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Wispwood is one of those games that looks gentle at first glance, with these glowing little forest spirits drifting around, but once you start playing you realise it quietly asks more of you than you expected. The theme is all about wisps wandering through a dark woodland, and over three rounds you try to build your own little patch of forest by placing tiles in a grid that grows bigger every round.
The goals that score points stay the same for the entire game, so nothing jumps out and surprises you later, but the shape of your forest keeps shifting as old trees disappear and new shapes get forced in. It has this calm look to it, yet the puzzle gets tighter every round, and I think that contrast is the thing that pulls you in.
👥 1-4 players, ages 10+
⌛ Playing time: 45 minutes
📝 Designer: Reed Ambrose
🎨 Artwork: Štěpán Drašťák
🏢 Publisher: Czech Games Edition (review copy provided)
Gameplay overview
Everyone starts with a cat tile sitting on top of a tree tile, which immediately stops being a tree. That one tile is your whole forest at the start, and you are free to grow in any direction as long as everything fits inside some 4×4 space in round one. In round two that expands to 5×5, and in round three to 6×6, but you never pin down the exact borders. You just grow within what fits.
Most of your turns will be spent taking a wisp from the pond in the middle of the table. Each wisp sits between two offered shapes. You pick the wisp, take the required tree tiles to form one of the two shapes, rotate or mirror it if you want to, and place the whole thing in your forest next to something that is already there. That is the main flow of the game.
Wisps never refill automatically. The pond can slowly dry up as people take things, which means you sometimes get stuck with a bunch of tiles you really do not want. New wisps only appear at the start of a turn if the pond is empty or if everything in it happens to be the same type. It means you sometimes have to work with what’s there, whether you like it or not.
If nothing fits, or you simply do not like what is out there, you can do a tree turn instead. During a tree turn you must take at least one tree tile and place up to three. It is mainly a way to fill gaps that the shapes simply cannot reach, and it also refreshes your cat.
The cat is basically your one special option. When it is ready you can either replace all wisps in the pond before picking one or pick any of the eight shapes after you choose a wisp. Once you use it, it hides, and it only becomes ready again during a tree turn.
A round ends when one player fills all spaces in their grid. Everyone else takes the same number of turns and then you score based on the five shared goals. You can move your cat to any tree before the next round starts, then all trees except the one under your cat go back to the supply. Wisps stay put. After three rounds the highest total wins.
Artwork, components and visual design
The game looks lovely on the table. Everything is dark greens and blues, with the wisps glowing in different colours on the other side of the tiles. The contrast is strong enough that even when your forest becomes busy, you can still read everything at a glance.
Jack wisps have this fiery pumpkin look, hearts glow in pink-red tones, orbs are bright blue circles and witches have this eerie green vibe. The designs are clear and easy to spot while playing. Not every tile game manages that. There is also UV reactive ink that lights up under a UV lamp. It is not necessary for play, but if you play in the evening it does add something special. A small gimmick, but a nice one.
The cats are drawn with a lot of character and stand out well in the forest. The pond artwork in the middle of the table is colourful without being too loud, and the shapes printed around it are readable and do not feel pasted on. Goal cards also match the overall style and use simple diagrams that make scoring quite clear once you have played a round.
It is all very consistent. Nothing feels overproduced, and nothing feels cheap either.
Our experience
Wispwood was easy to teach and easy to start. Even with people who don’t play many board games, it didn’t take long before turns started flowing. Once you understand how shapes work and why the cat matters, the rest mostly clicks.
At the same time, it doesn’t play itself. You’re constantly solving a spatial puzzle, and mistakes tend to show up later, not immediately. Sometimes you only realise in round three that “oh, that’s why this isn’t working anymore”. That can be satisfying, but it can also feel a bit punishing if you’re newer.
The three-round structure really defines the experience. Early on, everything feels open and flexible. By the final round, space is tight and options get awkward. You’re often working around wisps you placed much earlier, wishing you’d rotated a shape differently twenty minutes ago. Let’s face it, that’s not for everyone.
Interaction stayed pretty low in all our plays. You notice when someone takes a wisp you wanted, but most of the time you’re focused on your own grid. At lower player counts it’s easier to track what others might be aiming for. With more players, the pond becomes harder to read and you mostly react to what’s left.
Tree turns ended up being more important than they seem at first. They’re not exciting, but they fix problems, refresh the cat, and give you some breathing room. Toward the end of rounds, we used them a lot just to avoid forcing a bad placement.
Our thoughts
Wispwood offers a puzzle that stays friendly even as it tightens. It’s easy to get into, but it still asks you to think ahead and live with your decisions. It works well as a family game, but there’s enough going on for people who enjoy planning and optimisation.
Replayability mainly comes from the scoring goals. Different combinations push you in different directions, and that does change how you approach the puzzle. Still, if you don’t enjoy this style of game to begin with, new goals won’t suddenly win you over.
The witches are probably the most divisive part. Their placement rules are tighter and can feel annoying, especially for casual players. They offer good scoring, but you have to work for it, and not everyone will enjoy that extra constraint.
The game stays very low-conflict throughout. If you’re looking for interaction, tension between players, or moments where you really mess with each other, this isn’t it. It’s mostly about quietly building something efficient in your own space.
To be fair, that’s exactly why it will work for a lot of people. If you like thoughtful tile placement, growing constraints, and a game that gently squeezes you over time rather than punching you in the face, Wispwood does that well. It’s not flashy in how it plays, but it’s well considered, and it respects the time you spend with it.
We enjoyed our plays, even when the game was a bit unforgiving. It’s not something we’d pull out for high-energy nights, but it’s a nice fit for relaxed sessions where you want to think, build, and occasionally mutter at a glowing ghost that really shouldn’t be there.
📝 We received a copy of Wispwood from Czech Games Edition.
