The Waylanders Preview
My roommates and only recently began to dive into the modern world of board games, but we play at least once a week. Our competitive game nights usually end with a sore loser or two, or in the case of my fiancée, a lot of victorious gloating. For a while now, it’s kept us playing more cooperative games, but it’s time to return to something more aggressive, and what better place to start than the strategic Celtic game, The Waylanders, currently on Kickstarter.
Designed by Eclipse Editorial and Gato Studios, The Waylanders is a tactical battle game designed based on Celtic mythology for two to four players to go head to head and claim the arcane lands for themselves. Players will create a team of five adventurers, choosing from six classes across four different races, each adventurer with their own unique abilities that will be essential to victory. Character abilities can be extra healing or gaining extra movement after being attacked.
The composition of your characters and their abilities is crucial to your success. Using The Waylanders‘ unique formation system, characters can gain extra moves and bonuses simply by positioning themselves on the board in a specific way, relative to their allies. Planning out movements in advance will let players activate special abilities like extra attacks by placing three of their characters in a V-formation. The formation mechanic will force players to calculate their moves as thoroughly as they might need to in chess, but will reward them with instant gratification, and maybe even a victory.
The world of The Waylanders is vast and only the most seasoned of adventurers can trek across it. Not only do adventurer skills grant special abilities, but they define how well or how poorly they travel across the terrain. Dense forest and tall mountains can slow character movement, hindering players’ abilities to create necessary formations without proper planning. Carefully choose between the Celts, Mourians, Fomorians, and even Werewolves to maximize your movement capabilities and crush your opponent as they struggle to cross the river. Better yet, observe your opponents’ weaknesses and use them to your advantage.
To add to the mass amount of strategy already included in The Waylanders, player can win in a number of different ways. Players can win by completing a series of objectives, eliminating all of the enemy forces, or claiming the land for yourself by claiming all of the strongholds. Utilizing a system that has multiple win conditions allows for a wider range of strategy. Should your party not be the most effective combatants, you can race across the land to capture all of the strongholds while your opponents are lost in the woods. Likewise, you could ignore the strongholds and batter the enemy like any good Celtic warrior should.
If board games aren’t your thing, however, you’re in luck. You’ll still get the chance to experience The Waylanders expanded universe in the form of an upcoming video game. At this early stage, there are very few details available about the game, but Gato Studio has pre-alpha trailer available.
The Waylanders is a fantastic game for anyone who is looking for deep strategy. Even better, it’s already been funded so the game’s production run is a sure thing. There’s still a bit of time left to back the game that’s due to be delivered next September. For $69, backers will get the complete game and all unlocked stretch goals that already includes two additional scenarios, more map tiles, new event cards, and two new characters. The Waylanders campaign comes to a close on Thursday, October 4th so get it while you can!