Wildscape Review - Build The Perfect Ecosystem....Predators, Primates & All!
Transcript
Hey, I'm Alex Radical from Board Game Co. and today I'm reviewing Wildscape from Karma Games. Wildscape is a one to four player ecosystem building game. Players are attempting to build the perfect ecosystem using this rondell to take their actions in order to build up the best combination of predators, primates, herbivvers, and snakes. All while trying to score as many points as possible through those and these various uh fauna cards. I think they're called fauna cards. I could be mistaken. Anyways, before we dive into this, this channel is sponsored by I'll play. More about them at the end of the video. In Wildscape, you're going to be taking actions on a randell. I'll try to give you some general overviews of how things are going. This will not be a full rules deep dive, though. But generally speaking, you're going to be taking actions on this central rondelle. You're going to take a specific area. Let's say I take this spot over here. Actually, let's say I take this spot over here. I'm going to take this spot over here, which has two energy of it. So, I'm going to use those two energy to take the actions in this zone. So, for me, I'm going to take this action over here, which is going to be taking a fauna card that takes two energy. So, I'm going to spend that two energy, take this tile.
I'm going to place this tile down onto my personal board. Maybe I'll put it down over here. This feels like a good spot for it on this corner over there. And that's going to be slowly creating a structure of tiles and different terrain types. But then I'm also going to take that that fauna card from this display. And maybe because I'm building towards that forest area, I'll also take this card over here. That's going to be the card that goes into my hand. Keeping in mind players will start with cards as well. That would be a a general turn. I'll take that energy over there and I'll monala style it around the rondell. So, I'm going to place it over here, and then I'll place the second one over here, which makes those actions have more energy for whoever takes the next action. The general turn structure is you take a turn by taking a single slice of the rondelle. You spend the energy in that slice in order to take the actions that are on that specific wheel area. In this case, I had a choice of these two actions over here. Spending the requisite energy to take those actions.
You can take actions multiple times if you have enough energy. As stacks build up on the round, you will have enough energy. Plus, players can spend their biomass energy that they start with, as well as can gain through various actions in order to take stronger actions than the default energy around the Rondell allows. Take the Rondell action, uh, spend the energy, take the tile there. That's basically a turn. Now, there's a lot of ifs, ends, buts, exceptions, all those various things to go over. The first thing to note is that if you have primate cards, primate cards are fun cards over here. You can play a primate card instead of taking the tile from the Rondell section. So, over here where I took a tile, instead, let's go ahead and place a new tile. When it's the next turn for me, I can go ahead and take this action. For example, spending three energy to do a bunch of things. Let's do that in a second. But instead of taking the tile, I will play this primate card over here. I'm going to take a primate token from the display. And I'm going to place that down onto my own personal board over here matching the specific habitat type. So, this wants to be on forest. I'll place this over here. This will score me points per forest tiles.
In fact, maybe I'll place it over here. Uh, if I can build up my terrain around this edge over here, this primate is going to be worth a point for each forest tile that is connected to it, which unless I get really clever, is going to be up to maybe one, two. Actually, only two. Where's it put over here? One, two. Nope, it looks like two. I'm not I'm not doing great as far as this primate scoring. Either way, that's how they go out. That's basically how primates work. Primates are going to give you the reward on the card, and they're also going to score you points based on matching habitats around the primate. You also cannot have two primates touching each other. Basically, I can place a primate one away, but I cannot place one down over here. These spots would be directly adjacent to that primate. That is how primates work. How do predators work? Predators want you to have various herbivores on or herbivores or snakes on the tile. So, let's go ahead and actually talk about herbivores first. Let's draft a few more tiles.
Let's pretend that my next action I take this action over here on the tile. I'm going to spend the one energy it has. Let's actually I spent that energy there. Those went around the Rondell. So, I have two energy over here. And I'm going to go ahead and take this particular tile. I'm going to place it down onto my display. So, I'm going to put it down over here, which creates a nice section of one, two, three, four. And then, as a free action, because I've done that, I can now take from the display, I can take a four herbivore of that matching terrain type. So, I'm going to take the uh greater cane rat over here, and I'm going to place it down there because it requires a size four, which I have 1, two, three, and four. And that requires a size four. That is a free action taking anything from this way over here. You just have to have the right amount of terrain in your area in order to support that herbivore. Then from there, going back to the rondelle over here, I still have that two energy to spend. So, I'm going to go ahead and spend that two energy in order to go ahead and take a uh a predator card. I'll go ahead and grab this predator card, the African clawless otter. We'll talk about how to play it later, but for right now, I'm going to take it. And then in my turn, the cards are going to slide down. New cards will come out. Back to this display over here. I also want to take that action, but there's no more energy to spend. So, I'll go ahead and spend my two biomass energy and I'll take that and I'll go ahead and flip. That specific action is to flip one of your existing animals to its other side, which increases its points and its size for predators, for scoring, for a variety of different things. It still only requires a size four terrain, but this has been rehomed and now it's going to be worth more points, as well as other effects that benefit from larger sized animals. So, there you have it. There's another turn.
I'll spread the energy around the rondelle. I'll put out a new token and it's the next player's turn. So, now you've seen a few things. You've seen how primates go into play. You've seen how herbivvers come out onto your board. And now we can talk about predators. Predators require you to have certain herbivores in play in order to play a predator. It is a free action to play it. But basically with this predator over here, taking a look, this predator wants to have a size seven animal. This is only size five. And a size seven force animal, of which I have none. If I did have those, let's go ahead and for the sake of this example, let's pretend that I had some of those in play. Uh keeping in mind that I'd need the actual legal structures to place this out. But if I did have those in play, let's pretend this is over here instead. We'll put the other one back and let's grab a few more tiles to help support my ecosystem. So, this is actually more legal looking. Uh, if we place this over here, let's go ahead and put one of these out in play because that's how that works over there. Uh, we'll get a forest tile in here. We'll grab another forest over there. That's going to be a size 1 2 3 four forest. Let's get to five over here. And if we take the uh the five, this five over here, a rehomed five, meaning if we flip this over, that will be enough to fit in that zone. So basically, it only requires a size five and then it rehomed, it flips to a size seven. The same is true for this one over here. Once we have this, this would all be a legal kind of situation on my board. Now that I have that, I can go ahead as a free action. I can play the African clawless otter. This requires having those animals in play. Oh, I need to flip this first because he's a size seven over there. I have those animals in play and now I can go ahead and place this out by taking a predator token over
here and placing it onto one of those two. Even though it requires both, I'm only actually going to cover one of them, which means they can be used for other various predator scorings. That's going to allow me to take one of these predator tokens in the display while also being worth points at the end of the game. So, for example, maybe I'll take this one, which allows me to discard a card in order to get two of the other cards. So, I can go ahead and discard any one card and take a predator and a primate card into my hand. These predator tokens are incredibly helpful. You get them by playing predator cards. Additionally, predators are worth points at the end of the game for the larger size of the animal that they are eating. So, now we understand primates, we understand predators, we understand herbivores. How do you get snakes? Snakes are going to come from the action rondelle. There are various zones. For example, over here, that's a zone that allows you to pay three energy to take any two snakes, place them into areas on your habitat that can support them. For example, right now, I could take this one over here and place it in that size one area, and this one and place it in another size one area. I now have a bunch of snakes on my board, which will be worth their point value at the end of the game, but also can be used for a variety of other effects, including predators or things like that, and they just give you extra points, but they do count against the sizing of that area.
So even if I were to expand this, I'm already consuming size one. That's the core engine of the game. You are basically taking actions on a rondelle. You are choosing between the various action spots in terms of what has the most energy versus what suits your goals the most. You're doing so in order to gather tiles to build out a better giant habitat, which you can do more things. You're placing herbivores down into the habitat in order to score their point values as well as so you can then play predator cards in order to take the variety of bonuses and be worth endgame points for each of herbivore that they are sitting on and eating. You're also going to place out primates which will give you onetime abilities as well as points within the game for surrounding matching habitats. And then you're trying to place out a whole bunch of other things in order to get points from all the other stuff. There's going to be river tiles. River tiles do require a source from an active water source. for example, your mountains over there.
We'll give those. And they are worth the printed points on them as well, while also being a requirement for a variety of things, including some uh predators over here. This one needs a size six next to two different rivers in order to go ahead and eat that one. You're also going to want various oasises because the desert animals need a source of water. They're marked over here. They need a source of water. So, you'll want to get those into play in order that you can host them uh in that those areas. You're also going to be trying to get fauna cards. Fun cards are going to give you endgame points for meeting certain objectives. For example, this one wants to have a same size of value of green animals onto your display. So, if you got the same size, the same type of green forest animals into your area. If I got two, it would be three points. If I got three, it would be seven points. Or I could just do a bunch of snakes, which are a little easier. But snakes don't come free. They require paid action versus herbivores are free. You just have to have built up the ecosystem in order to support it along the way.
The only other thing that I think is really important, I guess, let's talk about two things that worth mentioning before we dive into the review. There's going to be expert cards. Expert cards are going to be these cards you can get from the display over here. Once you've reached a certain threshold of value, for example, if I have six river, which right now I only have two, but if I had six river, I can go ahead and move this up. The next person requires seven, and I can take an expert card that would give me an a one-time use or endgame or in-game ability that would in some way help out what I'm doing. Similarly with the animal sizes over here, looking at my display, I already have a size seven and a size seven, which means technically I would be eligible for these two experts because I have that much worth of animals when I sum them all together. I would bump those up. The next person would have to get more in order to go ahead and get those. Those experts will give you a variety of abilities. Again, sometimes they're one use. Take a terrain tile, add it to your display. Other times they're ongoing things. Whenever you take an action on the rondelle adjacent to where the last person went, get an extra energy to spend. There's a variety of effects and they all give you different ways to improve your own tableau. And then lastly, there's board the the the bird scoring. I was going to say board.
There's the bird scoring. Bird scoring happens uh whenever these token stacks over here deplete as you play through the game. And the bird scoring gives you things you're trying to v for against your neighbor. So, for example, in a three-player game, I'd have two over here and two over here. And I'd be working with the neighbors competing against those cards. The other person's over there would be competing with each other. but they're going to give you things like have the largest of a certain animal type, have the most river tiles, the most mountain ranges, and in-game, you'll get extra biomass energy for accomplishing them, and endame you would get points for accomplishing those. When you get to the end of the game, you're going to score points for your fa cards, looking at those goals over there. You're going to score points for the predators that are eating various animals, uh the primates based on how those work, the total sum value of your rivers, your snakes, and your uh herbivores in order to go ahead and get your total score. That is how you play Wildscape by Karma Games, which means it's time to dive into my review of what I like, dislike, and can see others not liking. As far as what I like in the game, first of all, there's an excellent Rondell system at play. This Rondell both gives you a ton of actions to consider, but then having the energy stack up on various zones, making them more compelling, constantly has players torn between choosing what is right for their action that you're trying to do.
Right now, you really need that fauna card. That fa card is going to score you 12 points if you can get it. But right now there's only one energy on the fontile and you don't want to spend your own bio energy. So like do you take that action or do you go for the action that has five energy, but it's not the action you want. But maybe you could pivot your strategy around extra water in your terrain or extra tiles in your terrain or expanding your terrain because that's where more more energy is for you to spend. So that tension between choosing what helps your particular goals and strategy versus adapting to what the rondelle is making more advantageous is a constant balance in the game. The point scoring has so much management as far as different ways you're trying to score points. Again, your little ecosystem over here, everything's going to score. Getting a bunch of herbivores out is incredibly important, especially because these later herbivores, there's only a few of them. Flipping these guys over here gives you from 8 to 12 points, a four point bump just for flipping them. But there's only two and you have to work your way towards building that ecosystem. But then you go ahead and do that and plop a predator on top of that.
That is a chunk of points. 12 points for the tile. I think it's four points for the Predator as well. That's a 16 point plus the bump you got from the Predator action. There's so much chaining as far as both the in-game engine and abilities. Don't get me started on the experts, by the way. The experts are so much fun. The game does recommend starting off, try to go for a few experts. Get those up sooner rather than later because that'll give you an accelerating effect either through the one-time abilities or through the ongoing bonuses you get out of them. And each expert lane, and it is printed on the player right over here, each expert lane does have a specific uh kind of vein of different things that they're going to do for you. And so you can plan your strategy around there. So, the experts give you an in-game engine. The endgame gives you so many different points to balance from a ton of different uh sources in the game and trying to balance all of that around the Rondell system combined with the card variety. There's giant decks of cards for each of the various decks of cards that you have, giving you lots of different ways to try to build your primate, predator, fauna, and herbivore engine as you play through Wildscapes.
As far is it wildcapes or wildcape? Wildcape. There's no s there. As far as things I don't like in the game, the visuals on the table can definitely be hard to follow. And I mean that both in general, the way the even just the intuitiveness around the primates or the herbivvers, the way they take up space or don't really take up space against each other, but also like having the tokens as well as uh you know printed tiles, a combination of of of meeples sort of along with those tiles combined with just tracking the total space. One of the things that happens in this game as you play is you put something down in a space that holds seven and then you break you done that, but then you expand the space outwards and now it can hold nine. And yes, the game actually does give you tracking dice to go ahead. We have tracking dice over here that you can put those little pips into your display in order to say, "Hey, my forest has two extra room in it, despite the fact that it looks larger than a size two cuz it's a size nine, but I have a size seven there. So, there's two extra pips." I don't find that tracking system to be helpful because you have to constantly remember to count up the dice as you add more spaces, which means inevitably players end up recounting even when you use the dice to track things. So, I do find that is a little bit fiddly in order to manage. Overall, I'd say a bigger complaint for me is going to be the iconography. This game has so much iconography on all of the cards from the uh predators, from the primates, from the fauna, from the experts. Everything in this game is chalk full of a ton of iconography. And even after multiple plays, I find myself still having to go back to the rule book for every fourth card or whatnot. Most of them I have locked in at this point, but I find myself constantly checking, well, what does that exact symbology mean again? And some of them are very similar as far as different card patterns or the birds as well. The birds also have this. In fact, there's one
card that I still don't know what it means on the birds as far as how they count something. Whatever. I'm sure I can look it up on BG. It's not about the written rules because I can have that from the rule book. It's more about just the interpretation. Neither here nor there. Point is that I do think this game relies on iconography to an extent that does uh remove some of the accessibility. Your first game is going to have players constantly passing around and checking the rule book. And even subsequent games in, multiple games in, I think it will still be happening more than I think should be happening for your fourth, fifth game or whatever. As far as I can see others not liking, first of all, you can see when someone is charging ahead and it does depend on the game. I've had games where it did feel relatively well balanced. Sometimes you have situations where like you clearly have board presence, but you also have like six fauna cards. So like I don't know what's happening and you have five predators when everyone else has two. So there are often a lot of different sources of points. That said, I have been in some games where it's very clear that that person had the most predators, the most habitats, the most spawn cards, and they're clearly going ahead and likely winning the game and inevitably did. So, it is one of those games that if another player has the engine under wraps a little better, then you can see them charging ahead and that can be a little deflating if you find yourself comparing yourself too much to them. The primates are unintuitive. I kind of touched upon this and what I don't like, but the primates kind of not taking up space in your terrain as well as even the way that Jason works in the counting of points. I find that's an area where you constantly have to explain to people. Yes, there's predators. Predators work within the ecosystem in the herbivores, but primates are an entirely different aspect of it and they kind of are all separate things. and snakes are kind of separate, but they're actually the same as the air reverse. They just go in the general animal category. So, I do find it's a little unintuitive when trying to
explain all of that. The information overload is absolutely there. I love that about this game. I love the fact there's so many different ways to score points and it's up to you to try to figure out your optimal pathway, but that means there's a ton of different things going on. It's actually not a super hard rules teach, but there are a lot of like, you know, actions to learn at the at the get- go. A lot of strategies to understand from again predators, primates, fauna, and all the animals. And since there's so many different things and even small rules exceptions like the fact that your desert animals need an oasis, other animals don't, but your snakes don't need an oasis. And you do need a desert animal. Each desert animal needs its own asis, but own oasis, but they can be in their own areas. There's just a lot of things to understand from small edge case rules, uh, just to the way the everything's going to score and trying to figure out your optimal strategy. It can absolutely be information overload. And then lastly, being stuck with actions on the round. I I like the trade-off between choosing what's right for your strategy and choosing what gives you the most energy, but it can be frustrating when you constantly are forced to choose actions, or not forced, but incentivized to choose actions that aren't feeding into what you do. If you're playing a three-player game and everyone else keeps taking all the actions that give you the likes, you're constantly going to be stuck being like, I guess I abandon my strategy halfway through the game. I like that tension of choosing what makes sense because of your plans versus choosing what makes sense in the now. And inherently, if other players are doing that, other actions will be boosted up. But there is an aspect of frustration if your strategy doesn't seem to be working with what the game is presenting. As far as final thoughts on Wildscape, I have really been enjoying this one. I had a chance to play this for the first time at Dice Star Retreat. Dove into it several times almost right away. And I
will say I am glad I did because I I am coming shot coming in strong on this game. I'm going to be giving it a 4.5 out of five. But I will say if you would have asked me what my rating is after game one, I was definitely leaning into that five out of five camp. I loved my first game. Subsequent plays have made me cool in it a drop. Not a lot. I think one of the bigger things for me is that my first game I did have that criticism of all the symbology, but I thought subsequent games would like be a non-issue. And it has continued to be an issue as I'm constantly referencing rules and passing around the rule book. And it's not just me. It's the fact that unless I'm the person at the table telling everyone what their cards do, players will want that rule book. And so the fact that the rule book continuously is being passed around and referenced and looked at several games deep does take away a little bit from the experience. But overall, I still find it to be an excellent uh savannah ecosystem type game in which you're constantly trying to juggle a variety of different factors in order to figure out what your lane towards the most points is.
Incredibly satisfying experience. If you want other game recommendations, definitely check out Cascadia Alpine Lakes if you want a shorter game that's just as crunchy but a very different kind of experience. Uh but also building up your own little ecosystem as you build higher and higher trying to score multiple uh different scoring criteria. And if you want another animal management game, Ark Nova is a classic for a reason. It's not one of my favorites personally, but it is one that I enjoy and it's definitely worth shouting out because I think if you like that animal management aspect and trying to fit it all in as you build up yourh areas, it definitely has veins of that. I mentioned that Allplay is a channel sponsor. If you check out allplay.com, you can find a variety of games both from Allplay as well as their partner publishers. And if you want a cuter, whimsical game of managing animals in a charming but very different style, check out Oddland from Allplay. In any case, until next time, I'm Alex Radical from Board Game Co. Hope you found this review helpful, and as always, I hope you have a good one.