Finding the Giant Broodmother in March of the Ants
Explore the meadow in search of the centipede broodmother in a fight for survival in March of the Ants.
Back to the ant colony! I have so many games I want to play, yet March of the Ants continues to call to me. Perhaps I want to succeed at winning just once with the expansion… I’m not exactly a fan of ants at the moment, although it’s nice to picture them outside and far from my house. Ha ha! So I reset everything, intent on finding the broodmother…
Game Overview
Game Name: March of the Ants
Publication Year: 2015
Designer: Tim Eisner and Ryan Swisher
Artist: Tim Eisner, Ryan Swisher, and Peter Wocken
Publisher: Weird City Games
Solo Mode: Expanded with Minions of the Meadow
The very standard sort of ant slowly takes shape with many possible evolutions. Over just 4 rounds, the meadow is unveiled as centipedes invade. The hunt for the enemy, otherwise known as the giant broodmother, takes careful plotting and resource gathering. Was I up to the task?
First Play
March 4, 2020
Complexity
3
Latest Play
March 27, 2022
Expansions
2
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
25
Play Time
40 Minutes
High Score
26
Game Area
34" x 24"
Low Score
4
Happy Times in Overleaf
It all began in Overleaf, an aphid hex. Aphids are a fairly small element of gameplay, yet they slowly breed and provide benefits with card draws and victory points.
My past mistakes often centered around not exploring enough of the meadow. The broodmother was lurking near the bottom of a large stack, just waiting to come out…
So I set to work getting myself ready to send out scouts in the form of major workers. With luck, this would work!
I also kept a close eye on resources. Too few food or larvae, and my ants were going nowhere faster than a real ant!
Centipede Party
Somehow, the nymphs didn’t molt until the very end. And when they did, did they ever! Centipedes popped up all over the meadow and I had to plan carefully.
Battles almost always led to casualties, so it was vital not to fight every single centipede. At the same time, too many uncontested hexes would make for a terrible time.
As bad as this might have looked, I had it relatively under control! Just shy of an immediate loss. No pressure here.
My ants fought back and slowly took back control of some hexes. But the broodmother… Where was she hiding?
The Giant Enemy
Why, hello there! Note that the game includes a standard black centipede to indicate the broodmother. I sprung for an extra special meeple… Her size is incredible!
As she reached her highest power level and expanded, the Nest of Centipedes appeared. I was so excited! This was my first time actually locating it and placing her meeple.
Oddly enough, I still felt prepared for a bit of a showdown. This wasn’t going to be easy, but it felt vaguely possible.
Remember that in the solo game, the appearance of the broodmother offers up the chance for a royal decree!
Preparing to Swarm
The larvae were all ready to go. So many! This was partly from the 5 larvae I gained with the royal decree, but I also stocked up from the previous season. Smart, at last!
I didn’t dare get too excited, though. The broodmother was going to kill every ant that went in there. My only hope was to slowly whittle down her health.
To see my progress was quite exciting. This was going to come down to the very end, and I was prepared.
It was a shame I hadn’t come across the right evolutions for battle bonuses. No matter: My ants soldiered on!
Clever Battle Tactics
And so it began with a small group of ants who moved to surprise the broodmother. It was a futile effort, save for the tactics card I managed to play.
My major worker jumped in out of nowhere with a couple of reinforcements! It was a guaranteed loss, yet I could move it into an adjacent hex for better positioning.
This was, indeed, my sole way to win. These small battles needed to succeed, even though the food was running low.
It was an intense time! Not so much stressful as exciting, though. I was fighting the broodmother fairly well.
Farewell, Meadow
Despite my valiant effort, all of my ants were destroyed in the end by the broodmother. She was pulling something like 8 or 9 cards at a time, for a strength of almost 30!
Part of my downfall may have been the centipedes that roamed about unimpeded. But if I had a few more cards with higher ferocity levels… I actually could have won.
This was the closest I came to victory and it should be clear how the meadow expanded quite a bit from the start.
I caught a couple of very lucky breaks with the hex tiles, yet it wasn’t meant to be this time. Oh, broodmother!
My Fantastic Ants
What an interesting selection of evolutions! The flying thorax came out right at the end, and might have led to better earlier battles. Not so this time, though.
As I mentioned in the past, the base game doesn’t really offer any incentives for playing a lot of evolutions.
With the expansion, evolutions become vital for unlocking the major worker bonus abilities and improving some of the standard actions, like marching.
I was pretty proud of these evolved ants! In particular, the final feed ants step took up no food, thanks to the aphids.
Plotting Together
Does this show the sheer size of the broodmother? Ha! She has a very imposing presence when she comes out to tower over the standard centipedes.
Although my ants were defeated, I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to have a good time around the abandoned spider’s lair. I hear it won’t stay abandoned… Watch out!
Actually, my decision to provoke the trapdoor spider rather than leave it was my undoing. I lost 7 ants to it!
Just another important lesson to keep in mind for next time. There’s still hope for my little ant colony. I hope.
Session Overview
Play Number: 19
Expansion: March of the Ants: Minions of the Meadow
Solo Mode: Expanded with Minions of the Meadow
Play Details: Easy Expansion Difficulty Level
Outcome: 11-17 (Loss)
Despite this loss, I still brought the broodmother down from 12 starting health to just 5. Not too terrible, if I do say so myself! I think I have the right strategies to survive and find the Nest of Centipedes a little sooner. There’s no real guarantee I can win, yet I would like to give this another try very soon. Wish me luck: I think I need it. Ha ha!
%
20 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
8
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
9
Originality
Design & Theme
9
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
6
+ Pros (Positives)
- The way the Nest of Centipedes is hidden during setup adds a level of excitement to later exploration actions.
- Although there is a general path forward, evolutions and other decisions make battles very unpredictable.
- Managing all of the ants takes careful strategy since some must be held back to collect ongoing resources.
- Aphids appear to be minor at the start, yet maximizing their potential leads to additional cards each round.
- Gameplay is generally quick over the course of just 4 rounds, although more time is spent near the end.
- Only a small portion of the cards is seen with each play, leading to plenty of variety and unique decisions.
– Cons (Negatives)
- There are a lot of rules to keep in mind that can change depending on the game state, which takes some work.
- A certain level of luck with the drawn cards is needed to get bonuses in battles or the very best evolutions.
- The illustrations and artwork are lovely, yet there is a somewhat unpolished feel to the graphic design and text.
- Solo-specific rules and exceptions are mixed throughout the rulebook and not included on the player boards.
Victory Conditions
Defeat the Broodmother
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 expansion game at the easy difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the hard difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the normal difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
How close have you come to winning in March of the Ants? Maybe the journey to my first victory with the expansion is a little longer than most, yet the experience has been simply excellent. Gameplay is challenging but not impossible, and there’s certainly a chance I can defeat the broodmother. It’s just a matter of being persistent, much like real ants!
I haven’t won yet. I started to think it was impossible and then realized I was forgetting about the major worker’s scout ability. But the game after that I concentrated too much on getting a thorax evolution and a major worker out early and didn’t get a proper engine going. I’ve been playing on normal difficulty set up but without any Beyond the Meadow hexes included (except for the Nest of course). I’m going to give it a couple more tries before putting it back on the shelf. If I still don’t get a win I think I will dial back the difficulty by reducing the stack size by 1 or 2 more hexes.
Good luck to you, Krista! I like your ideas for adjusting the difficulty level by reducing the size of the hex stack. That may be my next move, pending the outcome. Losing at the moment still feels like I’m making progress, which is always a nice feeling. This is certainly a challenge! Here’s to hoping we both can defeat the broodmother soon!
“Onward, my expendable minions! Your sacrifice will be remembered as long as… as long as… ooh, lunch!”
Ha! This is very close to the thought process for the game. As much as I would love to save every ant, it’s more a case of figuring out how to keep some alive and where sacrifices must be made. A few evolutions can be helpful in not feeling like this is happening… But indeed, they’re often long forgotten when it comes time to harvesting resources.