Game Review: Floats McGoats

Today’s review is for Floats McGoats, a shipwreck-themed strategy board game for 2-4 players.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary game for review from Timberdoodle. All views expressed are my own.

Floats McGoats

The premise of this hilarious game is described on the back of the box:

A seafaring goat crew was navigating treacherous waters when their boat capsized! The ship broke apart, leaving wood strewn throughout the waves. To save the goats, players must build a raft from the wood. Each player fights to outsmart the others in a quest to get their goats on the raft. But watch out for the shark lurking in the waters… In this captivating game of strategy, it’s every wee goat for themself!

It is designed for 2-4 players and recommended for ages 10 and up. Estimated play time is 15-30 minutes.

What’s Included

Floats McGoats includes 50 raft sticks, 24 mama goats, 4 baby goats, 1 shark, a twelve-sided die, the folding playing board, and a rules sheet.

How to Play

The board is laid out in a grid of triangles that indicate where the boards should be placed. The game starts with two sticks in place in the middle of the board. This forms the starting raft.

On your turn, you can take one of two actions:

• add one goat to any open spot on the raft
• roll the die and take the action shown, such as:
  • add a stick
  • move a stick
  • flip a stick
  • move a goat
  • shark attack
  • goat fight

Strategy comes into play with all the various moves. As the game progresses, the raft expands as more sticks are added to the board. As a result, more goats can be “rescued.” Goats are worth points, and when one player reaches a certain number of points, he is the winner.

My Thoughts

My family thoroughly enjoyed playing Floats McGoats. Lyle especially likes strategy games, so this is a good one for him.

The one drawback for us was how the pieces wanted to slide around on the board, and sometimes the goats would tip over, especially as the board started filling up. Gameplay calls for rearranging and turning sticks over throughout the game, and we found it a little tricky to do so without bumping other pieces out of place.

Minor fidgetiness aside, we are happy to add Floats McGoats to our game collection for when we want a relatively short game for just a few players.

Video

For more details, check out this video demonstrating Floats McGoats.