Roux Dat: First Impressions of Fifty, Formaggio, & The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship

Between trips to Jet Coffee’s Southern Board Game Fest game night and a return to the states by World Traveler Mitchell, we were able to sneak in some good gaming this past weekend. Strangely enough, I played Tipperary six times this weekend alone, but I recently wrote about this wonderful game, so I’ll dish on the other plays here. 

First up, at our SoBo game night, I wanted to bring with me a game that would fit on the tiny (but very sturdy!) tables at Jet Coffee. On the surface, Fifty seemed like the perfect game for a coffee shop, and I was not disappointed. Fifty is a re-issue by Iello (who through Blue Orange Games US sent us the review copy) of an older game designed by JinWoo Seo. When I think of Iello and Blue Orange Games, I think about simplicity and games that are family friendly. Again, Fifty did not disappoint.

In Fifty, up to seven players each write down secretly five numbers from one to forty-nine. (Want to play with more players? There are rules to do so, just pick up an extra box). Then, the players take turns counting from one to fifty, and if ever one of the numbers that was written down is called, that person announces the event and then takes over counting. Each number called is worth a point to the leader, but there are a couple of twists. 

First, if two or more people have the number, they cancel each other out and the count continues with no one scoring. Second, the players flip out some tokens at the start of the road, with numbers on the back, and these numbers cannot be used as the chosen number.

The game was perfect for the game night, because it easily fit on the table, took just a minute to teach, and handled a big crowd easily. Is it very deep? No, not very; it’s more in the style of a Can’t Stop, where you only have very few decision points, but there is some fun tension in calling out the numbers and in hearing your number get called (unless it gets cancelled, which happens more often than you would think. If it stays in the collection, it will be as a backpack game — one I can pull out on a game night while waiting for other people and I know it is easy to teach. 

I know I said the tables were small and sturdy, but they were heavy also. We found out exactly how heavy as we set up Formaggio. We used the box top and box bottom as essentially a cardboard version of a spinning wheel, without the wheel or spin. It worked like a champ, but let’s talk about the game itself. 

Yes, I am painfully aware that Formaggio is multiplayer solitaire, and that there has been a growing backlash against the move in gaming to friendlier fare, free of interference from other players. I have always argued that there is plenty of room for all kinds of interaction, from limited connectivity all the way to full-throated, in your face, Amerithrash. Formaggio definitely ends up on the limited side of that scale (although there is the classic euro ‘deny deny deny’ engagement, if you will). But honestly, the debate matters little to me in this case, because of the theme.

Even more than its sister, Fromage, this stand-alone expansion delivers on the theme of cheese and wine making. It’s set in Italy this time, and has new boards with new puzzles to solve. I love two of them even more than the originals. I like the look and spatial elements of adding cheese through the Venetian canals, aligning the gondolas up against the areas you choose. But I especially dig the side-by-side puzzle building of the wine bottle board. In that one, players make cheese and are rewarded with tiles that have images of unique bottles plus bonus goods. It’s so delicious, and tense because Formaggio retains the short game concept. I am going to have to find my own copy. 

And finally, we played the biggest game of all of them, The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship. My sons are huge fans of the LOTR universe, and so I traded for a copy from a local youtube board game reviewer. I did not know how to play, but knew The World’s Biggest Tolkien Fan a/k/a Mitchell did, so we set it up this past Friday. My before-the-game impression, just from social media and the box cover showing Matt Leacock as designer, was that this was Pandemic with Hobbits.

Boy was I wrong. Yes, after the game, I recalled how much the system of Pandemic is in the bones of this game. But, the story of the Fellowship comes alive in this game so much more than the stories do in base Pandemic. (Yes, Legacy does a good job of carrying the theme.) 

The crux is that players choose four sets of characters (we played Frodo, who is always in the game, of course as the ring bearer; Merry/Pippin combo; Legolas; and Eowyn) and battle the dark forces of Sauron. To win is simple but hard as heck, as players must complete a certain number of disparate objectives (like clearing out areas of the map ) and then somehow move Frodo with the rings (a tiny bit of dissonance in that he is carrying five rings?) to the you-know-where to do the you-know-what without the help of the flying you-know-which-ones. 

We lost. We lost at the very, very, so frustratingly close to winning end. We had dispatched all of the objective cards and were on the doorsteps of the mountain, ready to chuck that band o’ gold right into the lava when one of our Elven strongholds were overrun by orcs. Legolas and Eowyn did such a good job with the objectives, then inexplicably gallivanted around the forest away from the heroes. I’d rather not repeat the rumors of their activities here, as this is a family blog. 

We sat at the table, stunned at our defeat, but satisfied with the progression of the game and the story we told. Kudos to Leacock, this feels like the reason why the whole Pandemic co-operative system was designed, as a means to strip away the mechanics and get to the heart and tension and seemingly hopeless quest of the Fellowship. I am definitely ready to play again.

Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!
— BJ from Board Game Gumbo

** Complimentary copies of some of the games were provided by the publishers. **