For Northwood!

01Discover the game

For Northwood! is a fold game for one person. You visit eight wood leaders and try to win exactly the number of dialogues requested by each. A fold won too can make a visit fail as surely as a missing fold. So the question is not "what is my strongest card?" but "what result do I need to get?".

The overall difficulty is difficult: you have to choose the order of the visits, use your allies and control your hand despite a hidden Stock. This tutorial follows the commercial edition of 65 cards, documented by the book of the publisher Melmac Games. It starts with the four Valets and without the crowned characters. The old Print & Play files and the scenarios are not mixed with this standard part. Part takes about 15 to 30 minutes.

02Equipment

It takes 32 Dialogue cards: values from 1 to 8 in each of four signs, Claws, Flowers, Sheets and Eyes. Adds 24 Personage cards, six per sign, twelve of which have a crown that indicates that they are not used for the first discovery. The eight Fief cards are numbered from 0 to 7 and bring from one to four stars. A Visitor card serves as a benchmark; its back is reminiscent of the scores.

These groups total 32 + 24 + 8 + 1 = 65 cards. The documented box also includes its booklet and a scenario book. Personalization cards have a text of essential capacity for the game: keep them readable and apply this text, without replacing their powers with those of an old version. No additional die, point token or automatic opponent is required.

03The goal

Successful visits to bring together at least 16 stars in standard difficulty. Each fief requires an exact number of folds won, its number from 0 to 7. The stars are another number: they measure the fief value in the final score. Passing the fief 0 does not give zero stars, and winning seven folds does not automatically grant seven win points.

You only visit each fief only once. Success also allows you to get the help of its leader on a later visit. This does not become a card of your hand: it can temporarily replace an ally to provide another ability.

04Installing the eight fiefs

Set the Fief cards in line, from 0 to left to 7 on the right. Remove the twelve crowned characters. Place the four Valets in front of you: these are your permanent allies for this first part. Mix the four Kings and the four Queens and attribute one at random to each fief, leaving visible its objective and its stars.

Place the Visitor above the line, arrow pointing towards the fiefs. Mix the 32 Dialogues and form a picket. Plan a separate defeat and score pile. Take eight cards in hand. You now choose the first fief to visit by looking at this hand and the signs of the leaders; you do not have to start with the fief 0.

Before each next visit, the 32 Dialogues will be reunited and mixed, then you will receive eight new cards. Visits therefore do not share a stock gradually emptied throughout the whole game.

05Visit, respond and use allies

Choosing the leader and his supporters

Moves the Visitor to a fief not yet visited. His number becomes your exact goal of folds. The sign of his leader becomes the asset for all this visit. For example, a Eyes leader makes all Eyes cards assets, regardless of their value.

You can replace any of your four allies with leaders who have become friends on previous visits. Put each friend chosen on a single ally; it is his capacity that will be available instead of the one he covers. You keep four locations, not four allies plus all the friends of the forest. Once the visit starts, do not freely change this selection.

At most one capacity before a dialogue

Before revealing the next opposing dialogue, you can activate an available ally. Turns its map 90 degrees and completely solves its power. Each location can only be used once during the visit. You can also not activate anything. You can't chain two allies before the same revelation to make an ideal hand.

The ability to pick, undo or modify cards according to their text is the same as the target, quantity and conditions printed on the selected characters. If at least a legal execution exists, an activated ability must be applied; if it can't do anything, it remains ineffective. If there is a lack of cards in a stack, do as much as possible without inventing additional cards. You always finish solving the power before checking the end of the visit.

A dialog is a fold of two cards

Returns the first card of the Stock in the Waste: it's the leader's card. You have to answer with a card of the same sign if you have at least one. If you don't have any, freely choose a card of your hand. It never exempts you from providing the required sign.

You win the dialogue if your card is stronger in the required sign, or if you play an asset against an opposing card that is not itself an asset. A large card of another non-attractive sign does not win. Cards are unique by value and sign: there is no fold sharing for two identical cards.

If you win, only place your answer card in the Score pile; it represents a fold. Otherwise, defeat it. The leader's card remains in the waste. Do not put the two cards of the fold in the Score, otherwise count two folds instead of one. The leader opens the following dialogue again; win does not change this protocol.

Visit does not end on order

After a completely resolved dialogue or ability, if your hand or Stock is empty, the visit ends immediately. You can no longer activate an ally to repair the result. As long as neither one nor the other is empty, you must continue, even if you have already reached the exact number desired.

Then count the score cards. If you reach exactly the goal, drag the leader to mark his friendship by leaving the success of the fief visible. Otherwise, remove the leader and return the fief to report failure. Remove from the game all the friends borrowed for this visit, even if their ability did not serve. Their former fiefs remain successful and keep their stars.

Get your base allies back together with all the Battery and Hand Dialogues, mix the 32 cards and take eight. Choose another fief. The waste and Score are searchable during a visit, but you can't reorder them to artificially prepare a stock.

06Three independent dialogues

Let's assume that the asset is Eyes. The leader opens with 7 sheets. You have 5 sheets and several cards of other signs: you must play the 5, even if a Eye would otherwise allow you to cut. The 5 loses against the 7; your answer joins the defeat and the Score does not rise.

Another position: the leader plays 5 Claws and you don't have any Claw. You can play 1 Eyes: it's an asset against a non-altitude, so a fold won despite its low value. Finally, if the leader plays 2 Eyes and you have 1 and 7 Eyes, you can choose to lose with 1 or win with 7.

For a visit to Goal 3, imagine three cards in your Score and one card still in hand. You can't stop voluntarily. It remains to lose the last dialogue, or to use legally a capacity that emptys your hand without adding a fold. Finishing four would fail the visit. These examples use separate positions, not a complete hidden distribution.

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07Stars and victory levels

After the eight visits, add the stars of the only successful fiefs. The physical maintenance of their leader does not matter: a friend used then removed does not remove the stars won. The standard threshold is 16; the higher challenges require 18 then 20. Choose the threshold before playing.

If failures make the chosen threshold impossible, the booklet allows you to stop or continue to know your result. It does not allow you to revisit a failed fief. To play with all the characters after initiation, mix the 24: by revealing them, keep the first of each sign as an ally, then the second and third as leaders on the free fiefs from left to right. Ignore the others of this sign. You get four allies, two leaders of each sign and eight fiefs.

08Frequent errors

• Win systematically instead of aiming for the exact number.
• Cut with an asset when one could provide the sign.
• Activate a power after seeing the next leader's map.
• Use two capabilities before the same dialogue or ally twice in the visit.
• Stop as soon as the target is reached despite a non-empty hand and Stock.
• Lose the stars of a fief whose friend has just been used elsewhere.

09Tips for starting

Observe your eight cards before choosing the fief. A hand rich in assets can suit a high goal; it does not guarantee to win all folds, because providing another sign remains mandatory. Keep the extreme goals for a hand and powers adapted.

Use the allies to control the number of remaining dialogues, not just to get good cards. Before each power, ask yourself how it affects the hand, the picket and the Score. Searchable piles help estimate what remains: it is not necessary to turn the game into a perfect memory exercise.