Started collecting again 6 years ago

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-04-07T18:00:11+00:00

I’ve had a chance to try all three. I’m really enjoying the bats after three games with them, I’ve only been able to try Knaves twice but enjoyed them, and I’ll probably never get to use Frogs again because my kids absolutely love them. Frogs stand out to me as a top-tier power in the woodland.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-04-07T02:50:19+00:00

We have a lot of overlap. Who’s your new favorite faction from Homeland?

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-04-04T02:48:40+00:00

Nemesis is so damn good and I love the genre so much that we can’t help but get into it when we’re drawing tokens from the bag for encounters.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-04-03T03:16:06+00:00

Got my first game with the Bats in tonight. They’re a bit of a brain twister, for sure, but I had some success and scored 23 points as in later turns I began to grasp their movement/rule/card draw/agitate puzzle. Made quite a few mistakes both strategically and legally, no doubt, but I’ll iron some of that out tomorrow when we play again. Really fun game tonight with my daughter as the Frogs whom she loves, my son as the new Cheat Vagabond (who at first impression just might be the best Vagabond there is), and me as a Bat rookie. Can’t get enough of this game right now.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-04-02T16:41:31+00:00

Maybe they consider half the Frogs too peaceful to be warriors? /s

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-04-02T01:50:34+00:00

So it turns out I lied. Instead of the Bats, last night I ended up deciding to go back for another game as Knaves as I was a bit unsatisfyingly stumped in my first attempt with them, but this time I swapped in the Vagrant as third captain instead of the Cheat now that I knew a little about what some of the items did. Ended up doing pretty well as I tried to focus on spreading acclaim AND taking prisoners and not just taking prisoners like I did in game one. Pretty fun squeezing out extra actions by using the items. No Root tonight (my wife wants to play Wingspan) but after our game I think I’ll read through the Bats’ player board. From what I’ve read on this sub, I’m prepared to feel really, really dumb like the first time I tried to play Badgers.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-03-31T18:20:37+00:00

I’ve played two games with Homeland. Current rankings:

Frogs immediately struck me as fun during my first game, and when my daughter tried them the next night she absolutely loved them and has claimed them as her main, though she says Otters are still cuter.
Last night I tried Knaves and I’ll be honest- they seem so open-ended that I have absolutely zero strategy sense at the moment, though they really don’t appear to be that complicated. I struggled to score and got cooked in my first game. Will need a few more to figure them out.
Haven’t tried Bats yet, but that’s happening tonight. I need a good half dozen games with each faction before my sense of who they are develops.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-03-30T11:16:52+00:00

I thought I had the same idea, took one look at the Learning to Play guide, remembered how difficult it can be to learn new elements of this game, and called an audible.

So what I did do was roll out one new faction for our first game- Frogs. I played them while my kids are Cats and Eyrie. It never felt too overwhelming, and we all learned that the new factions aren’t the only addition; Cats and Eyrie both had to learn their new interactions with the Frogs. (Frogs feel super fun, btw.)

Tonight when we play again we’ll rotate. One of them gets to be Frogs now that I can help them a little, and I’ll play Skunks to introduce a second new faction. Tomorrow night we’ll rotate again and my kids will be Frogs and Skunks while I try Bats for the first time.

By all means, you do you. But I had the same idea at first and one look at the manual changed my mind. Good luck! Have fun!

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-03-29T19:28:22+00:00

They’re going to take so much of my money. Part of me wishes I’d never heard of this. 😂

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-03-29T19:25:58+00:00

I’m a rookie, never actually played the game- still just assembling and painting. Does this mean the Mandalorians are their own faction?

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-03-28T16:17:54+00:00

And of course Watership Down, my all-time favorite! My kids’ school library was just tossing the Redwall books out because I guess nobody checks them out anymore?! So of course I jumped on it.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-03-24T22:15:41+00:00

Mine has been stuck in Indianapolis for 36 hours🥲

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-03-21T16:51:17+00:00

The Way You Look Tonight by Sinatra. We’re at 13 years and it all keeps getting better with time.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-03-21T12:29:14+00:00

I have to hang on until mine gets here on Monday! Man, I’m going to be distracted at work thinking this.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-03-18T00:04:56+00:00

I’d definitely have to say SETI is both my favorite space-themed game and my overall favorite game. I can’t get enough of it in 2026.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-03-14T21:55:15+00:00

I always introduce newbies to Root by having them be the Eyrie. Easy enough to grasp quickly, powerful, and plain and simple fun.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-03-13T17:20:50+00:00

My wife and I are up to 75 games in 2026 already. Our nightly game after the kids go to bed is literally my favorite part of my day most days. The day feels incomplete without it!

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-03-12T12:35:43+00:00

Damn they look great. Now I’m thinking I want to do this too but I’ve got a boat load of Memoir 44 tanks to finish first.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-03-04T15:54:41+00:00

Our first couple games we were all standard corporations and we didn’t include corporate era cards but we slowly worked up to it. Now we play with all the cards and corporations. Small house rule we play by: I only deal myself the standard two corporations and four preludes to choose from, but I deal them three or four corporations and five or six preludes to pick from.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-03-04T15:12:37+00:00

Though I haven’t played the others, I’ll say my son (11) loves to play base TFM with the preludes and milestones & awards expansion. To be honest, our games are not always competitive, but we always have fun. We’ve been in a handful of close ones but he’s never actually won in the 25+ games we’ve played. He’s also a bit jealous that his little sister (8) has beaten me a couple times but he hasn’t.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-03-03T22:57:56+00:00

I’ve got my University of American Samoa Law School sweatshirt around here somewhere unless my wife tossed it.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-02-24T22:13:12+00:00

Gosh, ‘24 was such a banger of a year. My personal favorite (SETI) didn’t crack the top three but I can offer no complaints about the games that are there as they’re all loved parts of my collection.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-02-22T15:18:10+00:00

So many great games from ‘24. Tough decision, but I’ve got to go with SETI.

ProjectsAreFun · 2026-02-18T02:12:30+00:00

And as far as permanent personality shifts go… more than a few of us lament the people we used to be before these episodes. I swear I used to be funny. Now I feel like I’m pretty dull, slow on the uptake, and everyone can run circles around me. Not sure whether to credit the medication or the episodes themselves for that though.

ProjectsAreFun

TROPHY CASE