Purple Moose Plays...River Wild (Kickstarter Preview)

Join me for a preview of River Wild, from designer Steven Aramini and Button Shy Games, and then stick around to the end to hear what I think!
Check out the game on Kickstarter here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
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Intro 0:00
Setup & How-to-Play 1:04
Playthrough 8:23
Scoring 20:27
Components 22:37
Final Thoughts 24:31

[@jserrano51]

I love the color and fantasy scheme. Pops out better and it's cute! I'm looking forward to it. I'm not sure how good will I play 😅 The Kickstarter includes another game so I think it's worth it. Also, I see Bury Me in the Rift there on your shelf. Will you do a playthrough/review? Kinda needed, I'm still a little bit confused with some rules and exceptions and there's little tutorials out there.

[@PurpleMoosePlays]

Thanks for watching! Video of the second game from this Kickstarter will hit on Monday. And yeah, I got Bury Me in the Rift for that very reason. Someone else requested a playthrough to help understand, so that is definitely the plan!

[@skippy9173]

Almost seems like a solo, vertically oriented Seasons of Rice. Looks interesting but wondering on replayability given that both sides of the card mirror each other.

[@PurpleMoosePlays]

I can definitely see the comparison, though Seasons of Rice still feels more like a traditional grid when compared to this one. I think replayability should be fine because of things like the double rivers and the mountains. I also suspect this is one that will be expanded which will help as well.

[@desult0r]

Thanks for the preview and playthrough! I'm curious about your disconnect with Sprawlcettera, and how your experience with River Wild is different. I believe both games are similarly accessible, at least at first ("How do I play?"). But it sounds like the learning curve for both games then ramp up steeply ("How do I play WELL?"), and that was a turn-off for you in Sprawl, but intriguing in River. I had a similar experience in Sprawl. The frustration of "I don't know how to improve" (in any game, hobby, or pursuit) is much worse to me than "I lost, but I learned a bit." Trying to manage four types of terrain, minimize roads, and maximize three scoring conditions seemed impossible. Only after more play I realized that it IS impossible, and I learned to choose specific map conditions to focus on, and found ways to maximize them. My first breakthrough was making one road loop around a 3x3 central park. Do you think River Wild will have a similar strategy breakthrough? Do you think Sprawlopolis could have a similar breakthrough if you returned to it?

[@PurpleMoosePlays]

My problem with Sprawl isn't the strategy as much as it is with the cards. Without really studying each card, they all look so similar to each other that it is difficult for me to process the pros and cons of each card. This was a bit better when I played the first Combopolis as I could easily choose between a Sprawl card and an Agro card. River Wild though is more about the strategy, so I definitely feel like I can learn the way the puzzle works and improve more here.

[@bcpa1980]

This makes me think of Carcassonne in many ways!

[@PurpleMoosePlays]

Yeah, I can kind of see that. Something like the farm scoring maybe. The biggest thing here though is the diagonals rather than a grid, which really does make this feel different.