Finding Cozy Homes for the Animals in Winterhaven Woods
Build wintry woods to house different animal species and manage visiting predators in Winterhaven Woods.
One of my most-anticipated solo games that arrived in the recent months was Winterhaven Woods. Such lovely artwork! Anything with animals is almost a guaranteed hit with me. Ha! The box was a pleasant example of a magnetic box with little plastic. Finally reaching the “W” portion of my current unplayed challenge, I could get it to my table!
Game Overview
Game Name: Winterhaven Woods
Publication Year: 2022
Designer: Joel Bodkin
Artist: Joel Bodkin
Publisher: Featherstone Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
In a simple card sequence of play, discard, and draw, trees provide places to house animals. Species typically need to reside on their own, while predators can steal critters or even eat some of them! It’s all about managing the woods and various animals that quickly populate the area.
First Play
May 7, 2022
Complexity
1
Latest Play
May 7, 2022
Expansions
1
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
2
Play Time
10 Minutes
High Score
17
Game Area
16" x 14"
Low Score
15
Beautiful Scenery
The inside of the box caught me by surprise with its amazing nighttime scene! This captured so much about the wonders of winter and how pretty it can be.
Originally, I wondered if the extensive use of white might look a little too stark, yet that flowed right into the theme.
Unfortunately, things took a different turn when I started browsing through the lengthy rulebook. It was filled with exception after exception… Before reading the solo mode.
I was rather lost, which was very unexpected for such a lightweight game that seemed to be about set collection.
Lost in the Rulebook
Although the text size was pretty reasonable, the entire rules took up over 20 pages. Understanding the solo mode was a puzzle in itself for a number of reasons.
I had to know that the final phase of drawing a card didn’t happen at the end of the last turn… Which actually made it a little tricky to keep track of the round end.
Figuring out the predators was also a mystery. So… They all could go whenever? Why have 4 in a pile with 3 rounds?
There were multiple passes over different sections as I tried to piece it together. Maybe an actual play would help.
Game Design vs. Game Development
As I struggled along, I took the opportunity to separate out the design from the development aspects. This can be a bit of a nuanced part of board games, although it’s very important. Design is all about the game’s overall structure, which can include the theme and general set of rules. It’s the foundation, if you will, for what the game is built upon.
On the other hand, game development takes that design and molds it into a workable game: Rules refinement, statistics, probabilities, and playtests often form the focus of this element. A game design must exist to be developed. This isn’t a simple process, either, as it can take years to figure out the ideal way to handle every aspect of a game!
I mean this in a respectful way, but I saw a wonderful game design that felt a little light on the development process. Actually, that might simply be in relation to the solo mode. It felt entirely mechanical with obvious, repetitive choices.
Even extremely lightweight games can be a lot of fun with just the right amount of choices. This felt like every play would proceed in a similar way. I simply had to score more points than all of the predators scored. At the standard difficulty level, that would be around 12-15 cards. At the hard difficulty level, it was more like 16-20 cards.
Perhaps I misunderstood some of the solo rules, yet that also gets back to game development: Rules interpretations are paramount, and missing out on that first experience will lose a lot of potential players. With so many games in my collection, I’m unfortunately not in the place where I want to wait for a possibly better solo mode down the road.
Minimal Choices
As much as I loved the animals, the cards I drew each round were either trees, squirrels, rabbits, hedgehogs, or deer… Plus a lone cardinal. Not a lot of variety.
With a maximum of 3 different woods, each animal needed a tree for its own. So with a total of 5 trees, I could have 5 animals in that section. Pretty straightforward.
There were just so many exceptions! Deer had to go out in the meadow area first to create pairs… And then what?
I found myself simply cycling through the deck and choosing cards that wouldn’t trigger a predator.
Almost Helpful Details
So close! Although I struggled with the rulebook, I figured the included solo mode reference card would help me out.
Instead of providing some of the outlier cases and special rules reminders, it housed an enormous diagram of the play area, which was already explained in the rulebook.
Calling the first phase of the solo mode “Draft” didn’t match up, and I double-checked if there was a solo draft.
Despite the beautiful, whimsical animal artwork, this was a frustrating and far too simplistic solo experience. I felt like a bear who never had a chance to prepare for winter!
Session Overview
Play Number: 1 and 2
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Standard Difficulty Level
Outcome: 17-13 and 15-14 (2 Wins)
Althoug the scores seemed very close, I didn’t sense much of a challenge. I had pretty clear decision points, and only the order of the predators really mattered. With lots of foxes out, I simply didn’t put any hedgehogs out in the meadow unless I absolutely had to. I collected trees, added animals, and avoided some of the predators. It just felt like an exercise in placing cards without any fun, sadly.
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
8
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
2
Originality
Design & Theme
5
Quality
Components & Rules
4
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
3
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
2
+ Pros (Positives)
- Each piece of artwork is beautiful and looks like a papercraft version of an adorable animal in the woods.
- The play area remains very compact with the way cards may be stacked to count the total number of some types.
- Everything is neatly stored in a high-quality magnetic box that avoids almost all use of plastic.
- Providing homes for animals before winter sets in is a very pleasant and appealing theme to delve into.
- Various predators used in the solo mode have pretty clear abilities that help determine which cards to place.
- A trio of separate woods helps maximize scoring opportunities, although the number of trees must be managed.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Many of the rules are confusing when considered in the solo mode, and many questions abound during play.
- There aren’t a lot of decisions to make with such a limited variety of cards, even with the way predators work.
- Although the solo reference card could be useful, it adds more confusion with different names for game phases.
- The solo mode feels unfinished without an interesting challenge, and the set collection is a little too simplistic.
Victory Conditions
Exceed the Victory Threshold
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Score at least 15 points.
Win at least 1 game at the standard difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
What do you think of Winterhaven Woods? Did I miss out on the rules entirely? I do want to stress that even though the game didn’t work for me at all, I love the artwork and idea behind it! Many reports seem to indicate it’s a much better multiplayer game, so hopefully it has an audience out there to enjoy it. Definitely lots of potential with more players!
Thanks for this review. I was looking at this when it was being funded and my interest was primarily driven by the art style. It can’t be easy writing negative reviews but I appreciate your reasoning and you articulated the problems well.
You’re welcome, and I appreciate the kind words! The worst feeling for me is when a game doesn’t work for me, especially one I’m excited about. I hope I was still able to point out some of the positives here, though, and although it won’t be sticking around for multiplayer, it sounds like that’s where it might work a little better.
Wow. I don’t think I recall you giving such a low grade to a game. I went long ways to print it out and make a cute box for it. And then I only played it once, not feeling completely right with the rules. The graphic design is such a piece of art, though…
It was shocking and I actually redid my rating a few times to see if I was being unfair, but unfortunately, this was where it fell. The artwork is definitely something to admire! Just wish there was more of a game underneath the surface to enjoy. Hopefully, it finds it audience or someone who creates an unoffical solo mode that’s fun and challenging!
I do love that art, particularly the fox – but I think especially in the last ten years the standard for game design has moved towards much “flatter” rules, strong general principles that apply in multiple places with relatively few exceptions, even for complex games.
Good point! I’ll have to think about that some more as I think about my learning process with rulebooks. I definitely struggle more with the ones that have random exceptions, rather than the ones that have clear top-level rules that apply in practically every case.
I don’t have a problem when an asymmetric faction bends a rule or a card provides a special bonsu, yet it’s when those principles have special cases directly in the rulebook that I get more confused. Or the worst case… When an exception exists, but there are no rules to explain how to fully handle it.