Winner of *Best Overall Game* and *Jury Prize* in the 2021 BGG 54-card contest.
Also winner of *Best Art*, *Best Solo Game*, and *Best New Designer*!
For Northwood! Is a solo precision trick-taking game. Your objective is to peacefully unify the kingdom of Northwood through conversations with their rulers. Over eight rounds, you must visit eight animal fiefs and engage their rulers in dialogue (tricks). Each ruler's suit represents the trump for that fief. Each ruler also requires you to win an exact number of tricks to join your alliance, so the game gets harder as your options dwindle.
You start with four allies, each with an ability that you can use once per visit. These abilities can make you draw, discard, or otherwise manipulate your hand to help you hit the target score. Once you've won a ruler over, you can pull them in to substitute temporarily for one of your allies, if you need a more specific set of abilities to tackle the harder fiefs.
Three of the fiefs have stars on their back. In the standard game, you flip over all fiefs you've won after visiting all eight; you win the game if you reveal all three stars. You can still win even if you don't win over all the rulers, but only an eight-fief sweep can assure victory. In the expert rules, you MUST win the four outermost fiefs, so you must maximize your abilities and sequencing well! With 24 rulers (12 used per game), For Northwood! offers a lot of ability combinations and a new puzzle every time.
Ever wish you could parley with animals? Read Ian’s review of For Northwood! from Side Room Games to become a successful creature communicator.
