Fight to Take Command of Neon-Soaked Regions in ‘Wroth’
Pick from distinct factions and battle for control of the neon landscape of the Drudgeon Peninsula in Wroth.
The Drudgen Peninsula has been at war for centuries as different factions battle for control. And you may just lead one of these factions to victory. Wroth is a “neon-soaked area control strategy game.” Each player represents a different group, all with distinctive cultures, approaches to battle, and fighting styles. But any of them can claim victory and earn control of Wroth‘s radiant landscape.
| Quick Guide | |
|---|---|
| Mechanics | Action drafting, Area-Control Strategy |
| Players | 1 to 4 Players |
| Playing Time | 60 Minutes |
| Similar Games | Root, Kemet |
| Publisher | Chip Theory Games |
Wroth Overview
In Wroth, each player takes on the entire culture of various factions warring over control of the Drudgeon Peninsula. Different players aren’t distinctive just by their color scheme, but play-style, approach to battle, and abilities. Each faction consists of basic troops and a few elite troops, all racing to thirty points in order to claim victory over the neon landscape of the Drudgeon Peninsula.
And when they say neon, they mean it. Wroth is a beautifully bright and vibrant game. Of course, style and aesthetics aren’t everything in a board game. But I always appreciate when a game is unique and nice to look at. And Wroth is absolutely an example of this.
Gameplay is also surprisingly easy to pick up and teach. New players can go from a brand new box to actually playing the game in fifteen minutes. This is thanks to straightforward rules and an easy to quantify goal. Thirty points wins. Get to thirty fast.
Nailing down exactly what Wroth is or isn’t is a little difficult. Because it’s many things. This is a tremendously versatile game, with competitive, cooperative, and solo gameplay styles. And with the huge variety in playstyle of the factions, you can play a different game every time, or fall into a style that you really mesh with and enjoy.
How To Play Wroth
To set up this game, players will choose their faction as well as what side of the map they will deploy their troops from. The map and victory point tracker are placed at the center of the table, and depending on how many players there are, a number of action dice will be placed in the play area as well.
Players take their faction’s playmat as well as all of that faction’s corresponding accessories (troops, feat cards, etc.) and place their basic troops into the deployment zone on their side of the map.
Wroth is played in rounds. Each round has six phases, which always happen in the same order.
Phase one is Maintenance; here the round counter is set to the current round. This step is skipped in round one. Phase two is Spoils. Players may get bonus actions in this phase depending on who has the most troops in a given region. Phase three is Groundwork. Here, players will reinforce their deployment zone, roll their all-seeing eye die, and allocate resources.
Phase four is the Draft phase; players will draft dice from the pool which will later be required to take various actions. Phase five is the Action Phase, and this is where most of the action happens. Here, players will take turns spending their drafted action dice to do various tasks. For example, you may deploy troops or attack an occupied region. In the sixth phase, Victory Points; players tally how many victory points they’ve earned throughout the round.
In the standard, competitive version of Wroth, the first player to thirty points ends the game and takes the victory.
Should I Buy This Game?
Wroth seems like it should be a lot. It looks like it should be a bit overwhelming and long. But it’s not. It’s fun, engaging, and structured to the point of being relatively easy to learn and start playing right away. That is, easy to play, not to win. The ease of your win is dependent entirely on your strategy. But sometimes when I’m playing a new strategy game, I’m so caught up trying to keep up with how to play that I back-burner playing-to-win. That doesn’t happen as much with Wroth.
There are many things to like about Wroth. It’s fun, the learning curve isn’t steep, there are many ways to play, there’s good replayability, and it’s a beautifully designed game. If you enjoy strategy and land-control games, I can think of many reasons why you should check this game out.
