Create your own forest and make sure your critters and deers are well-prepared to endure the cold winter months!
1-6 players, ages 8+
Playing time: 15-20 minutes
Design & artwork: Joel Bodkin
Publisher: Featherstone Games
Now live on Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/228767892/winter-haven-woods
Winterhaven Woods is played over the course of 3 rounds, each consisting of these 4 phases:
1- Draft: each player receives 7 cards, picks one and passes the others to the player on their left. This repeats until every player has 7 cards face down in their Meadow.
2- Plant & Populate: Arrange trees so they become woods, and place animals in those woods. Players can have a maximum of 3 woods, and a wood consists of at least 3 trees. In each wood only 1 species can live, with possibly an additional rabbit. Deer may only populate in pairs. Each wood cannot have more animals than there are trees, but any number of animals may be left in the meadow to be placed in a future round.
3- Steal: players who drafted Steal Cards can now use those to steal animals left in other players’ Meadows, or even steal a tree from a wood. At the end of the game, players receive penalty points for Steal Cards played.
4- Hunt: Predators can eat animals left exposed in any Meadow, each card acquired this way is worth an additional point when the predator is resting at the end of the game.
Finally, players total their points earned from their animals, bonuses and penalties, and the player with the most points is the winner!
Winterhaven Woods is a fast paced and straightforward family game. I have to admit, after playing our first round, I was really surprised by how smooth the gameplay is. The drafting phase is very quick and gives you a goal to work towards, making you already know what to do in the following phases so there’s almost no downtime!
A lot of respect for designer Joel who also did the artwork, you really feel this game is made with much love and attention to detail, and the art fits this game like no other ever could, both feel very welcoming and relaxing.
If you’re looking for a game to play with friends and family giving you a fun and pleasant experience, make sure to check out Winterhaven Woods!
***We played Winterhaven Woods with a prototype copy of the game, so please note the final version may differ from what you see in the photos***
Tabletopping 