‘The Willow Game’ Brings Great Adventure to the Table
Willow has all the right elements for epic fantasy: magic, adventure, a prophecy, and Val Kilmer. The Willow board game is no exception.
Despite some mixed reviews upon release, Willow, the movie did place #1 at the weekend box office, pulling in $8.3 million. And now with the new Willow series on the horizon to bring in a new slew of fans, let’s take a look at the board game which does a wonderful job of capturing that magic.
Actually, Willow had 2 board game releases and a couple of video game releases. The NES game is actually really solid if you’re curious. But today we’re taking a look at the board game from Tor Books, rather than the Parker Bros version.
The Willow Game is a competitive, asymmetrical team game with hand management and role-playing mechanics. Each team is either Good or Evil and they both have their own characters, goals, and abilities.
If you don’t know the plot of Willow, here’s a super brief overview. A prophecy says a child born will overthrow the evil queen Bavmorda, so all babies are getting rounded up. One special baby gets sent down the river, Moses-style, and falls into the hands of Willow Ufgood. The baby is found to be special and must be returned to her people to fulfill the prophecy. Zany antics ensue and make allies and enemies along the way. There’s a big battle, transformation magics, and crazy monsters.
The game follows the movie plot really closely, so it’s important to have some idea of what is going on.
Willow Board Game Gameplay
The goal for both teams is to capture the baby, Elora Danan, and bring her to a specific location.
- Good wants to free the kingdom of Tir Asleen and bring the baby there OR they can attempt to defeat the evil Bavmorda in combat.
- Evil wins if they can find and capture Elora Danan and bring her to Nockmaar Castle.
Unfortunately for Evil, one of the good characters starts with Elora Danan, but Evil does not know who. This means they will have to follow and fight the Good characters to find the baby.
As the game progresses, the Good characters will level up Magic or combat Prowess skills and keep track of their health on their character cards, using a paper clip or the like to mark the current score.
Additionally, scattered across the board and Places of Power, which contain Treasures, one of which is vital towards victory: The Sceptre of Tir Asleen.
As the players roam the board, searching for treasures and babies, they will undoubtedly battle against each other. This is a simple roll-off, adding any applicable combat scores to see who wins the combat.
However, players can also use other cards to aid them, allies, magic, or one-time-use effects. On their turns, the Evil team will play their Foe cards to slow down and hinder the machinations of those goody two shoes.
And, what Willow game would be complete without transformations? By casting the Transformation spell, you can turn an ally or enemy into all manner of beasts, which might end up being useful one way or another.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of other rules to go into, but that’s the main core of the game. Overall, The Willow Game is a really solid game with great mechanics and decent balance, although it does seem like Good has the advantage.
The gameplay is simple but still allows for strategy and tactics. I really like the idea of Evil essentially controlling the random encounters with their Foe cards and the Transformations have such potential for hilarious gameplay.
Either way, for fans and newbies alike, this is a great addition to any board game collection.
