Evermore have they walked the world of Iwari. Evermore have they embodied its spirit and shaped its lands. They are stewards of the earth. Five Titans that make the cosmos breath. On Iwari, there are no teeming masses, no continent-wide civilizations. Humanity is in its infancy, living in scattered tribes in forest, tundra, and desert.
Now we have left our ancestral homelands to explore the vast uncharted regions, encountering other fellow tribes and exchanging knowledge, culture and wisdom. In our journey, we all live in harmony with the Titans, and though distant to us, they decide our fate. And yet only we don't know if they created us, or we created them.
Iwari is an abstract-like Eurogame in which players represent different tribes looking for their identity by traveling around far lands and expanding their settlements into five different regions on the board. In the game, players use cards for two different actions:
1) Place tents and expand their settlements into five different regions on the board in a majority game that scores on each territory.
2) Construct nature totems to bond with the Titans by placing them on regions and score points based on the totem majorities in adjacent territories.
During the game, players can complete missions that grant small perks and score points by having the majority of tents in each territory after the end of the first card cycle. At game end, the majority of tents will be scored again, along with the majorities of nature totems in two adjacent regions and settlements that players have created (i.e., four or more tents in an uninterrupted sequence along one of the roads on the board).
Iwari reimagines the award-winning game Web of Power by Michael Schacht by adding new layers of strategy, tribe player boards, different maps with their own set of rules, modules that can be added to the game, and unique co-operative and solo modes.
- beautiful production
- accessible worker-placement with evolving board state
- some cards/cards slots may feel clunky if not optimized by players
- storybook-like, almost ethereal vibes
- mythic/ethereal world with a focus on tokens and cards
- cards and tokens with evolving placement options
- Patchwork
- Cascadia
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card fulfillment and set collection — cards give bonuses when fully staffed; replacements shift value.
- worker placement — place workers to collect tokens and activate card effects.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's the magic of editing
- this is the game of the month that we love the most, the most that we play
- Harmony is an easy buy, for yeah it's a good place price point and an excellent production
- Patchwork with bees, or Flower Fields, is absolutely lovely
- we love all of the reward stuff, we love all of that
- we're building together with you guys
- Different Strokes for Different Folks
- Ironwood was our November 2024 game of the month
References (from this video)
- dynamic and evolving battlefield
- clear, transparent scoring rules that reward smart timing
- engaging, tactile decision-making with constant opportunities
- thematic symbols (totems) may collide with cultural sensitivity in some contexts
- potentially tournament-like for casual players
- territory control with discrete pieces (tents, totems, etc.)
- territorial warfare on a stylized map with colored regions
- abstract strategic battle with thematic flavor
- Catan
- Castles of Tuscany
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card-driven placement — use colored cards to place tents or totems across territories
- Compound Scoring — progress through stages affecting scoring rules and strategy
- multi-stage scoring progression — progress through stages affecting scoring rules and strategy
- territory scoring via majority — score by owning the most tents or totems in adjacent regions
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Gandalf once said all we have to decide is what to do with the board games given to us
- it's time to say goodbye to katan
- iwari is meaner than a polar bear on a hunger strike
- Anno 1800 is a game full of texture
References (from this video)
- surprisingly clever for a 30-minute worker placement
- satisfying depth in a compact package
- engaging interaction with forced spiteful actions balanced by personal goals
- looks rather generic and abstract; might not appeal to theme-first players
- some players may find the depth reveals slow to emerge
- abstracted, elegant city-building-esque workflow
- Worker placement with resource collection and card-driven actions
- Merlin
- Sky Towers
- Manhattan
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- area majority — endgame scoring includes regional presence, color majority, and completed cards
- endgame_majority_and_color_control — endgame scoring includes regional presence, color majority, and completed cards
- inbuilt_spots_and_dummy_workers — dummy workers provide flexible scoring and resource conversion, tied to color-based actions
- multi-resource_card_system — cards serve as both resource sources and scoring actions, with in-card bonuses
- worker placement — you place workers to populate action cards and complete matching resources
- worker_placement_with_card_population — you place workers to populate action cards and complete matching resources
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this is a hand management card game where you are trying to create runs of these kind of polar animals
- this is the polar opposite of a game like Nassau
- one of the most elegant games that I've played this year
- the forward momentum in this game is terrific
- I love the idea of at the end of the round essentially you are going to be trying to cash in these pirate cards