Animals & Diplomacy: The Trick to Winning For Northwood!
Visit fiefs ruled by adorable animals to unite them all under a single banner with diplomatic discussions in For Northwood!
If I had more time, I would be more involved in trying out some solo game designs early on in the process. Perhaps the biggest example of this is For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game, which I thought I missed out on… Yet it was recently published, so it was finally my time to experience it! Cute artwork and solo trick-taking sounded just perfect!
Game Overview
Game Name: For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game
Publication Year: 2021
Designer: Wilhelm Su
Artist: Wilhelm Su
Publisher: Side Room Games
Solo Mode: Designed for Solo (Included in the Base Game)
Each of the 8 fiefs must be visited, where a unique ruler engages in a discussion. Different target numbers make for unique challenges, while allies might offer special abilities to help convince the various rulers. It’s all about trick-taking in a very peaceful, adorable setting!
First Play
April 28, 2023
Complexity
2
Latest Play
September 21, 2024
Expansions
0
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
34
Play Time
20 Minutes
High Score
20
Game Area
24" x 18"
Low Score
3
Adorably Compact
One word might be used to describe the aesthetic here: Cute! And that’s often what I’m hoping to find in many of my solo games, so I had to pause just to appreciate it all.
Animals! Not only is the play area pretty compact, but it’s simply peaceful. Everyone is either relaxing or in some sort of cute pose. No conflicts here: It’s all diplomacy!
I started off with the introductory game to learn how to play, for this one isn’t billed as being particularly easy.
Everything looked amazing, though, and I picked up on the rules pretty quickly. Off to visit some fiefs!
Helpful Allies
For this slightly simplified mode, all 4 Jacks serve as the standard allies. Each may be used once during every visit to trigger a different ability. Very helpful!
The Jack of Flowers was probably my most useful friend at these meetings, which added a little bit of humor.
Each fief requires a set number of final points from a round of trick-taking, ranging from 0 to 7. Some are much harder to achieve, which is part of the strategy.
Being able to discard cards helped with some of the lower point requirements… But this wasn’t a walk in the park.
The Greatest Visit
In short, a ruler is either convinced or not: Only a single chance is allowed for each, so knowing how to use a hand in the best way was part of the learning process.
Naturally, I was distracted by the Queen of Claws… Stealthy Elephant! Alright, maybe not, but I was delighted to see an adorable elephant in the mix.
I wasn’t sure how solo trick-taking would work out. Too repetitive? Too obvious? Not as interesting as it could be?
Yeah, I was downright wrong! Every hand presented fun opportunities, and I was completely immersed.
Knowing What to Do
A hand begins with 8 cards. A total of four suits are included, with values from 1 to 8. Nothing too complex!
Yet it comes down to knowing what a hand means. In this case, I would have a pretty good chance of only winning about 2 points… Although it could be even less.
In this way, I wouldn’t want to use this hand to visit a ruler in a fief requiring a lot of trick-taking points.
However, it’s not all cut and dry because the allies all help… And even rulers can offer their abilities a single time, adding on even more possibilities!
When Randomization & Variation Work Well
There are some solo games that promise randomized setup and plenty of variability. The trouble, though, is that gameplay can sometimes change so much that there isn’t any way to really master the strategies. But there is a difference when the core concepts remain virtually untouched and the goal is to adapt to different challenges.
With the full game, each suit uses 3 of 6 possible cards as allies or rulers. These are all random, so Jacks might be rulers while Kings and Queens could become allies! Yet the trick-taking remains the same, only with different abilities to use.
Even further, there is a scenario booklet with a set of structured challenges. This provides a tighter framework to work on different strategies, sort of like the introductory game. So many possibilities! Each mode offers the same set of general rules, though, and the random elements only help to keep the game feeling fresh and new each time.
Blind as a Bat
Not surprisingly, I failed to convince all of the rulers during my first few plays. Most were simply bad choices on my part, yet a little bad luck came into play.
The King of Eyes wanted 7 total points, and I figured it would be too hard… I ended up scoring 9 points for an utter failure. Apparently, I talked over all the squeaking!
It was better to work my way outwards, which was why the fiefs had variable final victory points. Very clever.
For an introductory mode, this did an excellent job of teaching the concepts while keeping some things static.
An Attempt to Match
With all of these animals, it was impossible to keep the Calico Critters away! A bunch of them showed up to act as stand-ins for the Jacks… Not exact, but close enough!
It did appear that these allies offered some very powerful abilities, although it still was far from easy.
The delightful theme made gameplay all that more interesting. Although trick-taking boiled down to playing cards with no flavor, I still enjoyed every moment.
As I was about to find out, there needed to be a solid reason to unite all of the fiefs and rulers. But what was it?
Return of the Tricycle
Of course! All of these diplomatic talks were to unite all of the animals in approving a license for the popcorn tricycle to cross fief lines and do some business. Ha ha!
A few turns to get the popcorn flying all over was all I needed to laugh some more. My little helper stopped by to eye the popcorn containers, most interested in the allure.
This is at the heart of the game, though: No animals are going to war, but simply uniting together through talks.
If only the popcorn tricycle wasn’t such a point of contention. Who doesn’t see its virtues?! Ha!
A Pointed Discussion
You tell them, Jack of Leaves! With the highest value cards from a pair of suits, it was easy to color coordinate and showcase the amazing good this popcorn could do.
I mean, the flower suit might have even been popcorn! That might have been a stretch, but an 8-value card does not hold back. It’s the top discussion point, after all.
Note that no bribery was involved here, although the popcorn went missing. I think I knew who ate it…
This assortment of allies and rulers was only the beginning, though: I still had to check out the full game!
Session Overview
Play Number: 1-8
Solo Mode: Designed for Solo (Included in the Base Game)
Play Details: Introductory Game and Full Game
Outcome: 16, 15, 9, 18, 20, 20, 15, 11 (2 Wins & 6 Losses)
After some serious discussions, I managed to pull off a couple of back-to-back wins! Only then did I experiment with the full game, and it opened up so many possibilities. I’ll have to keep on playing and report back. This is such a lovely sort of game and kept me riveted from round to round. Never did I expect to like solo trick-taking this much, yet the animals certainly made their case!
%
30 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
10
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
10
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
8
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- The artwork is simply adorable and adds to the peaceful sort of theme with bright, cheerful colors.
- Trick-taking is surprisingly easy to understand, yet requires a lot of experience to figure out how to master it.
- Uniting the animal fiefs is a wonderful goal that makes for a relaxing theme and allows rulers to act as allies.
- Gameplay moves very smoothly with only a total of 8 rounds, while most trick-taking progresses very quickly.
- Finding the best way to use a hand with ally abilities is a fun puzzle that changes from round to round.
- Even the introductory game is fairly difficult, yet helps teach the concepts to build up confidence in the rules.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Most bad luck can be mitigated with ally abilities, but there are times when it is simply unavoidable.
- The card backs are identical for the animals and trick-taking cards, so it’s important to keep them separated.
- Some abilities are multi-faceted and keeping track of when the ruler plays a card can be hard, though this is rare.
- A couple of small typos are present on the box and in the rulebook, yet these are very minor and not confusing.
Victory Conditions
Score 20 Points
- Overall Goal Progress 57%
Goals and Milestones
Score 20 points with the introductory game.
Score 20 points with the full game.
Score 20 points in the Summer 1 Challenge.
Score 20 points in the Summer 4 Challenge.
Score 20 points in the Summer 2 Challenge.
Score 20 points in the Summer 3 Challenge.
Score 20 points in the Fall 1 Challenge.
Continue the Conversation
What do you like about For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game? Are there any other solo games that are about diplomacy and uniting factions you enjoy? I expected to be a little biased in favor of this one based on the animal art, but I will say that there is a very solid and enjoyable game design to find here. Absolutely loved this first experience!
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