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September 1939: The commander of the Admiral Graf Spee receives the order to sink as many British freight ships as possible in the South Atlantic. The objective is to intercept the ships crossing the Atlantic and prevent supplies from reaching the UK and other destinations.
The plan seems to work in the first months. Within a few weeks, the Admiral Graf Spee sinks nine freight ships and sends almost 50,000 gross register tons to the seabed. The gigantic loss puts the army command in London Whitehall under pressure. In order to protect their freighters in the best possible way, the Admiralty had no choice but to reinforce the English fleet in the South Atlantic by sending three cruisers in what is known as "The Battle of River Plate".
The Hunt is an asymmetric duel in which one player assumes the leadership of the British Royal Navy, while the other player represents the German Kriegsmarine. Each player has their own deck of cards. In order for the German side to win, it must stay hidden from the British while sinking five cargo ships. The British player must hunt down and fight the Admiral Graf Spee in a final naval battle, in which case the side that ends up with less damage wins.
Will the Royal Navy be able to take advantage of its numerical superiority, or will the Kriegsmarine be the ones who with their cunning and refined strategy manage to overthrow their rival?
—description from the publisher
- Innovative movement system that ties fox, scattering, nests, and path connections together
- Dynamic, interaction-heavy scoring that responds to evolving board state
- Strong visual appeal and thematic cohesion with whimsical art and components
- Good setup ease and accessibility for new players
- Modular board can complicate tracking named end destinations and objective placements
- Actual play time can exceed the advertised 30 minutes, especially with more players
- Objective cards introduce high randomness and hard-to-predict scoring
- Nut management introduces cognitive load and some components feel underutilized
- Array
- Forest
- Whimsical and tactical
- Takanoko
- Ticket to Ride
- Scythe
- Wingspan
- King of Tokyo
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Dice rolling — Roll a die to determine fox movement, which then guides subsequent actions.
- end game bonuses — The game ends when a player places their fourth nest; scoring then resolves based on objectives and path connectivity.
- End-Game Scoring and Trigger — The game ends when a player places their fourth nest; scoring then resolves based on objectives and path connectivity.
- Modular board — The board is composed of modular hex tiles, creating a different layout each game and altering paths to objectives.
- Placement/Placement–Based Actions — Spend nuts to spawn squirrels on a chosen tile; nests are created by accumulating three of a kind and transform on placement.
- Resource management — Nuts are earned and spent to perform actions; nut management affects pacing and options each turn.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this is a prototype we've been sent
- the umbrella of the fascinating movement system in this game
- the end of the game is triggered any time someone puts down their fourth nest
- it's incredibly easy to imagine just this fox rampaging around the forest