Designers: Hayden Lapiska, Daniel Aronson (The Island of El Dorado, Taco Fight!), Nick Tompkins

Artist: Justin Spice

Publisher: El Dorado Games (The Island of El Dorado, Taco Fight!)

Genre/Mechanisms: action/ movement programming, area movement, hand management, miniatures, modular board, pick up & deliver

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Windward is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total over 7x the initial funding goal with 6 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About:  Players compete to earn the most notoriety flying wind ships around the gaseous planet of Celus while navigating winds that change from round to round.

How It Works: Turns are taken in clockwise order, and continue until the end-game is triggered. On a player’s turn, they may do any of the following as many times as they would like, and in any order: Move Ship/Boats, Give Orders, Spend Gas, Use a Supply Card, and Initiate a Battle.

Giving Orders allows players to take actions based on how many Mate Tokens they still have and which Action Spaces are still available: at Port, players may Take 3 Supplies, Increase Morale by 1 on the Morale Tracker, Fill Cannon, or Hire Crew; at Sky, they can Drop a Board, Increase their Boat Speed Tracker, increase their Speed from 4 to 5 for their turn, or Process Cresters. Spending Gas will allow players to make a purchase. Using a Supply Card will allow the player to take the action on the card. And Initiating a Battle will start combat against a Ship, Boat, or Crester.

When a player reaches the final space on the notoriety track, they have taken their last turn and all other players take one final turn. Once all players have taken their final turn, the player with the most notoriety wins.

Comparisons: Windward is a pick up & deliver game, and its uniqueness comes from the varying winds that shift every round, impacting movement. Some other pick up & deliver games with a similar complexity include Container, Keyflower, The Ruhr: A Story of Coal Trade, Successors, and Waste Knights: Second Edition.

What Should I Pledge?:
$54 Windward: a copy of the KS edition of Windward with all unlocked stretch goals.

Add-Ons:
$17 Art Book Add-on

KS Exclusives:
None.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. you’re looking at $54 for the Windward pledge plus $12 in shipping for a total of $66. If you want the Art Book as well, your total is $83.

Windward completes its Kickstarter on Sunday, September 22nd and tentatively ships in June 2020.