Not since Animal Farm has there been this much
animosity in the barnyard. Livestock
Uprising comes to us from Dog Might LLC out of the small town of Pinckney,
Michigan. Coming from small town Michigan
myself, watching animals on the farm play, fight and destroy their homes is a
rather natural concept. In a theatrical
twist to real life, whenever I play this game it brings back memories of
childhood. Now, its time to moove on to
baaatle…let’s pork up and get this clucking review started!
For first impressions, this box is beautiful. Bright colors and a wonderfully realistic art
style cover the outside. I love the
visuals of this game. The troop and
player cards, as well as the player pieces, have this same art. Overall, I feel this game deserves an
honorable mention for art in the least.
I really enjoyed looking at the game as much as I did playing it.
On the box, this 2-4 player game has an age rating of 14+
and an average game time of 60-120 minutes.
On playing this with my family, my 10 & 12yo daughters had no issues
picking up the concept of this game, and my 9yo nephew won his first game
against his 13yo brother, father and myself.
The game time is rather accurate though.
A four player game will last at least 90 minutes, and longer depending
on how competitive your group is. Out of
all the different player counts, four people will give you the best feel for
the game’s concept and what I feel is the most enjoyable experience. Three players can be just as engaging, as
long as the group is competitive. With
just two players, this game can feel redundant and mundane, and the latter half
of the game can be rather one-sided.
- Chickens – “Clucking Fast”
- Pigs – “ He Who Harvests, Wins”
- Goats – “First Into Baaaattle”
- Cows – “We Will Not Be Mooved”
Each faction has a corresponding faction board, barn tile, 3 General cards (1, 2 & 3 Stars), 3 matching army tokens (1, 2, & 3 Stars), 3 Special Forces cards, and a super army token used for the endgame scenario.
The faction board uses both sides; one consisting of the
cost to marshal troops and Special Forces for the first part of the game, and
the other used to record the attach and defense power of your super army in the
endgame. The cost to marshal troops and
Special Forces is the same for all factions.
The General cards have no bearing on attack or defense. Each General can control up to five troops,
including Special Forces. The troop
cards are placed under each General card to indicate which troops that General
controls. The stars on the general cards
are just to help with identifying which armies on the board control which
troops.
The Special Forces cards allow different benefits for their
respective faction. A chicken General
that controls a Special Forces card can move one extra tile each turn. A pig General that controls a Special Forces
card gains the ability to harvest extra resources depending on which Special
Forces troop he has in his army. The
goat’s Special Forces have a higher than average attack power, while the cow’s
Special Forces have a higher defense.
I found that goats against cows are a very even game. Having
an extra move for a chicken General doesn’t seem to add much of an advantage,
except for escaping other players that seem to be focused on causing
casualties. But if you add in the pigs and their ability to harvest twice as
many resources in the first part of the game, you have a major advantage over
the other factions. Out side of a
four-player game, where the other three factions can gang up, having the pigs in
a game can cause a bit of an imbalance.
Also included in the box are:
- Four six-sided Dice
- 18 Command Cards – Each player receives 3 at the start of the game
- 8 Battle Plan Cards – Each player receives 1 card once they form their Super Army
- 60 Board Tiles – Each tile has either nothing, a harvestable resource, or an obstacle that prevents a player from moving onto that tile
- 125 Resource Tokens – 25 of each Grass, Hay, Corn, Carrot, and Apple
The board setup is one of the aspects of this game I
absolutely love. I feel any game that
can have a completely different setup every time it is played is one that is
worth investing in. Livestock Uprising
is one of those games that I feel has re-playable potential. You start with sorting the tiles by the
number listed on the back and using the ones equal to and less than the player
count. A base grid is made, depending on
player count, by randomly selecting facedown tiles. Then barn tiles are placed adjacent to one of
the outside edges of the starting grid.
The barns can be placed adjacent to each other, for a competitive
twist. Then the rest of the board is
randomly filled in to its respective player size forming a square. Honorable mention for the random board every
game, and an extra special mention for the use of tiles. I love open-ended tile boards, because most
allow for altering of the designed shape.
I’ve experimented with different styles, elongated, diamond,
zigzag, etc, and I’ve found that each time you change the board shape, you open
up the game to new tactics and a new level of play. I feel that this could be a feature of the
game, allowing for players to come up with their own unique board that they
find most enjoyable.
Once the board is setup, players place all three Generals on
their barn and play starts with the action phase. There are two things you can do on your
action phase, move and/or attack. During
this phase, you’re trying to land on the resource tiles you need, so you can
harvest them in the next phase. Only one
General can occupy a tile at a time, so things can get pretty hairy when
separate factions are aiming for the same resources. Each General can move up to two squares in
any direction, and if they end on an occupied tile, baaattle starts.
When you attaaack another General (sorry for the bad puns,
I’ll try to hold baaack the rest of the review), you add up the total attack
power of the troops garrisoned under the attacking General and the total
defense power of the defending General.
Players then roll a die to add to their attack or defense power, highest
number wins. I’m glad they added an
element of luck to the battle. I’m not a
huge fan of games based solely on number count.
I always rooted for the underdog to succeed. If a player loses the battle, they must
discard one troop for that General’s army.
After you have moved your Generals and finished chasing your
friends around the barn yard, you get to harvest the items you land on, so long
as you have troops that allow that General to harvest those resources. The Generals alone can only harvest
grass. With grass you can buy sacrificial
sheep, who allow the General that controls them to harvest hay. Once you have some hay, you can marshal
dynamite donkeys, which allow the General to harvest hay and corn. This procession of troops and harvesting
items carries out until you have a berzerker horses that allows that General to
harvest hay, corn, carrots, and apples, and then you can marshal the ornery
oxen, the most powerful troop in the game.
With each General only being able to garrison up to five
troops, battling and losing becomes a strategic plan to remove the lesser
troops, like the sacrificial sheep, from your garrison to obtain higher valued
cards like the oxen. Once you feel you
have enough troops, your Generals need to make it back to your barn to form the
super army. This starts the end game
scenario.
Once a player has all three generals on their barn, and
declares that they are forming a super army, they flip their faction board over
and add up the defense and attack points of all troops they control. Super armies roll two dice for attack and
defense, as well as cause two casualties when they succeed. If only one player has a super army, the rest
are pretty much doomed. It forces
everyone else to form his or her super armies, and enter the end game
scenario. Players discard their unused
resources, and remove their general cards.
They also draw one battle plan card to add to their command cards.
In the three and four player game, two super armies may join
forces when attacking another player. I
think this is a great addition to the battle rules. I also like to play this rule throughout the
game. I feel it allows for people to
form alliances early on and for more strategic planning and backstabbing in the
end. But it is necessary for the
underdogs to come out on top in the higher player counts.
I once politiced my daughters into a grudge when I was
losing. They had it out for me and I
wasn’t ready to call it quits. I pointed
out that I could add my attack power to theirs whey they attacked each other,
bettering their odds at defeating the other.
I ultimately ran them both into lapse until I was strong enough to
emerge as the winner.
In just a two-player game, the end scenario becomes
one-sided and the loosing player can feel helpless for several rounds until
defeat. It reminded me of those days
playing Monopoly, when other player(s) had multiple houses and hotels, and your
just there, cruising around the board loosing everything turn after turn. If one player has an attack and defense of 23
and 26 respectfully and the only other player has an attack and defense of 12
and 14, there is no hope for the underdog and the last few rounds play out with
loss after loss, and can make a person not want to play again.
Play continues until only one faction comes out on top. Continuous chasing and battling is about a
third of the game, and can be redundant at times. With the end game “duel to the death” aspect,
the game gets a 5/10 for the unevenness of the latter parts. If you have a competitive group, this is a
great game to add that fuel to the fire.
It’s better for the group of college friends than the family.
Overall, I feel this is a great introductory game for
familiarizing kids and adults with the strategic gaming world. You have many choices that offer a simple yet
in-depth mechanism. Outside of the
one-sidedness of the end game, this scores an 8/10 for simplicity, art, and
play. I enjoyed this game. It’s one worth adding to your collection,
especially if you’re looking for something simple to get those interested
hooked on the gaming world, and also for those once a month gaming nights with
old friends when you’re looking to settle the score.
John Hernandez - Twitter @thebeardedpyro
John Hernandez - Twitter @thebeardedpyro
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