Wildlands and the Quest for Power Against the Ancients
Collect ancient crystals as a unique faction vying for power as minions close in and summon their leader in Wildlands.
It was a few years ago that my husband and I got into Wildlands. We enjoyed the head-to-head skirmishes and races for crystals, though it was forgotten for a bit. Then, out of nowhere, I found out about Wildlands: The Ancients! Several modules were included, yet what caught my attention? A solo mode! Finally, I brought everything to my solo table!
Game Overview
Game Name: Wildlands
Publication Year: 2018
Designer: Martin Wallace
Artists: Alyn Spiller and Yann Tisseron
Publisher: Osprey Games
Solo Mode: Included in Wildlands: The Ancients
With a plethora of factions and maps to choose from, the race to collect crystals and survive to the end is a tense sort of card-based battle! The solo scenarios present unique ancients to fight against with their own sets of minions and abilities. It all comes together quite nicely!
First Play
August 1, 2021
Complexity
3
Latest Play
June 18, 2024
Expansions
5
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
6
Play Time
30 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
30" x 34"
Low Score
N/A
A Fitting Faction
There is a bit of lore and history to read in each rulebook, but suffice to say that every faction is out to claim the crystal shards for different reasons. Pretty interesting!
I decided to play as the Guild, a collection of magical users. A bit of an homage to the 1 Player Guild, maybe? Ha ha!
With giant maps and lovely miniatures, this is a game that stands out. Possibly too much, since I had to do a lot of stretching to reach the furthest spaces of the board!
Most of the characters had very low health, save for Lunk who was built like a tank with 7 health points.
Excellent Summaries
Every faction plays quite differently, sometimes having 4, 5, or 6 characters! More than that, though, their decks are all very unique. No need to shuffle through, thankfully!
A handy reference card for every faction shows what to expect in each deck. Not to get into many details, but I knew that the Guild had absolutely no ranged attacks.
Every card includes icons for some of the characters, so it must be used for someone while forgoing other actions.
I’ve played it multiplayer, and it’s quite an interesting system! Plenty of choices and never enough actions for all.
Wild Lands of Play
It felt like an entire land when I laid everything out! This is certainly not a game for a small space, unfortunately.
However, it looks absolutely gorgeous with bright colors and some amazing character artwork. Remember that this is a single faction: There are 3 more in the base game!
The solo mode certainly changed things up from the standard game, although it didn’t seem to be so different.
You might also see my sample starting hand to see how each card includes a few character icons. The top card could be used for Hugo or Gretchen, or as general defense.
The First Scenario
A total of 5 different scenarios are included with the solo mode, which can also work as a cooperative mode. Nice!
That might sound limited, yet remember how many factions and maps there are to explore. Lots of options! Random card draws can also keep things unpredictable.
I was pleasantly surprised by how simple running the solo opponent would be. It was all laid out in the rulebook with clear definitions on the scenario placard. Even better!
Look closely at a few images and you might be able to tell why I couldn’t contain my excitement… Too perfect!
Probable Reactions
In a nutshell, most attacks have a specific way to defend against them. For the solo opponent, this simply comes down to drawing the top card from the right deck.
Luckily, this isn’t a complete unknown. Each scenario has a handy reference chart to show the likelihood of a certain type of defense showing up. So very useful!
I could see that the Guild’s focus on melee could come in handy for most of these minions. As for the ancient…
A certain degree of luck would have to be involved, yet it looked to be an interesting sort of starting matchup!
Hugo? No, You Go!
An owl magician or wizard most certainly would have his name pronounced as “Hoo-go” and I had a little too much fun thinking up that pun… So is my life. Ha ha!
I eagerly got started and sent him literally flying over to uncover a few object tiles. These are all facedown, and 5 of them have the required crystals needed to win.
Hugo came across a pair of spirit boots from the stack of treasure cards. Not useful at the moment, but maybe…
Characters typically don’t heal and are completely out of the game once knocked out. Very strategic, indeed.
Farewell, Gretchen
As the rest of the characters scattered about to look for the ancient crystals, Gretchen stood by doing a whole lot of nothing. What was there to be concerned about?!
Wildfyre, that’s what. Gretchen, watch out! But with just 2 health points, there wasn’t much to do. No more Gretchen.
Surviving to the end, even in multiplayer, will almost always result in knocked-out characters. Often, it comes down to whoever can last the longest. Like good ol’ Lunk!
The randomized starting positions made things a little difficult, though. Lunk was too far away to draw attention.
None Shall Pass!
The star of the show was Edith, a professional witch. She did some fantastic area attacks to cause some damage.
However, she was in an odd position since she had the ability to fly about and uncover a lot of object tiles. Alas, battling was the only way I could put her to good use.
Might I mention again how awesome these miniatures are?! They come pre-washed with these shadows and plenty of details to see up close. Very thematic, too.
Edith was the last character standing, yet she fell when the Guild only had 3 of 5 ancient crystals. No victory today!
A Stealthy Elephant
I should have noticed this on the box artwork that was released long before the expansion came out. What’s that?
Pardon the yelling… A STEALTHY ELEPHANT! The Magus was all disguised and stealthy in the exact way some of us might imagine these silly things to be. I literally gasped.
She might be the first ancient, although I don’t believe the scenarios are necessarily rated by difficulty level. You know an elephant like this one is always going to be tricky!
Not exactly an easy foe with her varied abilities. With just 5 cards, she could do a lot while stealthing about!
Doubling Down
Despite my loss, I decided to reset and see how well the team could do this time. The Magus came out rather quickly, yet I had Edith flying all over the place!
Once again, note all the world’s stealthiness right there in this fantastic miniature. I might be keeping her out of the box for other purposes… Hiding in backgrounds? Yes. Ha!
Garen came rushing in after leaving Lunk behind to deal with a Tempest. What did he find? The last ancient crystal!
My turn was over, yet the cards I drew ensured that he would be able to pick it up. Just a little more luck…
Session Overview
Play Number: 1 and 2
Expansion: Wildlands: The Ancients
Solo Mode: Included in Wildlands: The Ancients
Play Details: Scenario 1B in the Dungeon
Outcome: 2 Losses
Oh, no! The minion card had the dreaded action that advanced the tracker, thereby resulting in an immediate loss. I had an interrupt card, but Garen needed it to form his set to pick up the crystal. Defeated at the last moment! As frustrating as that was, I had a great time and felt like this was an exciting challenge. Much more to explore!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
5
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
9
Originality
Design & Theme
8
Quality
Components & Rules
9
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
7
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- Every miniature is unique with gorgeous details and noticeable features that match their character portrait.
- Factions, maps, and scenarios provide a robust set of variable options to keep each combination mostly unique.
- The choice of how to use each card is very strategic and interesting when every character needs to act.
- Although not always used that often, the ability to interrupt the solo opponent adds another interesting element.
- Different attacks may be defended against in specific ways, yet these are all generalized so the rules are short.
- Reference cards provide helpful summaries of various aspects so that the information is easy to read at a glance.
– Cons (Negatives)
- The cardboard object tiles and minions can blend into the map a little too much, making them hard to find.
- As beautiful as the maps are, their enormous size means that the play area is huge and hard to reach every space.
- Some luck is involved with the random placement of the object tiles, many of which contain annoying traps.
- Cover, line of sight, and a few other rules may take a little time to fully grasp over the first few plays.
Victory Conditions
Collect 5 Crystals or Defeat the Ancient
- Overall Goal Progress 0%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game against the Automaton.
Win at least 1 game against the Magus.
Win at least 1 game as the Guild.
Win at least 1 game as the Pit Fighters.
Continue the Conversation
What do you think of Wildlands and its expansion, Wildlands: The Ancients? I wasn’t quite sure if a 2-player game could work well solo, yet this was a great outing! There was a definite challenge that still didn’t take too long to resolve. Better luck will be needed next time. Or maybe I just can’t ever beat a Stealthy Elephant? Ha ha! Still love that surprise!
I love this game and agree with what you’ve said.
I also agree that all the tiles are hard to see and I have a few things I’ve done to help with that; the first is that I’ve put my minions into coin capsules. This helps raise them above the playing surface a little more and makes them easier to see. The second is that I replace the crystal tile (when revealed) with a large purple crystal instead. Although if I’m going for a crystal strategy, I’ll often want to pick them up right away, I like that it matches better with the base game.
Thanks for sharing! I was trying to think of how to raise the minions a little. This also reminds me that object tiles don’t really need to be highlighted, aside from the ancient crystals. And I think I have some nice stand-ins that can help with that. Great ideas! This should help solve a few of the minor issues I was having. Thank you again!
I’ve played this multiplayer on TTS. Interesting, but deeply frustrating – the combination of a map much bigger than one’s movement speeds, so that it’s hard to get the characters together to combo off or reinforce each other, with a limited array of things one can do based on the card draw. (I don’t now remember whether there are “draw more cards” powers.) I agree, the summary cards are very good, and I’d like to give this another go some time, even though Martin is my gaming nemesis (I haven’t yet really enjoyed any game of his I’ve played).
So very true about the map movement. The random starting spaces can provide advantages or disadvantages, although that’s kind of the interesting part of the strategy! I had some very frustrating turns when I know a character was going to get knocked out by the minions… Yet I also experienced some great moments when I nearly won.
Hmm, you know what? I’m almost in the same boat as you regarding Martin Wallace. I don’t own a lot of his games, although none have really grabbed me. AuZtralia is a unique one that I want to explore some more because it’s been growing on me. Must get that back to the table soon!