- Publisher: Leder Games
- Players: 2-4
- Time: 20-40 minutes
- Ages: 10+
Fort is a deck-building game from Leder Games for two to four players ages 10+ that plays in about 20-40 minutes (though I may have been missing something for this to play in only 40 minutes). That being said, it was our first play through and we probably took more time than necessary reading through the rules. In Fort, you are a kid working to increase your number of friends by building the best fort in the yard and stocking it full of pizza and toys! You can take actions on your turns, as well as on the turns of others. Keep an eye on your friends because if you don’t play with them, someone else will!
What’s In the Box?
Included in the Fort box is:
- 1 First Player Card
- 30 Pizza Tokens
- 30 Toy Tokens
- 1 Victory Track
- 8 Best Friend Cards (2 for each player)
- 4 Player Boards (1 for each player)
- 4 Score Markers (1 for each player)
- 4 Fort Level Markers (1 for each player)
- 1 Macaroni Sculpture Card
- 9 Perk Cards
- 11 Made Up Rule Cards
- 60 Kid Cards
- 1 Rule Book
Setup
There are two versions of the Fort game in the box – Basic and Advanced. We tried the Basic version for our first play through.
Players work together to determine who has the first turn, and that player will receive the First Player Card. Make 2 piles of the Pizza Tokens and Toy Tokens. Make sure each player has a Player Board, the two Best Friend Cards listed on the back of the Player Board, a matching Score Marker and Fort Level Marker. Players will place their Score Marker on the 0 pictured on the Victory Track and the Fort Level Marker on the 0 pictured on their Player Board. Take all 11 Made Up Rule Cards and shuffle them. Deal into a facedown stack, 3 for 2 players, 4 for 3 players and 5 for 4 players. The rest of the Made Up Rule Cards can go into the box and won’t be used for this game. The same is to be done with the 9 Perk Cards. Then shuffle all 60 Kids Cards together. Place them facedown to create the Park Deck, below the Victory Track. Put 3 Kid Cards underneath the Victory Track, face up in a row, to create the park. Next, each player draws 8 Kid Cards and shuffles them in with their Best Friend Cards. Players are allowed to look at their own cards. The Kid Cards go facedown next to the player’s Player Board. Finally, each player is to draw 5 Kid Cards from their own deck. You will want to take note of the anatomy of a card and the anatomy of the Player Boards before playing. They are very clearly detailed on pages 4 and 5 in the rule book. You are now ready to play Fort.
Gameplay
Disclaimer: The following is meant to give you an overall view of how Fort plays, and is not intended as a substitute for the rule book. There are some circumstances that will trigger a rule or cards that provide extra rules that will not be laid out in detail. But if you choose to pick up Fort, they do an excellent job explaining some of the intricacies in more detail.
Fort is played in turns, with each turn having 5 phases, and the active player be referred to as the leader. For your first turn, you will skip phase 1. The phases are: cleanup, play, recruit, discard and draw. In the cleanup phase a leader will discard all cards in their yard and put them face up in their discard pile. In the play phase a player can play one card from their hand and use 1 or 3 of the actions listed on the card. Players can choose to use the public action, the private action or both. It may be possible to add suits to the card you played. If so, do this during this step. Phase 3 is the recruit phase. In the recruit phase players will be looking to make a new friends. They must recruit a friend by one of three ways. Players can recruit friends by taking any card from the park, taking any card from another player’s yard or drawing a card from the Park Deck. The player has now made a new friend! In phase 4 the player will discard all of their played cards, added cards and any Best Friend Cards left in their hand. These cards will go into the player’s personal discard pile. Note: do not discard any Kid Cards from your lookout spot. Finally, phase 5 is to draw. A player will draw 5 cards from their own deck. If the deck is empty, simply shuffle the discard pile and start again. Note: The only time to draw a card in Fort is during the draw phase.
Objective
The objective of Fort is to have the most points by the end of the game. The end of the game can come about in 3 different ways. Either any player has 25+ points in the Victory Track, any player reaches Fort Level 5, or the Park Deck is empty. At this time, the leader will finish their turn and the round will continue until all players have had an equal number of turns. Then is it time to add up the points. Points are gained through the Victory Track, Fort Level, made up rules and Macaroni Sculpture. The player with the most points wins. If there is a tie, the player with the highest Fort Level wins. If there is still a tie, players share the victory!
Final Thoughts
The first time we picked up Fort, we were excited for a game that was a little heavier that would play in 40 minutes. I am really not sure if it was that we were tired, or the planets weren’t aligned, but it took us two and a half hours to get through our first play through! It was possibly too late to play a game that each turn went in 5 phases. That being said, once we got the hang of it, gameplay was smooth. The Player Boards do an excellent job detailing what a player can do on their turn, the made up Rule Cards are clear and the information on the Kid Cards is easy to digest. Moving the Pizzas and Toys into the fort and trading them for an upgraded fort was a lot of fun. It really did make you feel like a kid in the playground, trying to make the most friends and have the coolest hang out spot. The rule book is excellent and really lays out the different concepts well. I especially enjoyed the glossary of terms in the back of the Rule Book for further explanation. Fort provided enough mechanics to give players multiple paths to winning, and the Made up Rule Cards and Perk Cards add for great Replayability.
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