Works great, fits perfectly for travel and cup holder.
My son got the new backgammon set for Christmas and we have already played a few games. I particularly like the way the pieces stack. I wish the chess/checkers used the same ones because they are more secure IMO. VentureBoard also has great customer service if you ever have a problem with your order.
The original VentureBoard chess set is an almost perfect travel set with a hard magnetic board that keeps pieces in place even when you roll it up into a hexagonal prism. Backgammon seems like an ideal classic game to tackle next.
To start with the positive, this backgammon set plays well even when jostled around on a plane, train or automobile. Magnetic stones stay in place and it can be rolled up just like chess to "save" your game. It comes with an extra stone (AKA checker) of each color and a doubling cube for match and money play. The bag even includes a pouch on the outside for holding these extra pieces and the dice. I like to keep the stones in their starting position so that I can start playing right away. The dice can even rattle around in the rolled up board without disrupting the stones.
Overall the board looks great and is a lot smaller than the traditional case design. But it does have a few design flaws:
1. Backgammon requires dice. A traditional set includes a felted playing surface and walls to keep the dice contained. The VentureBoard is hard plastic, so the dice tend to bounce around. While two edges have triangular fences the form the endcaps when rolled up, the other two edges are prone for dice to simply roll off the board and into seat cushions or whatnot. Fortunately the strong magnets of the stones mean you can aim at a full point and slow the dice down. It's also possible to hold one side with your hand in a way that blocks the open end while rolling with the other hand. Not a fatal flaw, but one that takes something away from the freewheeling dice-rolling that typifies backgammon.
2. Due to physics, strong magnetic stones repel each other when oriented side=by-side and attract when oriented as a stack. If not held firmly, they will also flip around to either stack or connect sideways. This was occasionally a problem with the chess set, but it's more common with backgammon which encourages quick movements and moving two stones at the same time. Thankfully they are even more strongly attracted to the board itself, so it's usually the stones in motion that are affected. Still, the worry about disrupting the board state restricts the tendency of experienced players to toss their stones around the board as is common with a traditional set.
3. Traditionally backgammon uses black and white stones. The "Libro de los juegos", a 13th century text on a variety of table games, shows red and yellow stones. These days you can buy sets with any color you can imagine. The problem with black stones on the VentureBoard is that they blend in with the black plastic of the board itself. I've included a photo that shows the problem. Now it's not hard to fix with a paint pen. I added yellow to indent on the top of the black stones and, for aesthetic reasons, blue on the white stones. As you can see in the second photo, that makes a huge difference, but it shouldn't be a a DIY project.
I have other minor quibbles:
* It would be nice to have a second set of dice with a different color to speed up play. It's not hard to dig up a second set of dice to add, but it's a sorta strange omission.
* Barring that, it would be helpful to have one die in each color to facilitate the starting roll. If you don't know, a game starts with both players rolling a single die and whoever has the highest roll gets to move based on both dice. It's not the end of the world to just keep track of who rolled which die.
* The doubling cube, unlike the dice, could have magnets to keep it oriented the right direction when a match is saved.
* It's not entirely clear where stones that are borne off should go. I either hold them as a stack in my hand or put them in one of the boxes with the VentureBoard logo. It would be helpful to signal with a bit of color which box is for which set of borne off stones.
* While it's not hard to find the rules online, i'd like to at least have an opening setup diagram included. This is not to some people's taste, but some games include dots on the starting points to show which color and how many stones belong there.
But none of the flaws or quibbles are fatal. There just isn't another backgammon set that fills the specific role of the VentureBoard. Having a game of backgammon ready to play in a moment no matter where you find yourself with a cleanup time measured in seconds justifies the cost of this set. Just be sure to get a paint pen to add some color to the black stones.
Ok coolest thing ever...love it so much I'm thinking of learning chess just so I can get a board.....you won't regret
Nice to be able to finish a game latter. Built well. Great design.