Who knew that you could travel through a mythical land and experience an action-packed adventure in just 12 turns? In the Creature Caravan Game, players set off with their caravan and 12 tents to pitch during their quest to reach the city of Eastrey. Along the way, they will experience dice-drafting and card tableau–building challenges to gain rewards and points, collect treasures, fight zombies, and trade for coins and food. At the end of each turn, they pitch their tent and get ready for the next day. After everyone has played 12 turns, the game ends and the player with the highest score wins!
There are four double-sided boards that are randomly connected to create a different journey each time you play. The trail you create on the road to Eastrey will have different types of terrain (plains, canyons, mountains and lakes) that contain dangers and exploration rewards.
On their turn, a player rolls five D6 dice, which they can assign to actions on their player boards or the caravan cards they have played. The basic actions available each turn have minimum die values required. These actions are:
- Travel: Move your caravan token to an adjacent map area based on which type of terrain is allowed by the card or player board location in which you place a die. Some cards allow more than one movement in a turn.
- Gain Resources and Cards: Some available action spaces on cards and your player board provide food, coins, or bag tokens. Food is used to play cards, and some cards require coins and/or bags. Bags and coins can also be used in trade actions. Players each start with 8 cards and because cards are spent often in this game to gain food or coins, gaining additional cards is crucial.
- Trade at the Market: This action allows one trade at the market using coins or bags to trade for bread.
- Attack: If a player moves through or ends their turn on a threat symbol, they must take a zombie token. When a player ends their travel on a threat and they have not yet pitched their tent, they may attack a zombie. Because each zombie subtracts a point at the end of the game, and attacking them results in game-end points, it is wise to try to attack them.
Playing a creature card to your tableau is a free action that a player can execute any time during their turn, provided they meet the card’s required resources. These cards sometimes give additional bonuses in addition to their scoring points.
At the end of each turn, players pitch one tent in the area their caravan travels to. It is wise to travel each turn for two reasons: 1) At the end of the game, 1 point is awarded per distance forward traveled, and 2) if you reach the final destination of Eastrey, you earn an additional 5 points.
Because there is a large 135-card deck, there is a nice variety of rewards, points, and actions that players can choose from in this game. The largest challenge is efficiently using the 12 turns available to create the best card action synergies to move your caravan and gain rewards and game-end points. During the time I spent with this game, I enjoyed discovering new opportunities and strategies. I always felt compelled to play again! Creature Caravan includes both a Solo Mode and a small expansion. For 1-4 players with a 60–90-minute game time. ~Marsha