Upset about being put on a diet, the weavlings have fled their home, in favor of the tender wilds. Now, it’s up to you, the weavling trapper, to lure them back home. Can you rebuild the weavling population, or will the beasties get the better of you? There’s only one way to find out!

What Is It?

A grid-based solo game where the player uses the trapper’s actions each turn to move, and collect or play traps. They can also freely collect and use wild spirit cards, which will have helpful boons on them. Ultimately, the player is trying to capture beasties and use their meat to lure weavlings into their population. If a player hits 10 lured population, they win! However, if a player runs out of traps, loses 10 weavlings, or takes 10 wounds, they lose.

Who Is It For?

  • Solo Gamers
  • Ages 12 +
  • Fans of grid-based, puzzle-type games
  • Fans of varying difficulty settings
  • Players who don’t mind the randomness of events (i.e. “draw until you get X card”)

Expansions

Zadarra’s Baubles and Brew – This expansion adds 6 new traps that the player can use in place of the original traps, or mix some of each into the deck, adhering to a limit of traps from each rank. I found these traps to be more interesting than some from the base game, which was neat to play with (especially some that let you discard cards in certain patterns), so it was a nice addition to the game once I was familiar with how to play.

Star-Touched Predators – This expansion adds in 2 new beasties to replace those from the base game, some of which have an enhanced “chomp” ability, “devour,” which will eat away at more cards on the tender wilds. This expansion also has new events to use in place of the originals. Again, it was nice to have this expansion to give some more options for the game, but I wasn’t in love with it. I don’t like event cards to begin with, so these didn’t really change that, as they were similar. And this also made the beasties more difficult, which just didn’t mesh well with my play style. But, if you like a slightly harder game, you might like these beasties more!

PROS

  • Simple set-up
  • Set win/loss conditions
  • Quick to learn and play
  • Good decision space, especially if you are able to collect a bunch of traps at once

CONS

  • Event cards – these can often force you to quickly work through large chunks of your deck (i.e. “draw until a vargler is drawn”) through no fault of your own, which can just be frustrating, and tedious.
  • Having to rotate wound and lured weavling cards when you reshuffle the deck is also a bit of a nuisance, particularly if you have a bunch of cards stacked up.

Final Thoughts

Overall, it’s a fairly simple game that doesn’t take long to set-up or play, which is what I like in a solo game, personally. It has a puzzley nature that gives the player options, and allows them to figure out the best move(s) each turn, which is nice.

I think without the expansions, the game lacks a little bit of replayability, so I definitely think they are needed to give the game more variety.

If you’re a solo game who likes a puzzle, this one might be for you, so check it out!

Additional Information:
Designer – Jonathan Flike
Artist – Jonathan Flike
Publisher – Atomic Automaton
MSRP – $24.99
Website
Kickstarter Release – August 30, 2022