I know, I know. Why aren't we starting with Realms? I can understand your apparent frustration at my illogical approach. After all, collecting Realms is how you win the Wild Realms board game! However, I figured it'd be much more interesting and fun to start with the "WILD" rather than the "REALMS." LOL!
So here we go—let's talk Animals! In real life, everyone loves animals or should we say some animals. Haha. Some love cats, some loves dogs and some love chinchillas, bunnies and even pot-bellied pigs! But seriously, we do love our pets, but we also really love wild animals. These are the animals that inhabit the world of Wild Realms, our premier tabletop game. From fish, to birds, to reptiles, to mammals, we have just about every type of animal represented in this tabletop game.
So What Do Animals Do In Wild Realms?
At the start of the boardgame, the Animals are wandering the untamed lands of Wild Realms. But as the game progresses you encounter said Animals and form an Alliance with them. Your Animal allies are needed to occupy and defend the lands (the Realms) that you explore for your Kingdom.
Animals also play an important role in slowing down your opponents' progress. They may invade your opponents' Realms and try to knockout it's defenders. Either way, you are in a race to win with the help of your amazing Animal allies!
Are There Different Kinds of Animals in Wild Realms?
Yes, there definitely are! This is true in two ways actually. The first is obvious. There are all kinds of wild animal species from all around planet Earth. Horses, reptiles, birds and more populate the world of Wild Realms. All-in-all each player has the potential to ally with 50 unique Animals from various animal groups. That makes for exciting match-ups and endless game play possibilities!
The second, less obvious way is that there are animals with different functions. There are Animals and Legendaries (also animals, but much more rare). While Animals join your Alliance, Legendaries never join your quest to establish a Kingdom. Instead, they infrequently "appear," and release an incredible game changing (sometimes devastating) impact. Where an Animal has a single special ability. Legendaries have two abilities (usually affecting all Kingdoms), between which, the player must choose one. The base game of Wild Realms will come with 12 beautifully, illustrated (in the Modern Mehndi art-style) powerful Legendary Animals.
Are All (Non-Legendary) Animals The Same in Function in Wild Realms?
Great question! No, they are somewhat differentiated in their functions. While all Animals join your growing Kingdom, they each are organized into roles through: Classes and Leadership.
Classes are a way to better understand what an Animal's special ability does. There are 5 Classes and they are: Growth, Adapt, Swarm, Lethal, and Decay. (Find out more about Classes in my blog article Board Games in Real Life.) While all Animal allies have a class, not all carry Leadership. This unique category of ally is represented by a crown icon and is limited in number among your Animal friends. In order to properly defend a Realm in your Kingdom, it must have an Animal of every class and a leader. To invade your opponents' Kingdoms, you must have a Leader among your Alliance.
If My Favorite Animal Isn't In Wild Realms, Will I Still Enjoy the Game?
While we can't 100% guarantee that you will like the game (even if your favorite Animal is in the game), we can tell you this. Many players of various ages and gaming experience levels have tested Wild Realms for us and we can honestly say that 100% of them liked the game. Now, to be clear, none of them thought the game was perfect (LOL) and suggested a wide range of adjustments.
Regardless, they all thought the game was fun and was going to be very good with some final polishes. Some of those very same play-testers returned to play the new "polished" Wild Realms and loved it! With that kind of response, we think it is highly likely that you will have fun playing Wild Realms and possibly even discover a new favorite Animal in the process!
If you haven't yet, please visit our Wild Realms page and sign-up to join our email list. We'll give you sneak peeks of Wild Realms (and our other games) before anyone else and you'll get notified when Wild Realms launches. Thanks for reading this week's blog and we look forward to talking all things REALMS & BATTLING in part 2 of this series. See you next week!
Comments