The Boardgame Review Room: Freedom - The Underground Railroad

Slavery has played a horrific role in the history of many countries for a very, very long time. Far from being a thing of the past, slavery is still very present in modern day and efforts to eradicate it continue. Learning from history is probably the best way to understand where we come from and where we’re going. Freedom – The Underground Railroad does exactly that. Taking a massive risk, Academy Games has created a game that explores the efforts to free slaves. The players take on the role of historical Abolitionists who will try to save as many slaves a possible between the 1800’s and the Civil War. A careful balance between raising funds for the cause and moving the slaves from location to location will be the key to save enough slaves and win the game. However every time the slaves are moved, the slave catchers will be alerted and will capture the slaves to send them back into slavery. The game has received a great deal of praise and we were very curious to find out how it worked and if it really is as good as it sounds. This is keeping in mind that we have a certain Max Murray in our team who doesn’t really like cooperative games! Hope you enjoy the show!