Wondrous Creatures Review: I'm The Captain Now

[@CloudBuilderMetba]

The picture of Reiner Knizia on your shelf made me chuckle, Mike.

[@jacobjslee]

13:10 I love it when people share their variants that they've tested and found to be successful. Any variant that shortens a game is my favourite type.

[@crushgoil]

9.5 from me. It’s definitely a new favourite that I can play back to back.

[@mijuegomisreglas]

Can't wait the spanish version of Samaruc ❤

[@Singulitarian]

Nice new set, but did like seeing everyone comfortable on the couch.

[@Rik77]

Looks great. In terms of length I agree, I definitely prefer a game leaving me wanting more, than wanting it to end. Sone games people complain aren't long enough, but I often think it's just because they love it so much which means the game is the right length.

[@SmoothGummi]

The game that Tom didn’t mention that I think this game most similarly mirrors is Everdell.

[@Rik77]

Yeah but definitely less fiddly than that one.

[@hucz]

​@@Rik77I have to disagree with the fiddlyness of your comment. I think Everdell plays smoother when you take into account the player turn length as the cards in WC are a fair amount more involved and take longer to read too. Much prefer Everdell over WC, Everdell is a 9.5 for me, and WC is a 7.5.

[@thereal4579]

@@hucz Everdell is way more restrictive which made it a lesser game to me.

[@ylein6508]

Everdell was boring imho, take 1 action just to get 1 resources so the game takes a long time to escalate. wondrous creatures is better in that sense cos it’s faster to gather resources

[@Rik77]

@@hucz oh I was thinking of fiddly component wise in terms of the physical game, I should have clarified that so thanks.

[@larrye]

The review was pretty spot on. I enjoyed the game but it did go long. But i hate saying that after 1 play and it was a teaching game.

[@djoj20]

It does go much faster in subsequent plays

[@MS32816]

Where would you compare this to Raising Robots on the engine builder front? I finally cracked that open and absolutely loved the solo mode. I backed this one too and have yet to crack it open.

[@NotLikeTheOtherBees]

Life of the amazonia was also a game where the standard components were very underwhelming. I bought the standard edition and the cardboard chips were far too small so I had to buy the wooden chips to alleviate the annoyance in the core bag building mechanic. It's sad to hear they didn't improve that this time around. This game looks a lot like Everdell to me, pretty simple worker placement to get resources and cards which fuel the tableau building. I would love to try this some time, but didn't feel the urge to back it since I already have a bunch of similar tableau building games.

[@cbazler]

We didn't finish our first play of this because it was running too long: might have to try the "remove 2 medals" variant if we ever try again.

[@AirTails]

I've had my eye on this for a while, and I'm glad to see it's actually getting good scores, so I'll definitely pick it up. I typically play at 2 players so I'm not too worried about the game length. I'm always hesitant about really pretty games because the art can be so intoxicating that you might get let down by the gameplay.

[@Greggiexplore]

Tom, just minor correction, when you say some cards have magic charges on them, it implies that there is magic in the game which is absolutely not true... those "magic charges" are in fact "energy charges." This is important information for those who stay away from such things like magic or spells.

[@lilformersmatt]

Someone Wondrous creatures this to the game night tonight, and I played it for the first time... and won! Interesting bunch of mechanism and components.

[@mattball6136]

I completely disagree about the game length. I’m usually wishing I had a few extra turns lol I think it just depends on you game group

[@gailwondowski3207]

How does this compare to Everdell?

[@cbazler]

It's very similar, to be honest: you're building out a tableau of animals while doing worker placement, and you compete over public objectives. Retrieving your workers advances the time track, and you even "ride" your little animeeples like in Spirecrest. I liked Everdell a lot more than WC but I've only played this once.

[@wookiebarista]

So I backed this thinking it would be a replacement. After a few plays I think it is superior. Everdell still has the occupied mechanic and the resource toy factor. Otherwise Wondrous has much more interesting worker placement and achiements, you get to build a tableau way past 12 cards, and you can make so many more combos work. While many games are great for rewarding restricted focus this one rewards clever diversity of card powers.

[@thing12games44]

Everdell is easier to teach and less “heavy”, strategy wise. This has more going on, more to consider, and more possibilities of interesting combos. Personally, I think there’s room for both in a collection consider the differences of weight.

[@johnleavelle8036]

This is Everdell adjacent. Lot of similarities between the two.

[@jacobjslee]

​@@johnleavelle8036But not like Everdell and Farshore, I hope.

[@barryc6785]

How can y'all not compare it to Everdell?? Booo