Hello friends. In the last newsletter, Parks won the popular vote. You can vote for the next game I play by voting in the poll at the bottom of the article.
Today’s solo adventure?
Parks by Henry Audubon and published by Keymaster Games.
This has to be the best presentation in a board game. All of the art is great, the cards have a nice feel, it takes up the right amount of table space, and the wooden tokens are perfect. This game is a whole VIBE and truly inspiring.
In Parks (solo) the player and some rangers take to the trails, soaking it all in while catching photos, sunshine, and park visits. You and the Rangers (your ai opponent) are given 2 wooden tokens each. You take turns moving that wood token however many spaces down the trail that you want. You collect any resources or take any actions the trail you stopped on offers. You go down these trails for 4 seasons and then you count up all the memories you’ve collected. In the solo mode you’re aiming to score 30+ points.
I’m also playing with the Wildlife expansion. The only thing it really adds is the Buffalo token and some extra cards. It’s not an extreme addition and the game I played is pretty close to the base game.
SETUP:
Setup is almost just like the multiplayer game, you’ll setup the main board with the park cards, the season cards, the canteen cards, and gear cards. You get 2 wood player tokens of one color and so do the Rangers (The AI). You start with the first player token and the camera. There is a small deck of cards just for the solo mode. (Wolf background) One card from that deck (it has 3 suns and 3 water spaces) helps you track the Ranger’s bonus action.
The gear cards (the ones with the backpack icon) are setup a little different in solo, the deck stays on the board, but you don’t lay out 3 cards like usual.
The Wildlife expansion adds a small change to setup. You’ll put the bison token on the left most park card. (It moves to the right park card when you buy the one it’s on and it gives you a small bonus, it’s a simple mechanic. ) You also start with 1 wild token, usually you wont start with any tokens.
GAMEPLAY:
Parks is played over 4 seasons (rounds) where the players determine how many turns they’ll get during each season by choosing which space they’ll move to on the track (trails). Each stop along the trail gives the player a particular resource or action they can cash in on. Sometimes it’s just earning a forest resource. Sometimes it’s getting to buy a park card. Over the course of the game you’ll try to solve the efficiency puzzle to score the most points you can, given the luck of your card draws. The Rangers mostly just act as action blockers and will occasionally mess with the board state.
Each season begins by shuffling the trail tiles, laying them out and flipping over a season card. These will usually have some kind of bonus board state effect. (The first one I had said “Gear cards cost 1 sun less”) The season card also determines where to place the bonus water and sun icons on the trail tiles.
Once the season has been setup, the round begins. The first player chooses a spot along the trail they’d like one of their hikers to move to. They’ll take any bonus resources and take the main action on the tile. Usually it’s getting another resource like a mountain or a forest token. (You’ll need certain resources in order to buy park cards. Parks cards are where you’ll get a majority of your points in the game.)
After you’re done moving one hiker, the rangers take a turn. Their movement is determined by the cost of gear cards. You’ll flip over the top card of that deck and place it on the board in a certain location depending on how many suns it costs. Far left if it costs 1 sun, middle if it costs 2 suns, and far right if it costs 3 suns. If you draw a 2 sun gear card, the ranger moves 2 spaces. You’ll move rangers depending on if one of your hikers is further down the trail then them. (There are 2 ranger tokens, so beginning on their second turn, you’ll need to remember which one to move)
If you’re in the lead, you move their ranger token that is furthest along. If one of their rangers is in the lead, you’ll move the ranger that is further back. Super simple. Players are only allowed to land on another player’s spot by flipping over a campfire token they get during setup. The rangers don’t have this campfire mechanic and so can’t land on a tile that another player token is on. If they try to land on one, they simple scoot to the next available tile.
The rangers don’t collect resources like usual or take any actions on the tiles they land on. The only thing they worry about are the bonus water and sun tokens. They do collect those and they put them on their tracking card. If they earn 3 of resource an effect triggers. It’s usually stuff like “Lose 4 water tokens”. Once the effect happens, you’ll discard all 3 of the resources that triggered the event and draw a new effect card.
This back and forth continues until all player tokens make it to the end of the track.
Players get a bonus action when they hit the end of the trail. You can ‘reserve’ a park card (not super relevant in solo mode, it just lets you take a park card out of the market, reserving it only for you to buy. ) you can buy a park card (this is only for points), or you can buy a gear card. (These give you small bonuses and discounts)
When a ranger hits the trail end, based on what gear card they drew that got them to the end determines which ‘action’ they take. If they draw a 1, they gain the first player token from you and discard the left most park card. If they draw a 2, they discard the middle park card. If they draw a 3, they discard the right most park card and they reshuffle all 3 sun gear cards back into the gear deck.
And that’s it! When everyone hits the trail end, you reset the trail, add a new tile and start it all over by drawing a new season card.
My Thoughts:
It took me 40 minutes to play this game. The Rangers don’t score, but I scored 29 points. The rulebook says that 25-29 is 2nd place, and 1st place is scoring 30+ points. I put up a fight, just missed a point somewhere along the way!
I love Parks. It’s not in an oversized box, the wood pieces are wonderful, every component in this game FEELS great. The game is so simple on the surface, which makes it very approachable. But if you dive in just a little more, you can find a lot of enjoyment trying to figure out the game.
Every time I play I pick up something new. I really like how the designer dual-used the gear cards. They’re still gear cards, but they’re also the AI movement. (and the more times they shuffle in the 3 sun cards, they speed up the game) I like the resource tracker for the AI. It adds just a little spice to the solo experience. I love that the trail tiles change order each round. No 2 seasons are the same! It’s brilliant!
This is a game I think everyone should own. Even if the mechanics aren’t that exciting to you, I think there is so much to learn from the way it approaches accessibility, aesthetics, the solo mode, and table presence. It’s beautiful without taking up the entire table. (Publishers please take note! Not everyone plays on a large pool table!)
I paid $30 for a used copy of Parks (and $20 for a new copy of the Wildlife expansion).
I would love to hear about the games you’re playing during this wonderful solotober and if you have any suggestions for me.