Sleuth of a Seuthe: An Investigative Review on Games

As a long time avid game player, and lover, I come before you to tell you my complete honest and forward opinion on games. I will bring out the things I like in the game. Point out the things I dislike. And consider who this game would be best targeted at. All of this while also assigning a completely random biased number on a scale of 1-8. Why 8? Because I can!
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Independent Game Review of "Wrangled"

Eric Bryan Seuthe II
United States
Woodland Hills
California
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I have to say, when I saw Wrangled! on Kickstarter, I thought that it was pretty awesome. The fact that I got the chance to review the game with my fiance's son gives this game an extra added experience.

Game play is simple, but just to be clear I want to break it down for people.

Every player gets their color card. Four colors total.

Shuffle the deck.

Deal five cards to all players.

Players can do two actions per turn:

Play a card from your hand. First player puts a card in the center, and all players build off of the four spaces adjacent to that card, and so on with the next card.

Wrangle a cow, or a cowboy. Yeah a cowboy.

Discard up to all your hand and draw back to your five card hand limit.

Draw up to five card hand limit.

Those are the basic rules of the game. What adds to the strategy and all around trolling, is the ability to attack cattle a cattle drive.

For one of your actions, you can discard a cowboy, or two, from your hand to attack a cattle drive on the board.

We should go into detail about what a cattle drive is. Cattle drives are the four sides of any cow.

To attack a cattle drive, you have to have an open space in that cattle drive. If all four spaces are filled by cowboys, or even cows, that cattle drive is full and can't be affected. However, if you were to put a cow by the cowboy you want to remove that cowboy is now in a new cattle drive and you can effect that cowboy.

When attacking a cattle drive, you can discard a cowboy to wrangle the cow and remove it from a cattle drive. You can then take that cow, and place it anywhere around the board, or even discard it. You can also discard two cowboys to wrangle another cowboy within the cattle drive, oh the imagery.

You can use this ability to change the balance of power in the cattle drive.

The game is over when the draw deck is emptied.

At this point a player resolves all the actual cattle drives. There will likely just be large sections of cows unassigned. Then count the cowboys on the cattle. If their is a tie, no one gets the points. If there isn't a tie, the highest cowboy takes a point for the cattle drive, and the player with the most points win.

WHAT DID I LIKE ABOUT THE GAME:

I like games where the first player is clear, and I like it more when the youngest player gets to play first in family games. It gives a slight advantage to the youngest player who is unfortunately usually the weakest when it comes to strategy.

I also like the speed in which the game is played. Without much hesitation, turns don't take to long, and before you know it, you have a turn again.

Lastly, those damn cows are cute.

WHAT DID I DISLIKE ABOUT THE GAME:

I personally think that maybe ending the game the minute the card deck is empty is a little too sudden. Maybe allow the last player to get cards from the deck the ability to finish their turn.

WHO IS THIS GAME DESIGNED FOR?

Children, even if it is designed to be a family friendly, fun paced strategy game, this game is perfect for children.

Also, if you have 30 minutes to spend, this game is pretty quick and fun. So really anyone with a fun side, looking for a change of pace from the twenty page game rule books, this is the game for you.

PRICE POINT?

$10 - $20

$10 for a Print and Play Copy

$15 for a Early Bird Copy

$20 for the Regular Copy

WORTHY OF PICKING UP?

Yes. Definitely. The goal of this Kickstarter is $4,000, and that is possible, but this game needs your help to reach that.

Do you want this game, maybe you don't, but if you got kids, I recommend this game. My six year old was able to understand the rules pretty quick, and loves the game. For ten dollars to get a print and play copy to play with your kids, you wont regret pledging. Well, you'll probably regret not pledging more.

I would recommend that if they are still available when you read this, pick up the physical copy of the game for the early bird $15. I happened to get a physical copy of this game to test out, instead of a print and play, and the card quality is good.

Also, even if you miss the early bird, the increase of $5 dollars is not that bad, and easy to suffer, for a fun game and to help an independent game creator.

WORDS TO THE DESIGNER:

My only concern with the game is the rules. There needs to be a section explaining what a cattle drive is for the purpose for the attacking. At the very least to help clarify for players who pick the game up off the shelf and play it without the benefit of a game play video, or playing the game with the designer.

Also in that same vein, a tiny blurb about what you can play and how you play the the first card to the table wouldn't be a bad idea.

THE HUNTER OF GAMES: A Six Year Old's Prospective

My fiancé's child, hence known as "The Hunter of Games" had this to say, "I thought the game was cool. I liked being the green cowboy, and how they looked. I loved using cowboys to take cowboys and cows to throw them away!"
He loved the game, at one point he tried to gain points, but what he loved more then winning, was trying to make people lose holds on cattle drives. He picked up that technique pretty quick.

Also, he had no problem realizing whose turn it was, and had no trouble reminding people.

Check out their Kickstater here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/harpygames/wrangled?ref=...
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