Rats of Wistar

Rats of Wistar is a game that makes me feel a little torn. Visually it reminds me of the Tom & Jerry cartoon, and I associate it with a children's game, but these are not at all what it actually is. This is a serious strategy game. After some reflection, I realise this should be classified as a heavy game. Don't let the art or the theme mislead you, as you might miss something you like. 

In this game you are genetically modified rats. You are all super smart. You have now escaped from the lab and established a colony in the countryside. As the colony grows, you decide it is time to elect a great leader. The most promising candidates will compete in a five-day contest. Whoever manages to grow and develop their family best will be made the great leader of the colony. 

The core mechanism of the game is worker placement. You will collect resources and make tools. You play five rounds, and each round you will send three of your team leaders out to perform actions. In the whole game you will have only 15 turns. The disc at the centre of the board shows 6 different main actions. The board is divided into three regions - forest, underground and house, and each region is associated with two of the main actions. There are six pie-shaped pieces on the disc. They have different numbers of spaces for worker placement. The icons next to these spaces mean additional benefits and actions you gain. The pie pieces move to new positions every round, which means in different rounds the number of spaces for the main actions changes.

To perform an action, you must place your leader on an empty space. However this is not all. You also need to have your rats (i.e. your crew) in the associated region. The number of rats you have determines how effective your leader is in performing the action. If you have two rats in the forest, and your leader collects wood, he collects two pieces of wood. If you have two rats in the house, and your leader explores the house, he performs two exploration actions. So you not only have to compete for worker placement spaces, you also need to have positioned your rats appropriately. There are some supplementary actions and also a resource type which let you move your rats about. 

One more thing you can send your leader out to do is to simply fight for turn order in the next round. This may seem weak, but it can be crucial if in the next round there is one important space you must win. When you fight for turn order, you also collect one potion. A potion is like a joker action. There are several things you can do with it, but just once. Flexible, but not very strong. Still, sometimes that flexibility can be very handy.

The player board

There are lots of things you can do in this game. Your player board starts with many bedrooms not yet excavated and beds not yet built. The two basic resources in the game are iron and wood. You gather iron so that you can dig holes and create rooms. You gather wood to build beds. Whenever you build a bed, you gain one rat. So this is like Agricola. When you can afford to have a kid (bedroom and bed ready), you have one. More rats means you can get more things done, or you can worry less about moving rats around because you have them everywhere. 

One of the main actions is drawing invention cards. These are tools with various powers, and many will be helpful. Some offer additional scoring abilities at game end. The tools themselves are often worth points too. When you draw a card, it doesn't immediately come into effect. You still need another action to play it, and you need to pay resources. 

Invention cards

Some inventions when played increase your skills - those pentagonal icons. These are things like strength, agility and intelligence. Some are needed to complete missions or objectives. Some are prerequisites for playing advanced inventions. 

Another important action is to explore the house. Initially all the doors are closed. It takes an explore action to open a door, and once it is open, everyone can pass through. The player who opens the door gets a small reward. There are closed doors between rooms too, and they work the same way. There are two types of items in the house - mission cards and guest mice. If you want to invite a guest, you must first have an empty room (no bed is okay). The guest comes to live with you and gives you some benefit. These mice might not be genetically modified, but they do give you nice perks. If you flip over a mission card, you gain a small reward, and after that all three missions on the card are made available to everyone. It's first come first served. 

To complete a mission, you must have your explorer rat in the same room as the mission card. You must fulfil the conditions specified or you must be willing to spend the resources required. Each mission can only be completed by one player. When you complete a mission, you take a cube from your player board to mark it as completed. Depending on where you take that cube from, you unlock an ability or receive some bonus.

These are heroes and they are not easy to recruit. 

I had one invention which let me score points whenever I took wood (the second one). I had another which let me score an extra point whenever I scored points (the fourth one). This was a great combo!

These are the mission cards. Those missions marked with cubes have been completed. 

There is a valuable piece of cheese in the deepest corner of the basement. 

This is a complex Eurogame. There is a lot you can do, but so little time. The many aspects of the game are interlinked. There are many opportunities to create synergies. Different things that you do can help build towards the same goal. For example when you complete a mission and get to remove a cube from your player board. You can choose the one which reduces your bed cost from 2 to 1 wood. This is half price! Building beds not only lets you have more rats, the beds themselves are worth points. The more beds you make, the higher their point values. Digging rooms works the same way. Sometimes you do it for the points, not for the rooms themselves. 

Many of the inventions offer strong powers. They will steer your strategy. Utilising the inventions well lets you do things more efficiently. At the start of the game, three objectives are randomly set up. These are quite difficult to achieve, but the rewards are attractive. They give you long-term goals to work towards, if you choose to attempt them. 

I have played the game twice. Playing Rats of Wistar feels a little weird. The first impression I get is this is a light and humourous game. However, upon playing the game I realise this is a tight and challenging game which requires much thought. I would be more comfortable with the game if the artwork were more serious, because this is a serious game. The cute art style creates a dissonance for me. The game can be brutal at times. In one particular round I was the start player, and there was only one spot for taking wood. I had lots of wood and I didn't really need more. However I noticed that Han and Jon were both low on wood. I took the wood space just to deny them. Yes, that was mean. If they were desperate for wood, I would be setting them back one full round, which is one fifth of the game! That is painful. 

Rats of Wistar is a heavy Eurogame. If you are a fan of Simone Luciani (note this is a co-designed game with Danilo Sabia), don't assume he's switching style to a lighter and more relaxing game. This is very much in his usual style, a game with strategic depth.