Review - Wakanda (2014) - Blue Orange Games

I am always on search for new two player games. And it was in my search a stumbled upon Wakanda. A non-dexterity stacking game?

The Blurb

Every one hundred moons, members from different tribes gather to sculpt new totems. The totems they create represent the values of their family, village, courage and culture. The tribe that makes the most prestigious totem poles wins the contest...
In Wakanda, players compete to create valuable totem poles, but the value of the poles is determined as much by where they stand as by what's in them. Each player starts the game with three headdresses. Six of eight village tiles are placed in a row, with three of the tiles tilted 90º to show that they're out of play; each tile has a unique scoring rule on it, and that rule will apply for all of a player's totem poles if he acquires that tile. On a turn, a player first draws one totem pole from the bag; the game includes 21 totem pole pieces: one eagle, two chiefs, three tomahawks, four animal skins, five teepees and six suns. The player then either places one of his totem pole pieces on an available village tile OR places one of his headdresses on an existing totem pole to claim it; in the latter case, he places this tile in front of himself and tilts the next village tile in line (if any) to make it available for play.Once all six poles have been claimed, the players tally their score based on the rules on their tiles, e.g. score 3 points per animal skin on all of your poles or score 2 points per piece for your tallest pole. High score wins.

The Gist

Build your totem poles and claim the right ones at the right times.

The Play

So, we decided to do a best-of-3:
Game 1:

The suns got stacked early and often on the first totem. Sun after sun were drawn. There were 4 right off the bat. We settled in a little and played the first game rather quickly. I eeeked out a win 16-20

Dad 1 - Tyler 0 




Game 2:

There is not a whole lot to say about this one. Tyler claimed the first totem and from there it was an avalanche of which i could not recover. I Lost 32-22


Dad 1 - Tyler 1

Game 3:

By this point, we were way more cautious and took much longer to plan our moves. I tried to make Ty take the sun pieces, but he managed to claim the sun tile and then put me in a difficult position by placing one key piece on the sun-filled totem, and I had no choice but to take it for negative sun points.  The other piece on the sun totem brought the penalty for sun pieces down to -2, and ironically (I think that's the right way to use it, if not blame Alanis Morissette for confusing me on the definition of ironic), that is how much I lost by. 18-16.

Dad 1  - Tyler 2 

The Bits

Dad:

"The tops of the blue totems look great. And they are always going to look great across the table because Tyler is never going to let me use them."
    

 

Ty:

"I love the eagle piece. There is only one of them and if you can score it it's a huge point swing."

The Good, the Bad and the Rating

 

Dad:

"This game really surprised me. I love the mechanic of either playing a piece or putting a piece down. I loved it in Zooloretto, and I love it here. Pieces are wooden, and the totems stay together very well as you build them higher and higher. "

4/5




Ty:
"I like the theme of building a totem. I also like having 8 cards to choose 6 from at the
beginning of each game. It changes the strategy every time. "
3/5