Gameplay
Mistwind is a 1-5 player action selection/route-building/pickup and delivery game that might be the most fantastical train game you’ve ever played. I know, there are no actual trains in the box. Those flying whales though? They’re really trains. And thinking about this as a train game is the easiest way to describe gameplay. You’ll build outposts and move your whale-trains around the board, delivering goods to the various cities of Mistwind using different actions to improve when, where and how you can do this.
Each round, you’ll place one of your four numbered discs on one of the four actions around the board. Each player may only place one disc on the side of the board where you gather resources, which vary based on which specific disc you choose. The opposite side of the board has special actions you can take and, again, each player is restricted to just one disc on this side of the board. These actions include different ways to move your whale-trains, build extra whales or outposts, or gather specialty resources. You can also spend coin resources to purchase characters and spend combinations of wood and steel to build outposts, or add more whales to the board. Each of those last two sides of the board allow multiple actions per side.
Once you choose one of the actions, you get to move whales. They move freely through outposts, or other whales of your color, and you must spend krill to move them farther. When they stop, you can pick up resources, or deliver them to a few spots on the board for victory points.
At the end of four or five rounds (depending on the number of players), you total your victory points based on end-game scoring conditions, the number of routes you built, and how many goods you delivered throughout the game.
Presentation
There are two versions of this game – a retail and a deluxe version.
Both editions are very premium, with inserts that perfectly arrange player pieces into a removable section you can hand out, and two resource trays that can be set up to account for pieces native to either side of the map. Cards have a textured finish and unique art that makes them stand out.
The deluxe version includes washed minis, clay player tokens, and sculpted tokens for marking resources. It’s nice, but by no means essential.
Our copy does have one player board that is misprinted and mis-cut, though this does not appear to be a widespread issue.
The art in either version is phenomenal. The player boards are dual-layer and look like cargo manifests, while the map has a fantasy feel to it.
Each of the resource and action boards is reversible, which adds variation to gameplay.
One complaint I do have is the color palette. While it makes for a beautiful game, there is a lot of grey and black, and it isn’t used in a consistent or systematic manner. For example, there are grey resources, but also grey cities (and no expected relationship). Coins are grey. A similar issue exists with pink resources and pink-ish purple cities, or green resources and green cities. They’re not related, but they feel like they should be.
Final Thoughts
Mistwind is a beautiful game that should appeal to most seasoned gamers. It’s beautiful, has nice pieces, and is inviting, with a short-but-sweet rulebook that doesn’t leave anything unsaid. It’s a simple game, but not an easy one to play.
What makes this game both very appealing and very overwhelming is the number of options you’re given. Take route-building as an example. There are three route cards in your hand to pursue, each of which has multiple paths from one spot to the other. You can choose to cash in on these during the game with half or full routes. That’s in addition to the four routes that lead from the capitals to various posts around the board, and also the routes that can be built as part of the game objectives. Routes can be made out of stationary outposts, or movable whales.
And that’s just one element of scoring points. You can also aim for other board objectives, collecting characters, or delivering as many goods as possible. And all these elements are complementary – having good routes makes it easier to collect resources, get new whale-trains, and purchase characters, and each of those goals makes it easier, in turn to make routes.
However, despite the complexity, turns move relatively quickly, your player board is helpful and the iconography on the board and the cards is easy to understand.
Outside of move-blocking and timing related to the delivery of particular goods, Mistwind isn’t a heavy player-interaction game. Whales can move around as you please, and outposts can be built anywhere, regardless of who is already at a spot.
This is a game that you can approach from multiple directions and win with a variety of strategies, from amassing huge numbers of character cards to building routes all over the board, to managing a whale-train shipping empire. And for a very complex game, it’s actually fairly quick.
If your group can manage a meatier route-building game, then Mistwind should definitely be near the top of your list. It looks good, feels good to play, and doesn’t outstay its welcome. It’s a favorite of our game group.
