Keymaster Games | Parks | Board Game | Ages 10+ | 1 to 5 Players | 40 to 70 Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

Before we start, what’s the aim of Parks? It’s always wise to establish how to win a board game, when digesting the rules – or explaining them to others! Parks is a worker placement game for 1-5 players, with elements of set collection. The game lasts for four rounds –‘Seasons’– and during this time, you’ll aim to visit national parks. You’ll earn tokens, take photos, use hiking gear, and spend tokens to claim park cards. The player with the most points at the end of the fourth season wins the game. Sigh With Happiness During Set-Up Gear gives ongoing abilities for the rest of the game, and some also have an instant action, denoted by a lightning bolt. Parks is pure joy in a box. Sure at 5 players, it can be a little frustrating and without adding a rule to refresh the gear cards on offer, 2 and every once in a while, even 3 player games, can lead to taking gear you don’t want, just to see something new. I cannot recommend you buy Parks enough. If you like board games Parks has to be in your collection. It is without hesitation one of my all-time favourite games and I am so glad I am impulsive. Prices delivered by BoardGamePrices With adorable wooden components and an awesome custom-built insert by Game Trayz, PARKS feels like a luxury product. Plus the gorgeous artwork by Fifty-Nine Parks? Playing PARKS will make you want to go off on your own trek… At the time of writing, we’re still in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Trips away and idyllic plans got put on pause. We’ve had to cancel holidays, and travelling to far-flung places is a case of fuhgeddaboudit. It’s fortunate then that Parks allows you to visit national parks around the US, from the comfort of your own home. If you’re not familiar with this game already, fear not. I’ll be explaining how to play Parks from set-up to conclusion.

First off, Trails is a fairly straightforward resource management, set collection game. The action spaces themselves are very easy to understand and the gameplay is light and breezy. Combine this with the lovely looking artwork and you have a game that is accessible and nice to look at. Parks is ideal for family gaming time or an end of night filler. To visit a park, you must spend the resources listed on the Park’s card, that card then being worth points at the end of the game. Of course, you may find a Park that will benefit your end-game bonus but you can’t afford to visit it. You can then look at reserving the Park, ready for visiting at a later point throughout the game. We (my wife, son and daughter) feel that 3 players is the sweet spot for Parks but 4 players really does work just fine. Give up any regular token and exchange it for a different regular token type of your choice. You can do this twice. Give up any regular token in exchange for a Wildlife token. (The hint is in the name; they’re wild! As in, they can stand for any token type.)Of course, all that bling don’t mean a thing if the game isn’t actually fun. Fortunately, game designer Henry Audubon created a highly entertaining game with this one. I’ve played PARKS with both my family and my gaming group and it’s done a great job engaging both crowds. This one is accessible enough to be enjoyed by just about anyone, yet still has enough meat on the bones to not feel like you are just going through the motions. Indeed, my friend, there are decisions to be made in this game. Pay the cost shown on any face-up Park, or one you have reserved, to gain the indicated number of points, and the card is placed vertically in your player area, refilling the board if necessary. If a player lands on a space with the wildlife token (or the wildlife action) the player rolls the wildlife die. The wildlife token is then moved to the corresponding space and the player performs the action from that trail space. Sun Along the trail is a photo stop. When you stop at this point you may take a photograph – this is done in one of two ways. You can either:

Though the components aren’t necessarily element-proof, I can definitely envision this being played whilst camping or after a long hike, in the comfort and warmth of a fire-lit cabin (or pub!) Its travel friendly size means it has joined my list of holiday games. My Thoughts The artwork, design and theme of a game can play a massive part in its success. Yes, there are those classics that perhaps could have done more with those three things however now, more than ever; we have new releases that are pure works of art. PARKS is one such example. A labour of love Points are earned in three ways – by collecting badges, taking photographs and winning the Bird Trophy. Badge Collecting Good play in PARKS is thus very much about knowing when to speed up and slow down on the trail to snaffle opportunities when they come your way. You’ll need to balance the time it takes to make use of your canteens and resource-swapping opportunities, with the flexibility it offers for the ever-changing makeup of cards on offer. You can also grab bonus points by taking photos in some spaces which cost two resources but then give you the camera. While you hold it, photos only cost one and you can take an extra snap at the end of each season. Knowing the right moment to steal the camera is yet another timing-based tactical decision you’ll need to add to your growing arsenal.Create a comfortable, cosy experience for visitors with graceful paths leading through fun and playful scenes that you can arrange using the thousands of themed scenery props available with the base game. The strategies you can employ are limitless, gear and canteen cards can add innumerable bonus combinations which means that each play requires a slightly different approach, at higher player counts so much is changing between turns that planning ahead becomes difficult. The trail are made up of different tiles. On a player’s turn they can move one or tiles along the trail in the direction you are facing. Where you stop will dictate the action you can perform but they involve gathering resources, exchanging resources and taking photos. Photos will grant you points at the end of the game. Once you reach the end of the trail you can exchange your resources for badges which count towards end game scoring. As the sun sets throughout the game it moves from the end of the trail to the beginning of the trail and makes the action spots on the trail more powerful.