Southern Board Game Fest Recap – Day Two
Shakespeare reminded us that daffodils, that come before the swallow dares, and take the winds of March with beauty. But, here in south Louisiana, we don’t worry about inclement weather during this month because March is generally the most glorious month of the year.
Plus, there’s a festival to attend!
Day Two opened up for SoBo 2026 bright and early for me. Doors opened up at nine, and we had people in the parking lot waiting even when I arrived around 8am ish. I had a busy day planned, with a scheduled demo of Playground Empires , the new school-children-on-a-map game from designer Sterling Birdwell and HutChu Enterprises LLC in the afternoon. But would I have time for some free gaming?
Mais, bien sûr! Andrew Bucholtz, Jerod and I started with Formaggio, since it was set up in the Hot Games section of the fest. I had played it once already, so the rules were pretty fresh. It’s a cheese making game, based on the Formage original, with nearly the same mechanics but four new wedges to explore. Honestly, I like it better than the original. Yes, it’s still basically multi-player solitaire, but there is something about the flag wedge and the wine-bottle collecting wedge that tickles the puzzle center of my brain.
We returned to some games we have played before, which is another joy about playing SoBo. It’s not always about chasing after the new hotness at this festival, there is plenty of time to mix in some old favorites. We played Era: Medieval Age with Sagan, and unfortunately, I can see why we have not picked it up in a while. It was a gorgeously built roll-and-build, with tons of plastic pieces, but I’d just rather play the loaded roll-and-writes from the Fleeples like French Quarter or Three Sisters instead. (Put a pin in that comment for later).
Needing more trains in our life, we played Trans-Siberian Railroad AND Union Station almost back-to-back. Yes, they are both cube rail games, but they are drastically different. Trans-Siberian is all about keeping ahead of the nationalization track, else losing a bunch of your investment, while Union Station almost requires players to work together since the stocks are so limited. The other cool thing was that Woody from Hutchu had never played a cube rail game, so Trans-Siberian was a great way to introduce the genre.
The funny thing about Union Station is that Andrew and I taught it to three Newmans, only two of which were nominally related! (Patrick & Cindy are married, and John is the director of New Hope but not related to either).
The joy for me was playing not one but two games of Tipperary in the same day. In both cases, I came in second by just a handful of points, but I’m really enjoying introducing this very light tile-laying game that is family friendly to new people. Connor Smith and Cindy Newman seemed to enjoy it (in fact Connor has been busting it up on BGA) and I also got to show it to Justin, Ray and Lauren, too. It’s short, sweet and easy to teach but has the most satisfying tile laying puzzle of any game I’ve played.
The big event was that heretofore mentioned play of Playground Empires. I was chatting it up with Sterling, and found out that it has been play tested at every SoBo since the initial one at the Science Museum way back in 2018! How about that. Every year, though, I ran out of time and didn’t play, so this time I made sure to schedule the game. We had a raucous four person game where I played the super fast third grader krewe, and took the victory in the last two rounds when my little third graders swarmed the next door fourth graders AND were protected in the back of the recess area by the wandering teacher who just happened to pop up besides us. Look for that one to hit Kickstarter very soon.
Next up, we played another round of Origin Story from Stonemaier Games. Ironically, this was my first non-two player game. If you want to enjoy this game, don’t take it too seriously. It’s a trick taking game about game breaking, super hero powers, and if you go in knowing that, I think you will enjoy your play even more. It was fun playing with more people for sure — lots of chances for shenanigans.
The Jay Bell surprised me with a new prototype he had just finished up the night before. I’m not sure why I was surprised; Jay’s always got ideas for new games! This one is called Deckloration, and it’s a deck building, area building, engine building game with a kind of a bidding mechanism thrown in. The game is definitely heavier than almost all of Jay’s other designs, and I really enjoyed the drawing and deck building part. I hope Jay keeps iterating this one!
I also got to watch Jason Dinger teach one of his two new two-player games. They are smaller versions (really more like homages) to his larger games, The Acadians (coming soon from Spielworxx) and [thing=259837][/thing]. I didn’t get to play them, though. Next time!
And finally, we ended the late night with two different party games. The first was a huge hit — Wine Cellar from our buddy Andrew Stiles and 25th Century Games, and the first time we’ve played it at more than 3-4 players. 8 player game? Absolutely, we did it and it was a blast. The game shines at high player counts because there is more to think, the turn orders are all over the place, and you have more in your goal cards to process and procure. Good job, Andrew!
The second party game was also, surprisingly, a hit. I had played Emerald Skulls from ThunderWorks Games at a low player count and thought, “meh”. Then we played it at high player count of 8-9 players (courtesy of the Emerald Skulls: 7-8 Player Expansion), and wow, is it different. Instead of the deliberately slow pace of betting in a low player game, having so many gamers meant REAL competition for the betting spots. To refresh the mechanics for you, players are rolling dice to give the player a chance to win big money, while the other players are betting on outcomes like busting or even scoring some complex result. It’s fun, it’s chaotic, and Sagan really brought the goblin betting theme home. He told me he has even used it in his D&D campaigns as a side game for when players want something to do in an inn, etc.
What a great way to end the night! We played eleven games, ten different games in total, and played with a dozen or more players. The festival was packed enough to feel lively, but still allowing for seats here and there (although to be fair, we did add a bunch of round tables to the front and back of the hall.) Plus, the vendors were all set up, with three different local game stores showing off their wares. And finally, gotta shout out to Cousin Joe’s food truck, where we munched on all kinds of Cajun goodies like jambalaya, pulled pork, etc.
Great Day Two! Onto the final day shortly…
Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!
— BJ from Board Game Gumbo