About the game
Well it’s finally happened. The exploitation of nature has caused a new type of pollution that has annihilated all forms of life on the planet except 1. A few small groups of humans, the wind riders, remain. Surviving from tree to tree in lofty forest cities these Tribes of the Wind must eliminate the pollution to grow their forests. You will act as one of the guides using elemental magic to secure the future for mankind.
Game play
In this game you don’t just play with the cards in your hand but also the hands of the players next to you. You collect different colour cards representing earth, wind, fire and water. Each person takes control of a guide with each guide having 2 different requirements to be met to gain use of their powers.
At the start of your go you have 3 options. First is to play an element card. These cards have requirement to be met using the elements held by yourself and the players to your left and right. This could be have more or less of an element, total number of elements or not having any at all. These then cause an effect either eliminating pollution, gaining water, moving your wind riders and growing a forest.
If you hand gets clogged up with bad cards you can choose to place a temple. This allows you to discard cards whilst gaining instant effects.
Your third option is to build a village in 1 of your forests using your wind riders. These gain you objectives to complete by the end of the game.
Once you’ve done your actions you replenish your hand with new element cards and play move round clockwise.
The game finishes when someone places their 5th village, you continue the round so everyone has the same amount of turns. You can then count up your victory points. Points are scored for achieving your objectives, having villages, placing temples, removing pollution and growing forests.
My review
Artwork 5/5 – The artwork work Is done my Vincent Dutrait who also illustrates One of my favourite games ‘After Us' and the tribes of apes and the Tribes of the Wind look intertwined. What I really like is even though the are only 4 different element cards groups each card is uniquely illustrated which show a lot of effort put into the game
Complexity 3/5 - Your first game play will be filled with a lot of “what does this mean”, especially if you are teaching it on a games night but once you are through your first game it all starts to make sense bringing the complexity down. The element cards contain a lot of different requirements and effects making it harder to learn
Replayability 3/5 – I like how the different guides have different requirements and powers, game play is 20 mins per person (bit longer on your first game) which means you are unlikely to play back to back games but is a game you would want to replay in the normal to distance future.
Player interaction 4/5 – with what cards the players next to you have effecting your game the game is all about player interaction. I’m not competitive but when the hand of the player next to you is full of wind it can really put you off your game.
Component quality 3/5 – the wind riders, village markers and temples are nicely done but is let down but the water and pollution tokens
Comebackability 4/5 – With no live scoring you don’t know who is in the lead. This means you never feel out of the game.
Board gamer group 4/5 – By the end of the game if was enjoyed and wanted to be replayed but the game was full of confusion in the first part
Family 1/5 – The 14+ rating is right for the game, There is too much mechanics to be enjoyable for most of a younger age group.
Improvements to be made
- This game is crying out for some players guide cards, it would probably need 2 or 3 each but would save the instruction booklet needing to be passed around. It really lets the game down.
- The guides are in need of a back story. You have 5 different characters by look but would be nice for them to have an individual personality.
- The game works by you using that back of the cards of the players on your left and right. This means you game can be hindered by the table you are playing at, particularly when playing as a five its hard for both players to see the backs.
- Too many plastic bags, where’s my insert
What I enjoyed
- The strategy to it. Do you wait for other players to pick up cards to help you? Do you wait to use better effects? Is it worth holding out for that objective or go for a 5th village to end the game on your terms?
- Many different objectives to choose from creating different game plans
- Each player having different powers to help replayability
My final thoughts
The lack of guide cards really knocks this game down despite being a quite well rounded game. The art work boosts it up again but it’s just missing that final finish of player back stories and storage.
