Wallace and Gromit’s Fleeced Boardgame

Spent a good chunk of last night playing Wallace and Gromit’s Fleeced the Boardgame. This is based on A Close Shave, one of the brilliant series of animations produced by Nick Park at Aardman. You play as one of six characters in the story (I was Preston, the evil robot dog) and you move your beautifully made playing pieces over the board trying to snare sheep and get them back to your lair. You can do this by fair means, picking them up from their hideouts and leading them home. Or you can play foul, and “rustle” sheep from the other players.

The game is full of lovely touches, from the whistles that each player needs to blow before they herd their sheep to the cheese cards that you can pick up on the way. There is even a “Hard Cheese” card that gets you sent straight to the police station.

Some of the reviews in Amazon are quite funny. One complains that you can’t finish the game because everybody keeps stealing sheep from each other and nobody wins. It is true that you could play the game like this, just like two chess players could play for ever by moving their pieces back and forth and not doing much. However, I reckon it is absolutely great fun. I might even spend some of the “Miles Millions” ™ on a copy.