Animals Gathering - Review

Animals Gathering - Review

Information:

Mechanics: Drafting, Set Collection, Engine Building, Push Your Luck 
Player Age: 8+
Player Count: 1 - 4 Players

Game Designer: DuGuWei

Game Artist: Yuan Momoco
BGG Weight: 1.60

Publisher: Wonderful World Board Games

Time to Play: 20 - 40 Minutes 
Year Published: 2023

Introduction:

In this wizard-run world creatures have long been extinct. Using ancient spells players are trying to liven up their world with plenty of the growling, chirping and squeaking of animals long forgotten. This is done by arranging powerful magic stones in a representation of that animal. The more animals you summon, the more powerful the mage becomes, therefore making it easier to continue summoning animals. The first to complete five animals will end the game, and whoever has the most points wins. The game is a fast-paced combination of push your luck and engine building.

Game Anatomy:

Animal Cards:

Each animal card requires an assortment of magical stones in a pattern that resembles an animal. There are points to be gained if completion is achieved. These points are found in the top left corner and the card will also contain the animal type (forest, water or air), as well as abilities that will activate when the animal is completed. There are three types of abilities:

- Ongoing Abilities that allows players to end the game early, block attacks or convert certain die faces into other magic stones.

- Scoring possibilities for certain animal habitats, specified sets of habitats or specific magic stone abundance throughout the completed animals.

- Some abilities will even activate when completing other animal cards. This may be gaining another animal card, gaining a certain magic stone or attacking another player's magic stones.

Magic Stones:

There are seven types of magic stones that will be used to complete animals. Once an animal has all of its magic stones filled it will be moved to the completed side and be considered ‘summoned’. 

Dice:

There are three types of dice in the game, each with a different configuration of magic stones on their faces. This is shown on any mage card.

Mage Cards:

Each mage card contains the dice configuration so players can see which are the better dice to use. Additionally, mage cards have a special ability. This could allow the player to roll more dice, re-roll dice, or gain a bonus magic stone if they roll specific results.

Spell Cards:

Spell cards are an optional rule. At the start of the game each player will be dealt two cards and choose one to keep for the game. These are one-time effects that can be played at any time to help sway the game in the player's favour.

Setup:

- Shuffle the mage cards and deal one to each player.
- Shuffle the animal cards, deal three to each player then they will choose one and discard the rest.
- Reveal five animal cards face-up in the centre of the table.
- Make sure the dice and magic stones are within reach.you 

How To Play:

On a turn, a player has two options; gain one animal card from the face-up display, or gain magic stones. 

When gaining an animal card, it is placed into the summoning area, which will hold a maximum of five cards. The display will then be refilled.

When gaining magic stones, the player will roll dice of their choice equal to 6 deduct the number of cards in their summoning area. The more cards that are being worked on at a time means the less dice the player will roll. Any magic stone rolled that can be used by the active player for developing animals will now be placed. Any leftover die results will be offered to every other player. It is paramount that players plan accordingly for this as they don't want to push their luck and reward the opposition. For this reason, having the right number of animals in development is crucial.

When a player has successfully summoned five animals the game will end that turn. Whichever player has the most points is the winner.

Final Thoughts:

- Fun abstract art style.
- Interesting take on push your luck, where instead of being penalised yourself, the other players benefit.
- Quick engine building as only five animals are being built, so analysing the cards available is crucial when gaining. This is why players pick one starting animal out of three.
- The player's abilities mostly lessen the push your luck element, which is the more common unique element.

Animals Gathering is a great lightweight game with plenty of decision space. Players have to summon five animals using abstract shapes of magic stones by rolling dice equal to 6 and deducting the number of in-development animals. If any of these die results cannot be placed your opponents will instead gain these magic stones to use immediately. This game twists the push your luck conundrum by offering the opposition positives instead of personal negatives. Due to this players are left weighing up the risk of speeding up their opponents' engines. The more animals in development that the player has decreases the amount of dice rolls. This lowers the risk of missing die opportunities, however, it will take longer to complete animals. Add to this the unique abilities and you see a lot of interesting decisions for the players in a short play time. This is easily becoming a go-to push your luck game for me that I highly recommend you try.

Click...feed the addiction: 

Animals Gathering on BGG

Animals Gathering Website

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