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At film school they said “Don’t work with animals”.
Where am I? In the middle of the Wild Serengeti, filming.
Your goal is winning the most stars and produce the greatest wildlife documentary ever.
It would help if the animals would stay still. Some are hiding in the trees and others are climbing the rocks. The grassland extends across the land and the river is for keeping cool. The varied terrain of the Wild Serengeti can provide amazing scenes as long as the animals are in the right place at the right time.
This is the second Kickstarter game from the South Korean company Bad Comet. Their first being Shaolia, a duelling game with dice placement, resource management and engine building.
What Can I Find In The Wild Terrain?
The beautiful leopard picture on the top of the box is stunning and reflects what is inside. The animals (animeeples) are gorgeous and you spend ages just looking at them. Putting them on the map board just to see how they look.
The map board terrain is nicely drawn. The terrain icons are clearly marked on each square. This is the centre piece with the action board positioned above this. The board is double sided giving an alternative area of the Serengeti to film.
The action board is the location of 4 types of animals. There are 8 action areas from placing an animal on the board to moving/swapping them to scene cards access. The action cost is cheaper if you are the first to select it. Place any lock tokens on the action squares as indicated for any player count that is higher.
How Do I Film A Scene?
There are 168 scene cards and they clearly depict the achievement and your reward (if any). The icons on the right side of the card are instantly recognisable. Each card has a fact about an animal which is a nice touch. The artwork on the back of the card is stunning. Create a scene pool of 6 cards and each player takes 8 scene cards and selects 4. The rest are placed in a discard pile next to the scene card deck.
What Are The Resources For?
The coin, food and vfx tokens are designed to clearly show what they represent. The quality is the standard cardboard tokens you get with most games. These are placed as supplies around the map board. The coins are spent to perform an action. Food encourages an animal to move to the desired terrain by 1 space. The vfx tokens allow changes to terrain for the perfect scene.
Why Is There A Rock Of Ages?
The rock of ages is an impressive way to monitor the turn round number. The hornbill is placed on the number 1 spot showing the coin reward, restrictions and events. Place an award tile in the spaces below round 4 and 6. The award tiles are solid and the icons highlight reward for 1st and 2nd place.
The number of coins indicated each day are taken from the supply.
The great migration happens for 3 days in a row. The migration cards are of the same picture quality as the scene cards and are placed next to the rock of ages. Each migration card shows a pattern and if any animals are on that square of the board they migrate (removed from the map).
All I Need Is A Camera
Each player picks a colour and takes the 2 cameras and video bar. The cameras are beautifully designed and one of them is used as a star counter located around the edge of the bar. The video bar is used for completed scene cards. Everyone gets a double-sided player aid as well.
Specialist cards are optional with a complexity rating. Each player receives 1 card only. The benefits are either ongoing or one-off. The cards are the same quality as the others.
The rulebook takes you through each step clearly with plenty of pictures. The rules are straight forward and uncomplicated.
How Do I Become The Greatest?
After 6 days, if you have the most stars, you are the greatest.
The rock of ages guides you through that day’s events and spend your coins wisely.
Put your camera on one of 4 spaces next to a group of animals and place 1 animal from that group on the map. The cost is 1 coin unless the space is already taken then it will be 2. Buying a scene card(s) from the pool cost 1 coin each or refresh the pool in hope of better choices.
You can swap or move animals for the same cost of placing an animal although you can’t do this in the 1st round.
Once those animals create the desired scene, the card is placed above your video bar. Gaining the reward (if any) from stars to meat/vfx tokens. Other free actions are spending meat and vfx tokens. Also selling 2 incomplete scene cards gains a coin.
A player can pass at any time during the round only if they have less than 3 coins. The day ends when all players have passed.
Why Are There Icons On The Cards?
When a scene card is placed in you video gallery, the icons become active.
The meat and vfx tokens these each day. The flower, leaf, banana and diamond icons are used to determine the stars you receive as a reward on some scene cards. Animal paws are classed as wild when counting up the number of animals at the award ceremony. The hearts are the number of likes for your scene. Gain enough by the end of the game and these are converted to stars to boost your final score.
Can I Hire Specialists To Support Me?
Yes, and you make your choice from two but all players must have one. The specialist cards provide unique abilities rewarding extra stars or bonuses. Each specialist is rated between 1 to 5 from easiest to most challenging.
Is The Cooperative/Solo Mode Challenging?
The aim is to gain a minimum number of stars after 6 rounds. There are 6 scenarios and most of them add goals after each round based on stars, meat and vfx tokens and scene cards. The specialist can play a role as well. The gameplay is the same as playing competitively with some variation for solo play.
Completing the end round goals can be challenging. In co-op mode, the interaction is great and changes the way you plan your approach.
The Kickstarter Adds More
The Kickstarter promo has a wooden first player marker.
Score tokens cloth bag extra scene cards and specialist cards. The expansion pack adds extra scene and specialist cards. Some specialist cards are accompanied by more beautifully designed animal partners. The 8 animal partners can gain extra stars; change the terrain; or pretend to be a different animal.
The cloth pouch is a lovely addition to keep your animals safe.
Final Thoughts
Wild Serengeti is a fantastic family game. The Puzzle element is very enjoyable and planning is not overtaxing to the brain and is set at the right level.
The production is exceptional and the animals are beautifully designed. Sadly, the cards could have been better quality and they need sleeving.
Scene cards can be easily completed with careful planning. Next turn you will make it then arghhhh, someone has just moved that animal to the wrong space. Other times you cheer as someone has just moved an animal which completes the scene for you. Some rewards are based on icons of completed scenes and need extra thought.
The specialist cards vary from adding great bonuses and goals to hardly being actioned to tough end of game goals. You feel you are at a disadvantage. The complexity rating is a very good idea and depending on the group you can use the appropriately rated cards. Why are there only 3 cards for the 1 and 4 complexity rating? It would have made sense to have a minimum of 4 cards for each rating. I realise they can be given out at random but some players will get more complex cards then others.
Wild Serengeti instantly reminds you of The Lion King. The Rock of Ages and action spaces gives you the Everdell feeling.
