What is Wagawaa?
Good question, my dear friend of the woods.
Wagawaa is a card game for 2-4 players full of silly and tripped-out gnomes, especially those who eat certain strange mushrooms. The goal of the game is to build a community of these deplorable creatures, trying to create combinations that maximize your final score, while harassing your opponents with moves that throw off their plans and ruin your friendship.
The game is only mildly language-dependent and will include instructions in both English and Italian.
ok, but how does it work?
From the deck of 48 cards, each representing a specific gnome, the players are dealt their initial hands. When their turn comes, they will decide how to use their actions to draw, play a gnome in front of themselves or in front of another player, while using their gnomish powers to their advantage or disadvantage. For example, Assassination might not make your opponent very happy. When one of the three possible conditions to end the game is met, the points are tallied, and – drumroll – whoever has the most points wins!
Nice, but is it a game of luck or is there strategy?
Like in any card game, drawing the right cards at the right time can certainly give you an advantage, but the trick is to shape your strategy based on what you get and the plays your opponents make, choosing the best path to build the most brilliant gnome community. In Short, I can assure you that Wagawaa can be played easily and casually whether you’re sober or drunk, and paying attention to the choices you make will obviously make a difference!
What strategies are associated with these despicable gnomes?
Each gnome card features a beautiful artwork created by a crazy artist. As you will notice, each forest dweller may or may not have a hat, objects or no objects, a long or a short beard, and may either wear shoes or be barefoot, enjoying the feel of grass between their toes while getting bitten by every hungry insect.
Additionally, each card displays a symbol:
Lastly, every gnome has at least one power. The powers can be effects that occur as soon as the gnome is played, or they might grant points at the end of the game depending on the aforementioned characteristics possessed by all the gnomes in your community. For example, +1/Skull means you will earn 1 point for every gnome in your community with the Skull symbol.
Among the various dastardly things you can do while playing Wagawaa, you have the option to play up to two cards face down in your community. You won’t be able to use their instant power (such as Assassination), but you’ll keep part of your strategy hidden from the other players. Additionally, face-down cards are immune to your opponents’ dirty tricks. If you have a valuable face-up card, you can play a gnome with the Guard power on top of it, so that your opponents will have to get through the guard’s small corpse before they can harm the protected card.