Who doesn’t miss the simpler days of being a kid? Playing with friends, eating and drinking anything your heart desired and the ultimate goal of all kids: building an awesome fort. Today we are going to explore a game that does just that as we compete with other kids to collect awesome things and keep your friends in your circle before they leave and join someone else’s group!
Fort is published by Leder Games and designed by Grant Rodiek with illustration by Kyle Ferrin. It plays 2-4 players in 20-40 mins.
Overview
Fort is a deckbuilding game that lets you take actions on your turn and other players turns as you attempt to score victory points through adding friends, grabbing pizza and toys and building the best fort. But be careful-if you don’t use all the cards in your hand on a turn they are available for players to steal before your next turn!
Gameplay
Each player begins with a player board and their two specific Best Friend cards, then draw a hand of 8 more kids from the deck of cards marked as the Park. The made-up rules, perk cards, pizza and toy tokens and victory track and all set in the middle of the gaming area.
Kid cards are the main part of the game here, and each card is made up of one of the 6 suits or a wild coin suit. Also you will find a public action and a private action in each card. The public action can be followed by other players on your turn, where the private action can only be taken by you on your turn.
The other big part of the game are the player boards. Here you will find your Yard where unplayed cards will go on the end of your turn, your Lookout where you can place cards during the game and your stuff/pack holding areas that can hold pizza or toy tokens. You will also be able to track your Fort level and see the rewards gained for it.
Fort is played in a turn-based progression around the table and players move through all the phases of their turn in order. These are:
- Cleanup
- Play
- Recruit
- Discard
- Draw
In Cleanup, players will discard all cards played to their Yard in the previous turn to begin the new turn. This will not happen on the first round but will happen on subsequent rounds.
Next in phase 2 is Play where players will play one of their friend cards and use one or both of the actions on the card. You may play them in either order but must complete one before you start the next. Any action that has an “x” on it will allow you to discard like suits or wilds to improve that action. When using the actions you must use at least one action fully. If you use the one fully you can use the other action partially.
The big and unique part of this game takes place here in phase 2 as non-active players all have the option to “follow the leader” in turn order to copy the public action of the leader’s card. This can be used whether the leader used the public action or not. To do so, a follower must discard one card from their hand that matches the suit of the played card.
Phase 3 brings on the action Recruit which allows you to make a new friend to add to your posse! You must recruit one card and place it into your discard pile. You can take any one card from the face-up cards in the Park and place it in front of you or this is a chance for you to steal a friend from another players’
Phase 4 is Discard where you now discard all cards from your hand that you did not use. Here you are going to have to add any friends that aren’t your Best Friends (starter cards) to the Yard in front of you. Now you leave yourself open for another player on their turn to come take one of your friends that you didn’t play with for themselves.
Finally in the last phase you will Draw your hand back up to full to prepare for all the other players to take their turn. With a full hand of cards you will now be able to play off of other players turns as well!
The game continues until a player has triggered the end by either reaching level 5 of their Fort, acquiring 25 victory points or running out of cards in the Park Deck. Each player takes a last turn, then the end game scoring is figured. Player with the most points wins!
Impressions
What could be better:
Iconography (sometimes). Although the icons in this game are pretty straightforward there are a few symbols that seem to trip up everyone who lays it for the first time. Like most games there is a learning curve to learning them all, and once you have them you are pretty good. One of the more confusion is the “take two” of Pizza or Toy which seems like you should be able to take one of each, but it is two of the same. The only reason I bring it up is because I consistently hear people make the same assumption and have it change their plans in a not-so-happy way.
What I liked:
Artwork. Leder games has shown themselves to be a unique, original style of artwork in their games Root and Vast and Fort does not disappoint in continuing in that line. If you enjoy the style of Root especially, you will love the art and whimsical characters in the game. The kids all bring a unique personality on the card that makes them standout along with their fun names on the card as well. I really like this style and would love to see an enamel pin for these characters or something else outside the game. I also think that the other cards and even the little resources are done so well in the style and lend to the overall theme.
Recessed Boards. Such a simple thing, but so important in this game. With all the little resources you will be gaining and using something as simple as a recessed board makes it easier to manage and keep them in a nice little spot. It also pops the board with some depth which just looks good.
Everyone plays all the time. Usually the biggest slowdown for a game, especially for a deckbuilder is the downtime between turns. Having to wait for others while they think through their turns can be difficult and distracting for many players. Fort found a way to get past that and really focus players on every single turn as you have to see if you can follow the play of the leader and you want to be aware of what they are discarding or picking up from your discards. I really enjoy this part of the game and think it is the stand-out feature in an already good game.
Overall
Fort is the deckbuilder I didn’t know I needed. The art is perfect for the theme, the game is very well made and packaged into a n easy to travel size box and the gameplay is excellent. As I mentioned earlier, having a deckbuilding game that not only does that well but focuses players on the game during everyone’s turn is amazing. It is the perfect game to keep players engaged the whole time which can be rare to find. Everyone who has played this has stayed very focused which I love to see.
There is definitely a learning curve with the symbology of this game-I expect anyone who plays it the first game or two to need constant cues and reminders as to what the different symbols mean. They aren’t hard per sae, they are just a lot to learn. So new players will need to have a little time ramp up time but once you play it a few times it makes sense.
This is not a “first time” deckbuilder in that I wouldn’t recommend it to players who don’t have experience in that particular mechanic. There are a lot of other things going on in this game besides deckbuilding that you need to be able to juggle. This game will shine however for the player who enjoys deckbuilding as a mechanic but is always looking for a little something more-more challenging, more combos and more rewarding when things click just right.
Overall I cannot recommend this one enough. It is fast moving up the charts for me personally as one of my favorite games of 2020 and one of my go-to games to show off to new players. If you enjoy a good deckbuilding game and are ready for the next challenge in that style, I highly recommend Fort as a game that you need to get to the table!
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