20 Strong: Tanglewoods White Review
I know it sounds odd to say it, but I think each new Tanglewoods deck I play becomes my new favourite deck, and that’s because the games feel so familiar, but yet are so different. The core concepts of the Tanglewood series remain: get through the forest and take down the boss. How the White deck does it differently, though, is what keeps me coming back.
In Tanglewoods White, players are moving through a 4×3 grid of cards, attempting to get from the bottom left card to the top right card, and enter the castles. In setup, three enemies are set aside to represent the three castles, as well as the final boss, in their own castle.
As players move orthogonially through the forest, they will do typical 20 Strong things – battle enemies, bribe enemies, get items, etc. – but you will also be placing cards in various castles. Each card has a symbol on the back, and depending on symbols – and at times the adjacent symbols – things can happen. This ranges from new enemies being added to an encounter, being forced to exhaust a dice, flipping the day/night card or more. It keeps you on your toes, and does influence the route you’ll take through the forest.
The trick is that you do want to be placing cards on the castles, as the number of cards in each castle deck represents the number of dice you get to spend when moving through that castle stack. The cards in the stack could make your adventure harder, however, so finding the right combination is key. And that is where the merchant comes in.
20 Strong: Tanglewoods White really is a resource management game. The gold you collect can be used to get out of a jam by bribing enemies, but you’ll want it for the merchant as well. The merchant, for a fee, can allow you to flip over a castle card so you can see what boss is there. Having that information can help you strategically place cards in that stack that will allow you to throw more dice, but not necessarily get a ton of bad stuff as well. It’s such a clever mechanic, and one that forces players to really think about the resources they collect.
And even when you fail – and you will fail – you just shuffle up and run it back. That’s what I love about 20 Strong. The game doesn’t hold your hand and makes it a walk in the park – this is a hard experience with tons of tough decisions to be made. But getting back up and back on the horse has never been easier in a game, and I can rattle off a few 20 Strong games in one night without batting an eye. This is a phenomenal system, and for someone who doesn’t play solo games often, I’m hooked.
As I play through the Tanglewoods decks I keep thinking what I’m currently playing is better than what I just played. Honestly, though, I think these are all just clever rifts on the same system, both the 20 Strong system and the Tanglewoods system. The production quality here is top notch, and I think the 24.99 CAD price tag makes these an attractive way to provide yourself more 20 Strong content.
Article By Adam
