Wildlands

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 5 out of 10

   curtc

   People were going goo goo ga ga over this at Essen. I don't get it. I played a full game (with a very good rules explanation by a demoer from Osprey Games--bravo). The board looks quite nice, and is what attracted me to the game. You have 5 dudes that start at various places on the board (which you have control over). You also have 5 crystals which start at 5 different places (which you have no control over). You then play cards on your turn to (mostly move your dudes around and try to collect your gems. 5 points = you win. I say you "mostly" move and collect gems, because you can also attack/defend, but in a multiplayer game, this generally falls into the classic problem of being lose-lose for both players involved. Especially because often an attack [i]defended[/i] which means the only thing that happened was both sides spent cards. Which are a precious resource as you draw exactly 3 every turn. In theory you [i]can[/i] make it win/lose by attacking [i]enough[/i] to not just wound but kill the other dude. But this is very hard to do. And if you don't kill, it just sets up someone else, because the spoils for killing to solely to player who dealt the fatal blow, and there is no healing. This brings me to the second problem with the game. [b]The miniatures ruin the game. [/b] It's nearly impossible to tell at a glance which dude on the board is which. Not just enemies, but your own. I had a devil of a time keeping it straight. You have to try and match the sculpt with the art on each card. This is really difficult when there are 25 unique sculpts. Sure, only 5 per player, and mercifully they have color-coded bases, but there's still a lot of work attempting to figure out which is which.

2. 8 out of 10

   Clwe

   Do you like Martin Wallace games? Then steer clear of this one! Well, maybe. In all seriousness though, Wildlands is very different from his usual output. It's a smart, quick skirmish game with lots of tactical choices. The tough decisions start immediately - at the beginning of the game, each player gets dealt ten numbered cards, each one corresponding to a certain spot on the board/map. You have to choose five of them as starting spaces for your characters, and the other five as crystal spots for the player to your right. Players can pick up their own crystals for points during the game, so you want to make sure that the player to your right doesn't get an easy ride by you picking numbers too close together. But you also have to worry about your own party's positioning... Another clever touch is that your characters are not revealed on their numbered positions straight away, but you instead get to choose to reveal one (or more) during each of your turns (at which point they can be used to collect crystals and attack other players). You must reveal at laeast one of your characters (if any are still hidden) at the start of each of your turns, so you can't hide forever. However, there's still lots of potential for sneaky tactics here. The cardplay itself is equally satisfying, too - you have to use cards to move your characters around, attack and pick up crystals. Each skirmish 'team' (you pick one at the beginning) has their own deck, which is usually weighted towards one thing - i.e. melee attacks, ranged attacks, support actions etc. This makes playing each team a different experience, as their cards dictate (to an extent) what they're capable of. You also have to be aware of the dreaded interruption card - each team has a handful of these, that another person can play on your turn to interrupt you - say, just as you were about to nab a crystal - and strike you instead.

3. 8.15 out of 10

   CrimsonComet

   Thematic Ties: 8.75 Gameplay: 9.0 Components Quality: 7.5 Mechanisms: 8.5 Graphics/ Artwork: 7 Overall Rating: 8.15 The only complain that I have is the artwork.