After finishing my first playthrough of the PARKS: Nighfall Expansion yesterday, which was awesome, I had to head back to work for my evening clients before sitting down for another hike on the table 😊. This time, I hoped to see more Wildlife ... hehe... 🐾
The first thing I noticed when I opened the latest expansion for PARKS was the artwork in side the box!! If you haven't read my other posts about PARKS, the artwork speaks to me. I absolutely love the style, the bold colours.. it's excellent. When I saw this inside the box, I was excited already about this expansion.
And wouldn't you know it - more wildlife tokens!! Yay!!!
Hey wait ... What's with this big Bison fella? What's he doing with a butterfly, loon, squirrell and mouse!?
Guess you'll have to keep reading now eh? 😉(I can feel that the "bison-curiousity" kicking in for you)
The Wildlife expansion adds to the already, ever present theme in PARKS without question. Overall what it also does is ADDS MORE: More trail sections (pic above), more new photos to take, more gear cards, more canteen cards, more season cards, more parks to visit...
Oh! And a big bison token as well??? 🤔 Did I mention that yet? What's with the bison!? hehe...
Look at the artwork. Love it! 😍 In addition to some new parks with the traditional PARKS art, Wildlife also has "Iconic Wildlife" Parks which have the new art style which focuses on, you guessed it, the wildlife. Beautiful. Some of these new parks have the "instant reward" action when you visit the park (which came along in the Nightfall expansion). They also sometimes (as you can see in the pic above) have a wildlife token sometimes too! The way I see this is, you need to have spotted some wildlife along your hike to the park, in order to visit the park and truly take more out of the experience. (Maybe I'm reaching a bit, but I'm happy with the new challenge of managing and gathering my resources during my hike).
For my first playthrough using the Wildlife expansion, I wanted to use ALL cards across ALL PARKS games/expansions to see what that looks like. In this pic above you can see between the gear options and park options - there's ALOT!!! 😁
Oh look! A bison... It's a sign isn't it? I should probably explain what he's all about now. 🤔
Here's the setup for a solo round using Nightfall and Wildlife. *Notice the bison? You can spot him in Shenandoah National Park (main board, left most park)*. The bison token provides another way to see wildlife along your journey. The park where the bison is, cannot be reserved (to visit later), it can only be visited. Maybe to not disturb him? Maybe to not hog all of the views of the beautiful wildlife?? Anyway, when/if you do visit the park, the bison token means you have the option of BEFORE or AFTER "visiting" (i.e. paying the required resources) you can also perform a trade action of any 1-token/resource for 1-wildlife token (which acts as a 'wild' token for those who haven't played PARKS). I like it. It's a nice little addition that creates some thinking, creates (sometimes) a bigger desire to visit that park before someone else, adds another opportunity to see/gain wildlife ... Simple addition to a great game. 😀
*Side note - See the tree tokens at the trail end? Those show how the new season cards that come with the Wildlife expansion, add more variety to each season*
When that park has been visited, the bison now moves to the next park to the right. If he's already at the right-most park on the main board, he'll then move back to the left-most park. He's just minding his own business, roaming the fields and meadows of the national parks is all. 😉
Wildlife, like Nightfall, brings a couple more variant options to add (or not) into your plays. For example, in the base game at the start of the game, when you choose your year end-goal, you draw two cards and keep one. In Wildlife, that same option is applied to canteen cards now. Whenever you draw a canteen card, you draw two and keep one. That's just one example of how they've added a little optional variant, that I really enjoy because it just opens more opportunities and decisions along your adventures.
Honestly, I knew I'd like these expansions because I love the base game. The theme speaks to me 100%, the artwork and components do as well. However I never expected the theme to be added upon, and the gameplay to be subtly enhanced through these expansions. I'm so excited they're on my shelf. 🤗
