Woodcraft

Woodcraft was another piece of this year’s Essen crop that had passed me by, mainly because the rest of my group had already played it. And yes, when I see a new Suchý game from Delicious Games, I do not need much introduction or a second thought — it also helps that the publisher keeps its prices reasonable, which feels almost exotic these days. I also fully understand why the game has gathered so many positive impressions.

At its core, it is a resource-collection and order-fulfilment game. The element that gives it its own identity is its rather wild, “three-dimensional” rondel: it determines what you can play and with which bonuses, so it is not merely a decorative cog sitting on the board. It is the mechanism around which your choices turn.

At one level, that wheel stands alongside the idea behind the wheel in Praga Caput Regni. In practice, though, the flow at four players was very difficult for me: there were moments when I waited 12 to 20 minutes to do anything meaningful, while the previous player went through roughly 15 actions. Within that flow, the cards felt far too random to me, while the tools path seemed not merely like a strong choice but a necessary one.

I would play it again, because this was only my first encounter with it and the game clearly has things left to reveal. But for my own tastes, it did not win me over as much as Suchý’s earlier work. I remain a big fan of Messina, and Woodcraft, though clever and unquestionably interesting, felt one step below it to me.