Wild Serengeti
⭐9,5/10
👥 1-4 spelers
🕗 90 minuten
👨👩👧👦10+
Gameplay
In Wild Serengeti you are a photographer in Africa and you are going to try to photograph as many special sets of animals as possible. By having the right combination on the game board at the right time, you complete assignments and score points. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins the game.
The game is played over six rounds in which players take as many actions as they want/can. There are several actions you can choose from. For example, you can place different animals on the board, move or exchange animals. You will do this to get the correct combination of animals on the savanna (the double-sided game board). You need this again to fulfill your scene cards (assignments), with which you will score your points.
When each player has finished the next round is started. This starts with collecting income, which you need to perform actions, each player takes new scene cards, the general scene cards are refreshed and any ‘end-of-round’ actions are handled.
This could be a migration after rounds 4, 5 and 6 (animals are removed from the board) or a ceremony, after rounds 4 and 6, where you score points for the number of animals of a species you have photographed.
If you master the basic game you can expand it with specialists who will help you as a player. This gives each player a special ability that you can use throughout the game.
Review
It’s not to be missed, and the most eye-catching thing about this game: it really looks awesome. The cover, the beautiful rock and first player token, not to mention the (many!) animeeples that look super nice. It is a real treat for the eyes.
Then the game, we are very excited about Wild. It is very well put together and surprised us in its complexity and difficulty. It seems like a lot of rules. There are many components and different things to choose from. However, when you start playing, the pieces quickly fall into place and the game plays smoothly and logically. The choices are also clear.
But… it’s a pretty complex game. You should think carefully about which step is best for you. And because you have 1 central game board, the actions of other players influence your plans. This way you can carefully work on a plan that completely turns the player upside down for you. This can be very frustrating (and therefore sometimes fun 😉).
What we do experience as a disadvantage in this game, especially with multiple players, is that you can only determine what you are going to do when it is your turn. The result is that turns take quite a long time and you have a lot of waiting time between turns. This makes the game long.
The replayability of the game is very high. There are a lot of scene cards so that the course of the game and your tactics are different every game. The migration and ceremony cards also change per game.
If you need even more variety, you can add specialist cards, this will give the game a more asymmetrical character and bring an extra dimension to the game
Something for you?
If you’re looking for a more complex, tactical game with a great theme, this is definitely one that appeals to you and that will be on the table regularly.
If you are sensitive to “analysis paralysis” from the many choices you can make, this may not be quite your game.
