Now it's back to you, and you decide to buy a house. One action at a time, taking turns. Sounds simple, right? While I wouldn't say Caverna is like Monopoly, it certainly is that simple. The truth is there are a lot of games with huge rulebooks and overwhelming numbers of chits and pieces that are surprisingly simple once you get to the core of them. It may not always be quite as simple to win, but if I relied on winning to enjoy my games, I probably wouldn't own a single board game, and I certainly wouldn't own Caverna. I'm always having way too much fun deciding whether I want a cuddle room or a beer cave in my home to properly strategize during games of Caverna.

Tex lives up to his name and plans to have a thriving cattle ranch by the end of the game.

A little about Tex: The first thing I did when we moved to the middle of nowhere was to put in an order for geese. I started with a Trio, and Tex was my favorite from the start. He was cuddly and sweet and always climbing onto my lap or looking into what I was up to. Now that he's older and has a larger flock to protect, he's more independent, but he's not above coming over to perch on my arm to make gardening more difficult, or chewing on a stray strand of hair or some particularly interesting looking footwear. And he doesn't make a fuss when I heave him up into my lap, which is handy since he is always finding ways to injure himself. It's always your favorites who give you the biggest scares, and Tex has been the source of some of my worst anxiety over my birds. I'm not sure a sweeter gander can exist - but I am positive Caverna could have been made better by the inclusion of geese!

 

[fowltemptress]

Caverna

It's been raining for a few days here, so the creek bottoms will be flooded. In preparation for that, it's time to take a look at Forbidden Island!

I've already mentioned a game called Pandemic and how much I hate it in a previous post. There must be some merit in it, however, since I like so many games that are basically "Pandemic: But Different." Forbidden Island is not only often called an easier version of Pandemic, it's also designed by the same guy who made Pandemic. In Forbidden Island, instead of racing to against time to fight diseases you've gone full Indiana Jones, racing against time to loot the island of four ancient treasures and "Get to the choppa!" before the island completely floods. No dueling against other players in this game; you're all going to have to work together as a team if you want to make it out alive. This is my favorite game in the Forbidden series. It's fun, simple, brightly colored, and has cute and totally unnecessary little toys representing the treasure you're trying to collect, including a flame shaped treasure just begging to be placed on the goblet shaped treasure. I don't think I've managed to go a single game without someone combining those two treasures into a flaming goblet.

Speaking of things forbidden, the bird presenting today's game is Goldie, accompanied by her young'ns. Goldie is my oldest bird, purchased when we were renting and I needed bantam sized breeds so as to more easily sneak chickens past the landlord. She was always broody, and try as I might to forbid her from doing nothing but try to hatch the unfertilized eggs, she'd invariably wind up right back into broody mode. Now we're on our own property with a rooster, and if anyone goes broody, I'm letting it happen - which means Goldie has been in pure hatching heaven.

Goldie with her first ever chick hatched on this property. She seemed utterly content, but a little surprised something actually came out of the eggs she'd been sitting on.

I thought she'd take breaks between clutches, but no sooner does one batch of chicks abandon her than she starts right up with hatching another batch. She's a fierce mom, and even though she's my only surviving bantam from my original flock and I've replaced everyone with standard sized breeds, the bigger birds know not to mess with her or one of her chicks. She's a force to be reckoned with.

Some pullets from Goldie's first clutch, checking out three of the island's treasures. Even chickens can't resist placing the flame on the goblet.

 

[DesertSplash]

Caverna

It's been raining for a few days here, so the creek bottoms will be flooded. In preparation for that, it's time to take a look at Forbidden Island!

View attachment 3640593

I've already mentioned a game called Pandemic and how much I hate it in a previous post. There must be some merit in it, however, since I like so many games that are basically "Pandemic: But Different." Forbidden Island is not only often called an easier version of Pandemic, it's also designed by the same guy who made Pandemic. In Forbidden Island, instead of racing to against time to fight diseases you've gone full Indiana Jones, racing against time to loot the island of four ancient treasures and "Get to the choppa!" before the island completely floods. No dueling against other players in this game; you're all going to have to work together as a team if you want to make it out alive. This is my favorite game in the Forbidden series. It's fun, simple, brightly colored, and has cute and totally unnecessary little toys representing the treasure you're trying to collect, including a flame shaped treasure just begging to be placed on the goblet shaped treasure. I don't think I've managed to go a single game without someone combining those two treasures into a flaming goblet.

Speaking of things forbidden, the bird presenting today's game is Goldie, accompanied by her young'ns. Goldie is my oldest bird, purchased when we were renting and I needed bantam sized breeds so as to more easily sneak chickens past the landlord. She was always broody, and try as I might to forbid her from doing nothing but try to hatch the unfertilized eggs, she'd invariably wind up right back into broody mode. Now we're on our own property with a rooster, and if anyone goes broody, I'm letting it happen - which means Goldie has been in pure hatching heaven.

View attachment 3640642
Goldie with her first ever chick hatched on this property. She seemed utterly content, but a little surprised something actually came out of the eggs she'd been sitting on.

I thought she'd take breaks between clutches, but no sooner does one batch of chicks abandon her than she starts right up with hatching another batch. She's a fierce mom, and even though she's my only surviving bantam from my original flock and I've replaced everyone with standard sized breeds, the bigger birds know not to mess with her or one of her chicks. She's a force to be reckoned with.

View attachment 3640631
Some pullets from Goldie's first clutch, checking out three of the island's treasures. Even chickens can't resist placing the flame on the goblet.

Enjoyed Goldie's story almost as much as the post about Forbidden Island, which happens to be one of my favorite games.