Wandering Towers

Wandering Towers is a family game from the magnificent duo Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling. This is a light strategy game. I would call it a race game, and it is quite an unconventional one. I played this game online, and I think it is important that I show what the physical version looks like, so I'm going to borrow a photo from BoardGameGeek. 

Photo courtesy of www.boardgamegeek.com

Every player has a team of wizards, and also a set of bottles. To win the game, you need to have filled all your bottles with magic potion, and you need to get all your wizards to the castle keep. You have a hand of three cards, and you must play a card on your turn. Some cards let you move a wizard, some let you move a tower, and some let you choose either one. Normally the cards specify exactly how many steps the wizard or tower must move. You always move clockwise. Some cards make you roll a die to determine how many steps you'll move. If you choose to play such a card, you roll the die before deciding which piece you want to move. 

This card lets you move a tower 4 steps or one of your wizards 2 steps. 

When you move a tower, it may stop on top of another, combining to become a taller tower. Whenever you move a tower with multiple levels, you can move the whole stack, or only some of the highest pieces. If you only move some of the pieces, you will break that tower into two smaller towers. When a tower moves, all wizards on it (and in it) move with it. This is an efficient way to move multiple wizards. If your opponents have wizards on or in that tower, naturally they will move together. Towers are mass transportation, but when a wizard needs to get to the keep, he must walk the final leg himself. You can't use a tower to carry a wizard to the keep. No parking on top of the keep. 

Let's talk about the other objective - filling bottles with magic potion. To do this, you have to trap wizards. When you stack a tower on another which has wizards on top, you will trap those wizards. By doing so, you fill one bottle. You can even trap your own wizards, but that's usually not a good idea. Filling bottles is not only a winning condition. Filled bottles have another use. You can spend them to cast spells. Spells available in each game is randomly determined at the start of the game. Some spells let you move a wizard or a tower. On your turn you can cast one spell at any time, as long as you have the required number of filled bottles. 

One important twist in the game is that you have moving goal posts! Your destination, i.e. the keep, moves! Whenever a wizard reaches the keep, the keep moves to the next designated location. This changes the playing field significantly. The keep may have moved further away from many wizards, but it may also overtake some, and these lagging wizards will find themselves suddenly close to the finish line. The keep has designated stops, and this is information you can use when you plan your strategy. 

When moving, the keep may stop on top of a tower. If anyone moves that tower, the keep moves along with it. How's that for moving goal post?!

From how I describe the game, it may sound complex and chaotic, but in play, it runs smoothly and you don't have much down time. You only have three cards in hand, so it doesn't take long to decide what you want to do. Even considering the spells you might use, this game won't give you analysis paralysis. There is some luck. Your possible actions are subject to those three cards you have. There may be things you want to do, but without the right movement cards, you won't be able to do them. I was pretty lucky in the game I played. I often had a card which would let me trap Han's wizards. I filled my bottles quickly. He was not as lucky and wasn't able to trap my wizards as often. When wizards are trapped, you are not allowed to check the towers to see where they are. You have to remember where they are. This game has a memory element. 

One aspect which has some dependency on luck is landing precisely at the keep. When moving, you must follow the number of steps specified by the card you play, no more and no less. You don't want to overshoot, and you don't want to fall short. This is where spells can come in handy. Sometimes by combining a spell and your movement, you can get your wizard to land precisely on the keep. If you have multiple wizards near the keep, you should try to spread them out, so that there is a higher chance you will draw a card that will get one of them to the keep. Good tactics help to mitigate luck. 

One clever thing about the game is in the early game when you have more wizards, you have more options and it is easier to find something productive to do. If you do well and have more wizards reach the keep, you will have fewer remaining in play, and your options shrink. The trailing players will have more options. This is a natural balancing mechanism. 

This feels like a family or casual type game. I used to be mostly a heavy gamer, so my instinct still tells me this is not my type of game. However, I find this much more creative and refreshing than many heavy Eurogames which are mostly about resource conversion and point scoring. Now that I have learned more about game design and game publishing, I am able to better appreciate the genius in Wandering Towers. This is a gateway game which will attract new boardgamers. It showcases how innovative modern boardgames can be.