When your home is the forest, preparing for winter isn't all fun and games. At least not until this year, when Fox proposed to his woodland friends a grand contest: Who will weather winter best? In this charming, light-hearted game of Fierce Friendship and Frosty Fortitude, take on the role of Squirrel, Bear, Deer, Rabbit, Beaver, or Fox. Optimize your actions each turn and explore, build shelters, forage for food to stash away, and hunker down before bad weather strikes. As winter approaches, you'll even direct the falling snow, transforming the map to a wintry landscape. All the while, you'll be strengthening your bonds of friendship to earn powerful bonuses.
Gameplay details: Players gain points by foraging for and stashing away food, playing friendship cards, and hunkering down before weather events. Using an action-point allowance system, players move their pawns around the board, forage, build shelters, and manage their hand of Friendship Cards, which provide mini-objectives to pursue. At the end of each turn, players roll Snow Dice to determine how many snow tiles to place onto the board around your animal. Placing a snow tile renders that space impassable, so players must be strategic with their placements. Gameplay includes a press-your-luck mechanic involving predicting when certain seasonal events will strike. Game is turn-based, but animals may play certain abilities on each others' turns, keeping everyone engaged no matter whose turn it is. Placing the last snow tile triggers the final round, after which all scoring occurs and the player with the most points is declared the winner of winter!
Replayability: The game has high replayability due to asymmetric animal characters, a modular/evolving board, and multiple proven strategic paths to victory. Further, because Hunker is a highly approachable game with a good mix of easy-to-learn rules and strategic depth, it is an excellent gateway game.