Fowltemptress' Poultry Presents: Board Games

[-Chanticleer-]

Nobody plays with me much, either, so I just play online Scrabble. www.isc.ro is a great site. There aren't many other true Scrabble sites anymore. Words with Friends is just awful lol

Hated words with friends. I’ll have to check that out thanks

 

[fowltemptress]

No one will play scrabble with me. love scrabble everyone I know except my grandmother finds it boring.

What? Scrabble was a staple in my family growing up. It's hard getting them to play anything other than Scrabble!

 

[fowltemptress]

Heya, I've decided to add some fun to this thread and feature a weekly game! I'm not going to pick a specific day - I'm too scatterbrained to stick to one - but once a week I'll be sure to post. Well, at least until I run out of games! These will all be from my personal games shelf, and the models showcasing the games will all be close, personal friends of mine.

 

[jpalmatier83]

Catan, cards against humanity, apples to apples, poetry for neanderthals are staples here.

Also, and I’m surprised no one has mentioned, Risk.

 

[DesertSplash]

Click here for featured game #4

A few people have posted in this thread several of the games they like to play. I've played and owned most of the ones mentioned, but unfortunately I won't be able to feature them because I no longer have them. If I don't absolutely love a game, I don't buy/keep it. Some would say I have way too many games already - I'm inclined to agree with those wise folks. But there were a couple games mentioned that I do have, one of which is Wingspan.

View attachment 3612804

I know she's not really poultry, but my cockatiel has been with me for decades and it seems wrong to leave her out of the fun. Plus, what could be a more fitting game for her to showcase?

In all honesty, if it weren't about birds I probably wouldn't have bothered owning Wingspan. It lacks the nail-biting, cutthroat, backstabbing meanness that I've come to love in games. But the game is beautiful, with an overabundance of cards featuring fun watercolors of birds, and there's something to be said for nice leisurely games in which your main focus is on building up a pretty little display in front of you. I love seeing what birds I can bring into my habitat, and it's fun rolling the wooden food dice using the birdhouse shaped dice tower.

View attachment 3612809
Abby was unimpressed by my my efforts to get her to interact with the dice tower. She wouldn't even touch the millet I tossed in there!

View attachment 3612819
She was, however, very interested in eating the cards that come with the game.

Base Wingspan comes with North American birds, but there will be an expansion for every continent, including Antarctica. I only have the Europe expansion with no plans to get any more, though Abby thinks I should at least get the Oceania expansion. There is, after all, a cockatiel card in that one.

View attachment 3612848
Abby left a present for me on my game shelves to show just what she thinks of any hobby that does not involve catering to her every whim.

Click here for featured game #4

A few people have posted in this thread several of the games they like to play. I've played and owned most of the ones mentioned, but unfortunately I won't be able to feature them because I no longer have them. If I don't absolutely love a game, I don't buy/keep it. Some would say I have way too many games already - I'm inclined to agree with those wise folks. But there were a couple games mentioned that I do have, one of which is Wingspan.

View attachment 3612804

I know she's not really poultry, but my cockatiel has been with me for decades and it seems wrong to leave her out of the fun. Plus, what could be a more fitting game for her to showcase?

In all honesty, if it weren't about birds I probably wouldn't have bothered owning Wingspan. It lacks the nail-biting, cutthroat, backstabbing meanness that I've come to love in games. But the game is beautiful, with an overabundance of cards featuring fun watercolors of birds, and there's something to be said for nice leisurely games in which your main focus is on building up a pretty little display in front of you. I love seeing what birds I can bring into my habitat, and it's fun rolling the wooden food dice using the birdhouse shaped dice tower.

View attachment 3612809
Abby was unimpressed by my my efforts to get her to interact with the dice tower. She wouldn't even touch the millet I tossed in there!

View attachment 3612819
She was, however, very interested in eating the cards that come with the game.

Base Wingspan comes with North American birds, but there will be an expansion for every continent, including Antarctica. I only have the Europe expansion with no plans to get any more, though Abby thinks I should at least get the Oceania expansion. There is, after all, a cockatiel card in that one.

View attachment 3612848
Abby left a present for me on my game shelves to show just what she thinks of any hobby that does not involve catering to her every whim.

As a attention-getter, featuring Abby was a stroke of genius. I will admit, however, that I was more interested in seeing the photos of Abby than reading about the game.

 

[fowltemptress]

As a attention-getter, featuring Abby was a stroke of genius. I will admit, however, that I was more interested in seeing the photos of Abby than reading about the game.

She'll be 30 years old this December. Best Christmas gift anyone has ever gotten me.

. . . sorry, next year. I keep thinking it's 2024.

 

[fowltemptress]

Wingspan

It's certainly been a sizzling summer for a lot of folks. Let's ratchet up the heat a bit more with something spicy and visit the ducks for a game of Safranito!

Growing up, a family favorite activity for every gathering was never-ending games of washers, where we'd toss large washers at boards and score points. One point for every washer closer to the hole than any of your opponent's, three points for washers that overhang the hole, and five points for every washer you manage to toss into the hole. I've seen different versions of this outdoor game, but the one I grew up with (and therefore the undisputed superior version) had us pitching washers onto a carpeted ramp with one hole cut into it. Washers is a magnificent game and I highly recommend it. But what if it's raining and you can't play outdoors, or you want to play washers but you also feel an equally powerful urge to buy, sell, and collect sets of cards and exchange them for spice combinations? This is the weird little niche that Safranito inhabits.

Like all my favorite games, Safranito can get nasty. I've played friendly games of Safranito with nice people who were unwilling to mess up their rivals' plans. YAWN. Safranito is at its best when playing with competitive, cutthroat jerks who positively revel in destroying your best laid plans through strategically tossed washers. And it doesn't always work out for the destruction-loving jerks, which provides a whole nother level of satisfaction. I've contorted myself into the weirdest positions in order to get that perfect shot that would lay waste to someone else's carefully tossed washers, only to have my washer accidentally nudge theirs into an even better position. The sighs of relief and subsequent razzing from the intended target is infuriating - in the funnest possible way! I love it.

The muscovies seem to take the heat in stride, but can they handle the spice?



I don't think Safranito is in print anymore, unfortunately. There is, however, a nearly identical game that came out more recently called Hibachi - as far as I can tell it looks like the exact same game, but with different theming. If you like games such as washers, horseshoes, and cornhole, and you've ever wondered what it would be like if one of those games had a head on collision with a game like Ticket to Ride, Hibachi's got your answer.

 

[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!).

 

[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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

 

[fowltemptress]

Forbidden Island

You know what hobby I love as much as tabletop gaming? Camping and hiking! America boasts some wonderful parks, and you'll enjoy visiting some of them in Trekking the National Parks!

Winger and Britta, contemplating a board game date night.

In this game you're taking actions to move across a map, collecting stones and visiting parks that help you earn points to win the game.

The parks are pictured on large sized cards with neat little blurbs about the park printed on them. I've always loved learning random bits of trivia, so I really appreciate they added that to this game.

For a modern board game, this game has a nice old school feel about it, so people who haven't played much more than Clue or Careers should feel right at home playing. I love the bright, clunky pieces and the simple rules. I feel like a kid again when I play this game. In fact, I wish I'd had it back when I was a kid. I know it would have been one of my favorites.

This camper is worrying about a bear approaching his tent, but if I were in his place I'd probably be more concerned about the giant muscovies lurking in the background.

Presenting this game are Winger and Britta. Winger is feeling particularly good these days in spite of his silly looking molt, because he's recently become the sole drake in my flock and he's enjoying having the women all to himself. Britta is one of his many admirers, and my first muscovy to have hatched out ducklings earlier this year. They make such sweet parents.