For Northwood! It is the cry of the aristocrats of Northwood who join you to serve Northwood. Do you know how to win over enough cute animals? I am doing my part!
Northwood needs you! Therefore, join now and serve a higher purpose. I imagine that despite the cute little animals, Northwood is full of propaganda posters. Player’s propaganda, because by winning the animals for you, you win (For) Northwood. In this solitaire stroke game, by winning the right amount of strokes during a stroke, the player wins an aristocrat for himself. These sweet animals not only earn points, but also special abilities that you can use during battles to control your cards, as well as the battle.
A trick taking game for only one player? It sounds crazy because trick taking games are typically the kind of games where you have to take into account the possible cards and the behavior of your opponent – but this is by no means the only solo trick taking game in my collection. Like cooperative trick taking games, solo trick taking games work pretty darn well.
In For Northwood, you play against the game, and hand management is particularly important. There are several animals on the table, and under each animal is a card indicating exactly how many tricks you need to win to win the animal card for you. Each animal also has one trump color. After you draw cards from the deck to form your hand, you get to converse with one of several animals. So based on your cards, you try to estimate where the best chance of victory lies.
To achieve victory, you can deploy allies. These are animal cards that you received at the beginning of the game, as well as animal cards that you won before. With the properties of these cards, you can influence the cards in hand, the conditions of the trick or the outcome of a trick.
How do you play a trick without opposing players? Draw a card from the deck and you must follow this card with one of your own hand cards. In the process – if possible – you must also follow color. If you win a trick, put your card on your own discard pile. Have you won the correct amount of tricks? Then you slide the animal card towards yourself and get the indicated amount of points at the end of the game.
For Northwood comes across as a sweet little game. The illustrations are cute and the game is a simple and extremely elegant trick taking game, but the game can be extremely challenging. This makes the game extremely replayable. Because luck plays a role to some extent, the “puzzle” is also different and varied. This is unlike many other simple solo games, where you get the hang of the game at some point. Because of the different allies and animal cards, the game contains even more variety. If you are finished with the base game you can also venture into the different scenarios.
