A Wisp in the Woods

A glow from the trees… are those the wisps? Each one is unique and has their own preferences about how they’d like to fit in the forest. Can you guide them and make your forest the brightest of them all?

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What Is It?

🥅The Goal is to score the most points over 3 rounds
⚙️Open Drafting – Players may draft a wisp on their turn from the center board to place into their grid alongside trees, according to one of the shapes that the wisp was next to
⚙️Grid Coverage – The shapes aren’t pre-made. Players create them in any orientation with the wisp in any spot, and the rest filled out by trees. They just need to fit into the grid, which changes sizes over rounds.
⚙️Pattern Building – Players also need to set their board up according to the scoring cards of each wisp and the trees.

Who Is It For?

👥1 to 4 Players – The solo is okay; pretty smooth, but more set-up and upkeep than I want in a solo, personally. I think the multiplayer game works well at any count. There’s not too much interaction, just the drafting, and more players means the board will change/refill more often.
👥Ages 10 & Up – It’s pretty approachable and the gameplay is smooth
👥Fans of “poly-omino”/tile laying games with a bit of a twist

PROS

🟢Aesthetics – It’s so pretty!! And the wisps (even of the same color) have multiple designs which is a nice touch!
🟢Components – Nice quality all around
🟢Easy set-up
🟢Rules are well written
🟢Unique tile laying game since you “build” the tiles for your grid – very cool
🟢Good variety for goal cards (and cats, but those are aesthetic only)
🟢Turns are snappy
🟢Can’t mess with each other’s boards

CONS

🔴I wish the cats and the pond refreshed automatically between rounds
🔴Luck in what wisps come out and the timing of the pond refresh (since you are limited to one cat use before you need to take a tree turn)

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Final Thoughts

I loved the look of this game, and I think that is something that will definitely help it get to tables, which is awesome. I also thought that it was so unique how you could decide the placement of the wisp when creating the different shapes, because I’ve never played a tile laying game like that. Finally, I thought it had an overall good gameflow, and pretty quick turns.

All that said, there was something holding me back from liking it a bit more. It’s good, but I feel like it won’t feel fresh enough after more plays, even with the varied score cards. But hey, who knows?

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 6.5/10

Designer – Reed Ambrose
Artist – Štěpán Drašťák
Publisher – Czech Games Edition
MSRP – $29.99
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