Wolf & Hound

Game: Wolf & Hound
Manufacturer: Ninja Star Games
Year: 2016

Personal History:
I followed Ninja Star Games' first Kickstarter campaign for "The Majority" pretty heavily, advertising it here on the blog when it was going. I liked the company's mission of bringing games from the "East" to folks in the "West", plus the artwork for "The Majority" was pretty great. The game's actually pretty fun and I'm a bit ashamed that, as much as I plugged it here, I've not actually written a review for it yet. I'll have to work on that.

Anyway, "Wolf & Hound" hit Kickstarter sometime later. I have an on-again-off again relationship with Kickstarter. I'll back a bunch of games, they'll inevitably release late, I'll get upset and boycott Kickstarter for several months, and then something will come along to suck me back in. Wolf & Hound was probably during a boycott period because it's astoundingly cute and I'm sure I would have otherwise tossed them some money.

As it is I ended up with this copy in a trade on Board Game Geek, and then tracked the Kickstarter bonus standees down on the company's website and ordered them separately. All told after shipping and the cost of whatever I traded for it (it's been a while) I probably spent about the same as I would have to just back it in the first place.

Condition:
The cardboard bits have a little "foxing" on the edged since you have to slide them together in parts to build them. Otherwise the game is complete and in great shape.

Gameplay: 
Wolf & Hound is a game meant to be played as two teams of two. There are rules for three and two player games included, however it's a two vs. two structure that is ideal. The teams members sit across from each other and takes their corresponding player cards as well as a pasture board, three sheep and four cards. You will notice that in a majority of my photos there will be small standees featuring shepherds, a sheepdog and a wolf. These standees were actually intended to be bonus items for Kickstarter backers, and replace cards featuring those characters which come in the retail version of the game.  I mention this so that nobody opens their copy and wonders where their standees are.

The players are numbered such that the player with the blue male shepherd begins the game, and starts with both the wolf and sheepdog in front of him. On his turn each player does basically the same two actions. First, the player plays a card from his hand. Generally speaking cards will either move the Wolf (white card) or the Hound (black card) a certain number of spaces around the board. The Hound moves clockwise, the wolf moves counterclockwise. After playing a card and moving the appropriate animal, the player picks another card from the deck until no cards remain.

Where the Wolf and Hound wind up is important. When a player begins his turn with the Wolf in front of him he loses one of the sheep from his pasture. If a player has an empty pasture before he can play a card his team loses the game. When a player begins his turn with the hound in front of him he regains one of his lost sheep, if any. If both the Wolf and Hound are present, the player neither loses nor gains a sheep.

The game can also come to an end if a player has no cards to play on his turn. Both teams then add up the number of sheep in their combined pastures, and the team with the most wins.

While those are the basics of the game, there are a number of variations which can be played by substituting in special Wolf and Hound cards. These variant cards change the way those cards move, or who they effect. One of these cards may, for example, move at half speed, or a Wolf card may damage the neighbor of the active player instead.

There are also "Metamorphic" cards which change from Wolf to Hound and back when moving past the active player. All of these add different challenges and levels of strategy.

There are also optional "Sheep" cards which can be played along with the Wolf and Hound. These cards do various things and again, add to the difficulty and strategy of the game.

So How Is It?:
This game is almost painfully cute, and it's that cuteness that drew me to it. Unfortunately for me this game was not a lot of fun and didn't hang around long in my collection. The game works well, it's definitely a team based take-that kind of game with lots of opportunities to screw over your opponent and BE screwed over in turn. The different varieties of game that can be played give it plenty of life and help it's replay factor (although the two-player version is sort of awful as too much becomes based on luck). I guess what I've discovered is that I don't particularly like games where all players are basically moving the same pawns around. It's completely a taste thing and for me I just don't have a lot of fun playing that sort of game. Maybe I'll find one down the road that suits me better, but Wolf & Hound just wasn't it.

Final Verdict:
Wolf & Hound is a very cute game full of teamwork and take-that gameplay. It's not really my style it turns out, though I do admit that it works well as a four-player and has a lot of ability to modify it to your tastes. For me it scores an "Average" 3/5.