In Boomerang, the "come-back-again" card game, players travel round the great south land, trying to see and do as much as possible — but will the cards you want to see come back to you?
Boomerang could be described as a card-drafting game (like 7 Wonders or Sushi Go!) mixed with a roll-and-write game (like Yahtzee or Qwixx).
Each turn, players select one card from their hand to play, then pass the rest of their cards to the next player. Will you take what you really want, or a different card so as to deprive another player of something cool?
At the end of each round, players mark different things off on their score sheets, corresponding to what they earned from the cards they selected. Players earn points for seeing sights, collecting Australiana, seeing animals, and so on. After five rounds, the player with the most points wins.
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I thoroughly enjoyed this game
- the combinations and everything in this game is just magical
- the scores are really high
References (from this video)
- thematic and quick drafting
- regional scoring touches
- publisher/availability uncertain
- drafting memories and regional scoring
- Australia travel memories
- flavorful, thematic
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Drafting — drafts memories and locations for scoring
- set collection / regional scoring — score points by visiting diverse regions and collecting gifts
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Warp's Edge is a solo bag building adventure where you are going to be fighting off alien invasions of ships and destroying a unique mothership during the course of each play
- this is a super tight game over the course of just a few short rounds you are going to be playing cards and going back and adding cards in between so you can never reorder the past events
- it's a really unique mix of set collection tiny economic social deduction dexterity
- food chain island ... has been released as the first game in button shy's simply solo line
- tiny epic galaxies is my all-time favorites
- this game really blends dexterity and patterning with humor
- boomerang was originally released as just boomerang
- the great dinosaur rush ... captures so much joy and so much energy and excitement
- this is one of my all-time favorite designers scott alms
References (from this video)
- Feel-good, quick game with strong visual appeal
- Supports multiple regional variants (Australia, Europe, USA) and plays online on BGA
- Theme may be nostalgic for some players but less depth for heavier gamers
- familial, nostalgic travel adventures
- World-spanning travel and boomerang-based scoring
- feel-good, quick-to-play
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- flip-and-fill / hand drafting — Draft a hand of cards across four rounds to travel to locations and accumulate points from activities, gifts, and sightseeing.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- BGA is my favorite online gaming platform and it's one that I use on a weekly basis if not multiple times a week to play with friends online
- this video is not in any way shape or form sponsored by BGA
- there you have it those are my top 10 filler games from board game arena
References (from this video)
- Works really well
- Enjoyable
- Multiple versions not needed
- Australia (original)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- area connection — Cards are used to connect areas on the board.
- Card Drafting — The core mechanism involves drafting cards from a pool.
- draft and write — Players draft cards and then use them to cross off letters, connect areas, or get sets on their board.
- Set Collection — Players collect sets of symbols or pictures.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- We call a roll and write game a game like yatsi which by the way wasn't in the running for my list where you roll dice and then you use the results of that roll to write something on your sheet.
- So there is really no good term for it but either way it is a fun genre and there are hundreds of games in this category.
- Although these games still come out, they're easy to produce for many companies. All you need to do is make a sheet of paper and put some dice out.
- It's the closest simulation of pinball that we're going to get in a board game.
- This isn't just one game. It's multiple games.
- This is such a huge game. It's by far one of the biggest ones out there.
- It's one of the most thematic rolling rights I've ever played or flipping rights because you're flipping a deck of cards.
- When I was making my list, it was this was such an easy thing. I wrote Flip Town as number one, then 10 as number two. Then I thought about the rest of the list because these those two were just so obvious to me on how much I enjoyed them.