Wolves live and hunt in packs, howling at the moon…. At least, that’s the image I have of wolves and what is also central to the game Wolves. The wolf is settling again in the Dutch countryside and in this board game you can relive the adventures of different packs of wolves from different terrains and areas. Try to control the most territories, hunt the most prey and dominate other players. Are you the alpha wolf or rather a beta pup?
Goal and setup
In Wolves, players gain points by hunting different types of prey, conquering and controlling certain areas during the game during the different cycles of the moon, adding new wolves to the pack and placing shelters and dens.
At the beginning of the game, players place a number of areas (tiles) with hexagonal squares that make up the game board. In the middle is the unreachable gorge. Players place lone wolves, moons and prey on the game board.
Each player chooses a type of wolf and receives a board with actions, properties and playing pieces and a set of terrain tiles.
Gameplay
Remember those terrain tiles? These terrain tiles are the central component of Wolves. By flipping these double-sided terrain tiles, you can perform actions and new terrains appear on the terrain tiles. So these tiles are actually your “resources” to pay for actions with.
Each turn, a player may perform two actions. Depending on the action, players must turn over 1, 2 or 3 tiles of the same terrain type. The terrain they turn over must match the terrain they want to influence/where the action takes place. They can also discard won terrain bonus tiles.
Players can move their wolves, build a lair or upgrade a lair to a den, howl at lone wolves to get new wolves on the game board, or dominate another player’s lair or wolves to win them over. The player board lists player characteristics and the “strength” or “efficiency” of certain actions. Building shelters makes actions better.
Upgraded or dominated shelters and dominated or lone wolves are placed on the monthly track. Over time as more items are placed on this board there is an area count of the areas corresponding to the lunar cycles. Players win points if they have the majority in these areas. After the last area count, the game ends and the player with the most points wins.
Verdict
Wolves is an interesting and colorful area control game with an interesting mechanism where players have to manage their resources in the form of the terrain tiles. They can plan their actions so that the right terrains are visible to perform the desired actions. Players have to make choices in terms of strategy. New hideouts make for better actions, but are somewhat less likely to yield points. You can focus on areas that score earlier or still win over those coveted areas before the end of the game.
Wolves is a puzzle where you are mostly concerned with your own actions, but by controlling areas and dominating other players, it is still a dynamic and competitive game. The colorful artwork ensures that it appeals to a wide audience and not just connoisseurs.
