This year the plan is to play at least one new game a month and this will be the start (even though its the end of February)
Wandering Towers
Components
Everything here is from a punchboard and cards with addition of some wooden meeples stylized as wizards. Towers have to be assembled from two parts which is actually quite fun and surprisingly challenging task at first, that gets easier the further you go. Colors are nice, punchboard elements are thick and of good quality. Art on cards fits the climate of the game in my opinion and is quite decent. Once assembled boxed is designed in such way that everything has it own place separated by paper spacers . Unfortunately there is a lot of “air” in the box which makes the elements move quite a lot during transportation and help them fall in the wrong spots. This made me think that the spacers are only for the towers, so they simply won’t hit each other. Cards can be sleeved since you use them every turn and afterwards they still fit inside the box designated space.
Set-up
After getting all of the elements from the punchboard, actually setting up the game takes at most 5 minutes (depending on number of players and the rules with which you play). It doesn’t take a lot of space so even a small table is more than enough, though you would need additional space for dice throwing. If you didn’t shake it too much during transportation and hid most of the players elements under towers this could be even faster.
Rules
The game is much easier than you would think, when you first look at the rulebook. Took us two games to understand it completely and on third we played with all components without having to look at it again. There are some advance rules concerning spells that can be used in the game and that add a bit of depth to the game, however you don’t really even have to use them to win. Since you move with the cards that you draw every turn, the only bit of true randomness is added by the dice throws, which is quite nice, when you like to go with the flow of the game and a bit of risk. There is a lot of players interactions, however it’s mostly “by accident” to get yourself ahead, without actually competing with each other for the spots, since the towers can accommodate several wizards.
Gameplay
There is a 30 minute mark on the box and we found it quite accurate on the first few games, however after that it tends to be much quicker. Basically the game consist of 2 possibly movements that might be done, you either move one of your wizards clockwise trying to get into Ravenskeep or move towers trapping other or your mages for magical potions.
Those have to be collected in order to trigger the end of the game together with putting every wizard in the Ravenskeep. After collection they can be also used on spells present in the middle of the board, where spells can either help you or hinder you enemies.
When it comes to the cards each of them have either specified number of moves that you will have to do or dice symbol which means moving by rolling a dice.
You will always have three on your hand and play two of them, which lets you save something for the next turn. Numbers are from the same range as dice throws so you move in range from 1 to 6, where the whole gameboard have 16 spaces. Since your wizards can also ride on the towers that are moved, you will find missing the Ravenskeep quite a lot unless you are lucky with the cards.
When it comes to the advance rules they are simply limited to the effects of spell cards. There can be more of them (instead of starting two), random ones not visible to the players or chosen before the game to add a variety. Simple ones move the towers or the wizards, more advance once help you to glue your wizard to another, free them from being trap inside a tower without moving it or move the Ravenskeep among others.
Game is designed from 2 to 6 people and I tried 2,3 and 5 players variants where actually I found out that more is better in this case. Of course it makes the chaos bigger and planning almost impossible, since you never now when your wizards will be trapped or how far will they be moved by others, but it also exactly why its better. It’s simply quite enjoyable to see how the map change when everyone tries to go into Ravenskeep creating higher towers that run through the board, while also how everyone gang up on the players ahead trying to thwart they plans. There is almost no downtime in the game for the players, since you have to keep track of your wizards all the time.
Score
- Overall 7/10 – I enjoyed it quite a bit, and from time to time it will come back as a starting game for the boardgame sessions, due to a quick set up, easy rules for the newcomers and nice graphics. I wonder if add-ons makes the game a bit more complicated, since that’s one of the things that could’ve change it from the starting game to a full session one.
- Coming back 9/10 – Quick to set-up, rules easy to explain and due to quick gameplay it has a high replayability, without much of a downtime. It might get boring after few sessions since there aren’t too many rules in advance system so it will get lower the longer you play it, however it makes a good first impression.
- Fun factor 7/10 – It’s quite dependent in my opinion on the number of players, where with more it gets higher and higher. With lower players it’s more strategic however there isn’t enough depth for such kind of gameplay.
Will it stay or go? – For now it’s a stay, mostly to play as a starting game and to check the add-ons.
