Board Game Review: Snow Tails | Geek Node Archive

Developer Gordon Lamont and Fraser Lamont
Publisher Renegade Game Studios
Distributor Board Games SA
Where we got our copy Board Games SA
Table top type Board Games
Players 2-5

PartyPanda5

Published June 24, 2016

Snow Tails – A game about dashing through the snow with your two furry companions and racing your friends to the finish line. Throughout the race, you’ll have to pass your friends without hitting them, dodge the massive oak trees around the track and take corners super slowly to avoid falling off. A non-dented sled is a happy sled!

Snow Tails is a game for the entire family (a recommended age of 10+) and can be played between 2-5 players. The game takes around 45-60 minutes to play, but this depends on how big you make your racing track. The objective of the game is not necessarily to be the first person to cross the finish line, but to be the person who crosses the finish line the furthest.

How to Play

Everyone in the game starts off with a sled, two husky dogs (both speeds are equal to 3), a brake (equal to 3), 5 movement cards and a pile of break tokens (1-5). Players must shuffle their movement card deck (Dog Deck) before drawing 5 cards.

The player with the huskiest voice is the first to play and position their sled on the track. The order goes down from huskiest voice to least husky voice (for example, if you were playing against Batman, he’d probably go first).

Putting the Tracks Together

In the rule book, there are 7 pre-made tracks that players can build and play, ranging from easy to hard. However, the tracks don’t stop there. You, as the player, can build your own tracks with the 16 track pieces that come with the game. Every track needs a start piece at the beginning and a finish line at the end, but whatever is in the middle is up to you. As long as your track always has a yellow flag on the left hand side, and the red flag on the right hand side.

On Your Turn

So what can you do when it’s your turn? Well, move! There are three ways to help your huskies push along your sled throughout the game. You can:

Place at least one movement card on a husky.

Change the value of the break on the sled.

Move your sled on the track.

Return your hand to five movement cards (by either discarding or drawing).

Placing movement cards on your husky will make them move. However, you need to be careful and strategize how you want to do this. If you place two movement cards of the same value (for example, a 3 and a 3) on both dogs, then your dog will be considered “balanced” and has the potential to move forward by those two numbers added up (3+3 = 6). However, you need to consider your break number when adding these values, because your break value is deducted from your potential speed (for example, if your break value is 2, the movement speed would change to 3+3 = 6 BUT 6 -2 = 4). Your sled, from this exa mple, would now move straight forward at a value of 4 because of the deduction from the break value. You can change the value of the break by allocating it a movement card and putting it into your discard pile.

If you need to turn your sled and move towards the right or the left, you need to place movement cards that have a greater value onto the left husky or the right husky. For example, if I placed a 2 on my left husky and a 5 on my right husky, and if I have a break of 1 that means that I will move at a speed of 6 (5 + 2 – 1 = 6). That also means that I will have to move towards the right by 3 spaces, because my right husky has a value that is greater than my left husky by 3 movement speed (5-2 = 3).

After you’ve done all your math calculations, you can move your sled on the board according to what you’ve put onto your huskies. After you’ve moved your sled, you need to have exactly 5 movement cards in your hand, so pick up from your deck if you have too little and discard into your discard pile if you have too many.

Dent Cards

Dent cards are collected by players when they have damaged their sleds. Players can do this by either colliding into other players, colliding into trees, colliding with the side of the track as well as going over speed limited areas at a higher speed than is stated (here, players get as many dent cards as the difference between their speed and the speed limit).

Players can never discard dent cards, they accumulate in your hand until the end of the game. If a player ever gets 5 or more dent cards, their sled falls apart and they are out of the game completely.

End Game

The first player to cross the finish line ends the game. The other players finish their turns and then determine which player went over the finish line the furthest – that player is the winner!

Positive Nodes

The game has ALL the replayability… All of it! With all the different tracks you can make, the game allows players to be creative and challenge themselves.

If you have a child that struggles with simple math calculations, this game will really encourage them to work through the problem to move their huskies forward.

A really beautiful game! The art work and the pieces are genuinely good quality and really pretty.

A good game for strategy and coming up with a plan to move forward.

A game for the entire family to play.

Negative Nodes

The movement mechanic can feel a little repetitive sometimes. The math calculations, whilst being relatively easy, don’t make the game more exciting and since this is the main mechanic of the game, it kind of makes the game a little boring after a while.

The green player token is the exact same green as the tree tokens – a bit confusing if you’re the green player.

There is a lack of player interaction. Yes, you have to avoid one another and compete for the finish line, but that’s it. It would be better if you could hinder other players’ movement with other mechanics. Think Mario Kart-like mechanics where you can throw shells at other players and slow them down etc.

Snow Tails - A game about dashing through the snow with your two furry companions and racing your friends to the finish line. Throughout the race, you’ll have to pass your friends without hitting them, dodge the massive oak trees around the track and take corners super slowly to avoid falling off. A non-dented sled is a happy sled! Snow Tails is a game for the entire family (a recommended age of 10+) and can be played between 2-5 players. The game takes around 45-60 minutes to play, but this depends on how big you make your racing track. The objective of the game is not necessarily to be the first person to cross the finish line, but to be the person who crosses the finish line the furthest. How to Play Everyone in the game starts off with a sled, two husky dogs (both speeds are equal to 3), a brake (equal to 3), 5 movement cards and a pile of break tokens (1-5). Players must shuffle their movement card deck (Dog Deck) before drawing 5 cards. The player with the huskiest voice is the first to play and position their sled on the track. The order goes down from huskiest voice to least husky voice (for example, if you were playing against Batman, he’d probably go first). Putting the Tracks Together In the rule book, there are 7 pre-made tracks that players can build and play, ranging from easy to hard. However, the tracks don’t stop there. You, as the player, can build your own tracks with the 16 track pieces that come with the game. Every track needs a start piece at the beginning and a finish line at the end, but whatever is in the middle is up to you. As long as your track always has a yellow flag on the left hand side, and the red flag on the right hand side. On Your Turn So what can you do when it’s your turn? Well, move! There are three ways to help your huskies push along your sled throughout the game. You can: Place at least one movement card on a husky. Change the value of the break on the sled. Move your sled on the track. Return your hand to five movement cards (by either discarding or drawing). Placing movement cards on your husky will make them move. However, you need to be careful and strategize how you want to do this. If you place two movement cards of the same value (for example, a 3 and a 3) on both dogs, then your dog will be considered “balanced” and has the potential to move forward by those two numbers added up (3+3 = 6). However, you need to consider your break number when adding these values, because your break value is deducted from your potential speed (for example, if your break value is 2, the movement speed would change to 3+3 = 6 BUT 6 -2 = 4). Your sled, from this…

Board Game Review: Snow Tails

2016-06-24

PartyPanda5

Snow Tails = Maths + Race + Adorable

Total - 6.5

65 6.5

Snow Tails is a fun game, but I would be okay with not having a copy of it on my shelf. I think that if you have children, it would be better suited for them.

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Andrea is a game designer with a passion for creative writing as well as cats. She is in her 4th year of study at Wits and is all about that academic life. Andrea spends the majority of her time trying to balance out playing really cool games and trying to make really cool games.