We recently launched Professor Meeple’s Game Lab in an effort to uncover the world of indie games and designers, and share it with you, our guests. The response from independent game designers has been tremendous! We are thrilled to have already been able to share some great games with you, and we have quite a few more on the way!
One of our recent entrants into the Lab was ForeFathers, which received great reviews from all who had a chance to play it. Tyler Pigott, co-designer of ForeFathers, joins us to describe a bit about the game and it’s development.
ForeFathers is a tile flipping board game that combines economics and strategic conquest. As your faction tries to establish itself in the New World, use your scouts to find the resources you need to grow your influence on the board through outposts and cities. As your influence grows, so must your army to keep control of the land you have taken and to fend off your enemies who want to see your faction fall. Form alliances to take out an enemy or deceive your ally to make them feel comfortable and then strike in the heart of their economy. How will you fight your way to be the last faction standing? The innocent trader? The military powerhouse? The economic superpower? After the dust settles on the battlefield there will be only one faction left standing. Will it be yours? ForeFathers. “We were all born to play free.”
ForeFathers’ board gives the sense of a fog of war, with the flip mechanic and the use of scouts moving around the board and revealing the resources hidden on the other side of the tiles. Your scouts are your main resource collectors, but as the game progresses you can build outposts that collect resources even without a scout on the square. There are four Factions to choose from, America, Britain, France, and Spain. This is important because each Faction comes with its own set of unique Generals that provide different bonuses to help you win – if they are used in the right way at the right time. We have included action cards that can be bought with the resources you have collected. These action cards could turn the tide of a battle, and in the long run that could turn the tide of the whole game.
As the game progresses war becomes inevitable and it is a necessity to win the game. Your infantry units move around the board to make strategic strikes against your opponents’ armies and their economy. You will have to pick and choose your battles, because once your opponents have upgraded their outposts to cities they become stronger on defense and provide two resources per turn for the tile they are on. Try to catch cities not defended with infantry and you can land a huge strike on their economy.
You will start to form your own strategies and become a master of ForeFathers after only playing the game once. It is simple enough to learn but provides the complexity and replayability of a strategy game, where the outcome can change every time you play.
ForeFathers. The next generation of tile flipping strategy games.
Editor’s Note: Forefathers is currently on Kickstarter, with a week left in the campaign. Check it out, and see if this might be a game for you!
Jim Reed is a lifelong gamer who started with the original red box Dungeons & Dragons. After spending 20 years in the corporate world, he decided it was high time that work be fun and struck out on his own. Jim now owns and operates Ravenwood Castle and The Malted Meeple, and spends his days ensuring his guests have as much fun as he does.