Wooden Wars is a game presently on Kickstarter, which you can go directly to, if you wish.
I’m a sucker for dexterity games, you know the type of ‘board games’ where your manual dexterity determines who wins the day (most often, it seems, flicking as in Crokinole or Pitchcar, although throwing is not unheard of). Still, Wooden Wars, which is presently up on Kickstarter, combines the dexterity game concept with a light tactical twist. You control an army of wooden soldiers in Wooden Wars and move them about your play area trying to capture tactical points (piles of children’s blocks in the example) or eliminate your opponent’s forces. So how do you about trying to eliminate your opponent’s pieces in Wooden Wars? Why, you through a ball at them to try and knock them over. Also really cool, the wooden soldiers for Wooden Wars are laser cut wooden soldiers cut out on sprues so you can mix-and-match parts in order to make unique soldiers in your army. Thomas Foss, Wooden Wars’ designer, notes that – while Napoleonic figures are the default – he has potential plans for a ‘Queen Victoria’s robot wars’ army, as well. If you want more information about Wooden Wars, you can check out Wooden Wars on Kickstarter or the designer’s blog. While many Kickstarter projects have somewhat obtuse actual goals (serving basically as a pre-order service) the goal of the Wooden Wars Kickstarter is pretty clear: the designer needs a laser cutter in order to manufacture the game at the level, and with the control that he wants. Enough Wood Wars soldiers to run a small skirmish (including the rules) runs $60 on the Kickstarter, with larger setups costing more (obvs).
What do you think of the concept behind Wooden Wars? Do you enjoy dexterity games, generally? What kinds of armies would you want to see, or are you happy with the default Napoleonic army? March down below to discuss.
I missed the Kickstarter, but saw Wooden Wars at DunDraCon yesterday. It’s great fun! The mix of maneuver and toss the ball is great. If you’re totally helpless with the ball, you can still charge the enemy and defeat them “hand to hand” so to speak.
Plus, the game can be played at several different levels of complexity depending upon the players.
After seeing it and watching my (adult) daughter play, I’m sold. I can’t wait to buy it and bring it to our weekly gaming group.