Root
Thanks to a dear former colleague at eBay, I've come to know some interesting board games, and Root is one of them. It's a competitive game, in which there are four factions that all want to gain hegemony over the forest they live in: cats, birds of prey, an alliance of smaller woodland animals, and the raccoon. The fun bit is that each faction has its own rules and mechanics. To give an example, the birds actually have a program of actions they run in every move, and instructions keep being added to it. As soon as just one of the instructions can't be executed - for instance, no new nest can be built because there's no available space in the forest that the birds control - their leadership is overthrown, points are lost, and the program needs to be started from scratch. I love the crazy dynamics this game can develop.
Tags: games