220: Looot | The Fox Experiment | Billabong

What this episode covers

Welcome to Which Game First where we boldly explore the hilariously huge world of board games. Did we unearth any hidden treasures you’ve been missing out on? Let’s find out! First up: We ravage the English countryside to build our Viking homesteads in LoootNext up: We attempt to raise strong and loveable kits for SCIENCE! in The Fox ExperimentAnd lastly: We spring into action in a furious dash and bring the thunder from down under in Billabong Looot Designed by: Charles Chevallier, Laurent EscoffierPublished by: Gigamic (2024)Players: 2 – 4Ages: 10 & upPlaying time: 35 minutes Looot is a worker placement and tile collection game where you are a Viking, gathering resources and capturing buildings to develop your fjord. In turn, players will place their Viking on a hex max, and will take whatever resource exists on that space. Vikings can only be placed next to another Viking, or a longship. The resource is then placed on that player’s personal tableau, anywhere they like. The player’s tableau also will have a few construction sites, such as a port and an altar, which require the placement of the correct resources adjacent to that building. Along the way, Vikings can capture special buildings such as houses, watchtowers, and castles. If a player places a longship on their tableau, they must be completed, or you will earn negative points for any uncompleted longships. Trophies can also be collected for additional victory points. So store up the most riches, add up your victory points once all of your Vikings have been placed, the most VP wins and is crowned Jarl of the Vikings! The Fox Experiment Designed by: Jeff Fraser, Elizabeth HargravePublished by: Pandasaurus Games (2023)Players: 1 – 4 + expansion for 5 – 6Ages: 10 & upPlaying time: 75 minutes In 1958, Demitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut started an experiment on domestication. From a large group of foxes, they selected the ones that reacted to humans with more curiosity and less aggression. In each generation, they selected only the friendliest pups to become parents — hoping to recreate the process that originally led to domestication thousands of years ago. The experiment made stunning progress. Even though the foxes were chosen only for their friendliness, they soon started to get many of the physical traits that we associate with domesticated animals — like spots, floppy ears, and curly tails. As communication opened up, the foxes made major contributions to our understanding of how these traits are expressed. The experiment continues to this day. In The Fox Experiment, you’ll breed your own domesticated foxes. In each round you’ll select a pair of fox parents who have certain traits. You’ll gain those specific trait dice, roll them, then try to move them around to make complete trait symbols which you’ll then mark off on your pup card. You’ll then gain trait tokens depending on how many traits you marked off which you’ll use to upgrade tracks on your personal player board. At the end of the round, the previous generation of foxes will be cleared and all of the new pups will be moved to the kennel — thus becoming candidates to be chosen as parents in the next round. The game ends after 5 rounds and you’ll gain points for pleasing patrons (end of game scoring bonuses), studies completed (personal player objectives), if you ever won the friendliest fox award, upgrades on your personal player board, and extra tokens. The player with the most points wins!

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