The struggle against the Machines
🐻Defenders of the Wild is the type of cooperative game that some like to call a “crisis-management game”. I find this description very fitting, as during play all kinds of problems arise and you only have a few actions each turn to do something about them - thus you have to manage these crises and prioritize accordingly. These games usually scale seamlessly with player count, as after each player turn something negative happens. In this case you draw from a deck to see what the evil machines do. What evil machines, you ask? 🤖
In Defenders of the Wild you play as animal factions that are fighting for survival. Some have tried to create an invention to end the fickle cycle of seasons and stop the cold winters for all, but the experiments have gone terribly awry. With a fusion of magic and technology, endless hordes of self-replicating robots have invaded the lands. 🙀 It is up to the surviving animals to band together and fight back, heal the lands from corruption and defeat the machines. ✊
🗺️The map is made up of hexes of different terrain, with an impenetrable robot factory in the middle. You also set up some mechs, pollution and engines, so you already have some problems on your paws. The engines are the most interesting pieces as they will build walls and move when the appropriate machine card is drawn. Whenever a hex is completely surrounded, a factory will be built there. If there are no more factories available to build, you lose - but of course in usual co-op fashion there are two other loss conditions too. ☠️
To play you choose a faction and assemble your deck of cards. 🃏 Each turn you will choose a card from your hand to play. This card determines how many actions you get, plus it has a special ability and its color will help you move easier on the matching terrain. You can move around, build camps, clean pollution, fight robots, heal up, breach walls and rewild factories. The latter is the most important, as your goal is to rewild every factory and place out all your camps to win. 🏆
And let me tell you, it is all incredibly difficult. You have to grind hard if you want to stand a chance against the machines.