Over the Thanksgiving break I dropped in to a board game cafe in Asheville called Well Played. They have a suitably impressive array of games available to while away an afternoon or 400.
We ended up selecting a game called The Wolves, partly because it satisfied our need for a 5 player game, but mostly because it looked like a pretty and interestingly themed game. There is a bit of setup involved, creating a randomized board, allocating all the fiddly bits, and going over the various actions available on your turn. But once we were off and running it turned out to be pretty east to play.
Playing and playing well are not necessarily the same thing, so I think we all learned some strategy lessons we would take into consideration on a second play. Mostly there’s a balance between expanding your pack with more wolves vs increasing your pack’s abilities by creating dens on the map.
I chose to focus almost exclusively on the former, and while I think it was an ok tactic, a couple of dens would have let me move my mass of troops around more effectively in the mid-game. I was also behind on hunting because I didn’t pay attention to splitting my packs well when they’d amassed 3-plus wolves.
Overall, a good game that’s new and fun, which I wouldn’t mind playing again to try and better balance my focus on other mechanics.