I have never been particularly good at resisting a cosy game. Add a beautiful woodland, a few witches, some magical creatures and the promise of an evening spent pottering around making everything a little bit nicer, and I am probably going to be interested. Give me all of that and a strategy game underneath it, and you have my attention. The Witches' Road was always going to be in with a fighting chance.
Designed by Edoardo Eibenstein and illustrated by Ryan Lynch, The Witches' Road is a strategy game for 2 to 4 players, with games lasting around 40 to 75 minutes. It casts us as a group of witches helping the people and creatures living throughout the forest, with the aim of making the roads safer, gathering resources, developing gardens and helping the community flourish. There is a wonderfully wholesome premise at its heart, although this is still a competitive game, so we are not quite forming a woodland collective and holding hands around the campfire.
The game is part of Fiammingo Games' Cozy Bundle, alongside So Happy You're Here! and Nemi, with the Kickstarter campaign launching on September 8. I was fortunate enough to receive a prototype copy of The Witches' Road to playtest through the UKBG Review Circle, so my experience comes from playing an early version of the game. That also means there may be some changes to components, artwork or rules before the final version, particularly following feedback from playtesting.
At its heart, The Witches' Road is about helping the community while trying to earn the most prestige for yourself. You will travel through the forest, collect resources, improve roads with magic, visit different locations, tend gardens and help bring magical creatures into the area. Everyone has a reason to work towards making the woodland thrive, but there can only be one winner.
Because apparently even witches cannot simply have a nice time together without keeping score.
Welcome to the Woodland
The game takes place across a wonderfully illustrated map made up of ten locations connected by roads. Each player takes on the role of a witch and establishes their own cottage before heading out into the woodland to begin their work.
One of the main shared objectives is making the roads safe by placing magic on them. As the roads improve, they provide better resources and help attract magical animals looking for somewhere safe to settle. That means the work you do is not just about your own little witchy empire. Improving the roads benefits everyone, creating an interesting tension between contributing to the community and making sure you are also progressing your own plans.
And that is where the semi co-operative element comes into its own.
You need the roads to improve. The other players need the roads to improve. Everyone benefits when the woodland develops, but nobody wants to be the person doing all the hard work while everybody else strolls along afterwards collecting the rewards.
It creates some lovely moments of very polite board game politics. You might spend your magic improving a road because you need the resources it will provide, knowing full well that another player is about to benefit from your hard work. You could leave it for them to do instead, of course, but then you might find yourself waiting rather longer than you would like.
Suddenly your cosy woodland adventure has developed a tiny bit of workplace politics.
A Witch's Work Is Never Done
The actual structure of a turn is refreshingly straightforward. You move your witch along an adjacent road to a new location, carry out the action available there, collect the resources provided by the road you have just travelled and then pass play to the next person.
There is something I really appreciate about a game where the basic turn is easy to understand. It means you can concentrate on the interesting part, which is deciding what on earth you should actually do.
The roads are particularly important because placing magic on them makes them safer and improves the resources they provide. That means you are constantly thinking about whether investing in a road is worthwhile for you, while also keeping an eye on what the other witches are doing.
Perhaps you desperately need the resources from a particular route. Perhaps another player has just improved a road you were planning to use. Perhaps you are considering helping them with something because it will ultimately help you too.
The decisions are rarely complicated in isolation, but they have consequences. That is what makes the game satisfying. You are not spending ten minutes agonising over a single turn, but you are regularly having those little moments of, “Actually... if I do that, then I can do this next.”
And that is exactly the sort of thinking I enjoy in a strategy game.
Put the Resources in the Cauldron
Resources play a big part in your progress, and The Witches' Road has one of those components that makes collecting them considerably more enjoyable than it probably has any right to be: a three dimensional cauldron.
Rather than simply piling tokens into a generic resource area, you physically gather them in your cauldron, which fits beautifully with the theme. It is a lovely little detail and one that adds to the overall table presence of the game.
It also makes your growing collection of resources feel strangely satisfying. Those resources can then be used for the various things you are trying to accomplish, including brewing potions for the citizens. This means you are constantly weighing up what you need now against what might be more useful later, and the decisions become increasingly important as the game develops.
The Witches' Road could easily have been a very gentle game about wandering around a pretty forest collecting things, but there is considerably more thought involved than that. The cosy setting is the invitation, but the strategy is what keeps you sitting at the table.
Every Good Witch Needs a Garden
The cottages and gardens provide another lovely element of interaction, because you can tend your own garden while also helping at another player's.
This was one of my favourite aspects of the game because it encourages the sort of player interaction that feels completely natural within the theme. You are witches living in the same woodland community, so helping each other makes sense. At the same time, there are still rewards and strategic reasons for doing so, meaning you are not suddenly abandoning your competitive instincts in favour of becoming a full time woodland volunteer.
It creates a really nice balance.
In many competitive games, interacting with another player means blocking them, taking something they need or generally causing them some form of carefully calculated inconvenience. There is absolutely a place for that sort of behaviour, but The Witches' Road takes a much gentler approach.
Here, you can help.
And somehow that can be just as strategically interesting.
You might genuinely want another witch to succeed because their progress helps the shared game, while simultaneously knowing that helping them could benefit you too. It is kindness with an ulterior motive, which I think is probably the most realistic sort of kindness available at a board game table.
When the Magical Animals Arrive
As the roads become safer, magical animals begin to appear and look for gardens where they can settle. This gives you another reason to think about how your actions now might affect what becomes possible later in the game.
Perhaps you need particular resources before you can achieve what you want. Perhaps you are concentrating on developing your garden. Perhaps improving a road will give you the opportunity you have been waiting for.
The game continually gives you little goals to work towards, but it does not bombard you with so many that you lose sight of what you are doing. You can look at the board, consider your options and make a decision without feeling as though you need to construct a flowchart first.
For me, that is where the balance of The Witches' Road really shines.
There is planning. There is resource management. There is strategy. There is player interaction. There are several different things competing for your attention, but none of them ever made the game feel overly heavy.
Simple Turns, Properly Meaty Decisions
This is probably the thing I enjoyed most about The Witches' Road.
The turns are simple, but the decisions feel meaningful.
That distinction is important. A game can have a very straightforward turn structure without becoming simplistic, and The Witches' Road manages that balance particularly well. You know what you can do, but deciding which of those things is actually the best choice is where the fun begins.
Do you concentrate on your own plans or help another witch? Do you collect the resources you need immediately or work towards something that will pay off later? Do you invest your Magic in improving a road when someone else is likely to benefit from it too?
There is rarely one enormous, obvious decision staring you in the face. Instead, the game gives you a series of smaller choices that gradually shape how your game develops.
I particularly liked that because it makes the game feel accessible without making it feel shallow.
You can sit down and understand what you are supposed to be doing, but after a few turns you start looking at the board differently. You begin spotting opportunities, anticipating what the other players might do and thinking a little further ahead.
It is the sort of game where you can say, “I'll just do this,” and then discover five minutes later that you have somehow developed a complete strategic plan involving a road, three resources and a garden.
As you do.
Cosy Competition Is Still Competition
The semi co-operative nature of The Witches' Road gives the game a particularly warm feel. Everyone has a reason to contribute towards the shared development of the woodland, but you are still trying to finish with the most prestige.
That creates a lovely balancing act.
You want the roads to improve. You want the community to thrive. You want magical animals to find safe places to live. You may even want to help the other witches.
You would also quite like to win.
That last part is important because it prevents the game from becoming too gentle. There is still a competitive edge running underneath everything, and your decisions matter because you are ultimately trying to build the strongest position for yourself.
The result is what I would describe as cosy competition at its best. There is interaction and co-operation without the game feeling confrontational, and there is competition without anyone needing to emerge from the forest clutching a grudge.
Probably.
Honestly, Look at It
The artwork is one of the first things that stood out to me, because The Witches' Road is genuinely beautiful.
It has an impressive table presence, and the illustrated woodland, cottages, roads and magical elements immediately draw you into the world. It feels inviting without being overly sugary, whimsical without becoming too twee, and exactly the sort of game that makes you want to sit down with a hot drink and a blanket nearby.
It is also a game that looks better as it develops. As the roads are improved and the various elements begin appearing across the board, the woodland gradually feels more alive.
And I absolutely loved that.
There is something very satisfying about physically seeing the world you are helping to build become more developed as the game progresses. You are not simply collecting points on a track. You can look at the board and see the results of what everyone has been doing.
Of course, the fact that it is gorgeous does mean there is a danger of becoming distracted.
I can neither confirm nor deny that I occasionally paused to admire the artwork instead of thinking about my next move.
A Little Rulebook Magic Needed
My main criticism was the rulebook.
The game itself is easy enough to pick up, but there were a couple of occasions during setup and our early plays where the wording raised more questions than it answered. We found ourselves stopping to clarify certain points before continuing, which interrupted the flow a little.
It did not spoil the experience, and this is where playing a prototype is particularly useful. Hopefully, by providing that feedback during the playtesting stage, some of those areas can be addressed and the wording adjusted to make learning the game a little clearer.
That is really the only significant criticism I came away with, because once we had clarified those points, the actual gameplay felt wonderfully accessible.
Besides, if I am going to spend an evening with witches, magical creatures and a cauldron, I would prefer the mysterious elements to come from the theme rather than the rulebook.
Would I Take the Road Again?
Without hesitation.
The Witches' Road is full of charm, but what I appreciated most is that the charm never comes at the expense of the game itself. There is genuine strategy here, with planning, resource management and plenty of meaningful decisions, but it never felt like hard work.
The simple turn structure makes it approachable, while the number of choices available keeps you engaged. I loved that I was constantly weighing up whether to pursue my own plans or help another witch, and the fact that helping someone else could actually be the smartest move made the player interaction particularly enjoyable.
There is also a lovely sense of progression throughout the game. You can see the roads improving, the woodland developing and your own plans gradually coming together. Your hard work feels as though it has a tangible result, which makes the eventual scoring feel satisfying rather than simply being a matter of adding up a collection of abstract points.
Most importantly, I can see The Witches' Road having a very different result every time it reaches the table. The choices you make, the routes you take, the resources you gather and the way the other witches approach their own objectives all have the potential to change how the game unfolds.
It is balanced, accessible and satisfying, with just enough strategy to keep your brain happily occupied while the cosy theme does the rest.
If cosy games are your thing, I think The Witches' Road is well worth wandering down. It is beautiful, thoughtful and genuinely lovely to spend an evening with, while still giving you enough to think about that you will not simply be admiring the artwork for an hour and calling it a day.
Although, to be fair, the artwork is good enough that you probably could.
Just don't tell the other witches.
About the Author
I have a deep love for all things cosy and autumnal, so games like The Witches' Road are always going to be a must play in my eyes. Give me a beautiful woodland, a little bit of magic and a game that encourages everyone around the table to have a lovely time, and I am very easily persuaded. My gaming sessions are often supervised by my eagle eyed tuxedo kitty, Ebby, who takes her role as chief board game inspector very seriously indeed. She has yet to contribute anything useful to the strategy, but she remains convinced that sitting directly on the board is an essential part of the review process.
