How to Play

For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game

1-1 players 15-30 min 7.8 Board Game Geek Rating

In this solo trick-taking game, you must unite Northwood's kingdom by convincing eight animal rulers to join your alliance through precise card play. Each ruler demands an exact number of trick wins in their suit's trump, creating increasingly difficult puzzles as your hand options shrink. Use ally abilities strategically to manipulate cards and hit target scores across multiple difficulty levels.

Published 2021

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Arrange grove cards

Lay out eight grove cards in a row from left (number 0) to right (number 7)

Remove crowned character cards

Set aside 12 character cards with crown icons - these are not used in the introductory game

Place Allies

Position four Jack cards below the grove row - these are your starting Allies; order does not matter

Assign Grove Keepers

Shuffle Kings and Queens together, then randomly place one card on each grove - these are the Grove Keepers; position cards slightly upward so grove numbers remain visible

Position visit card

Place the visit card above the grove row with the arrow pointing down

Create draw deck

Shuffle all 32 dialogue cards and place them below the Allies as the draw deck

Prepare discard and point piles

Leave empty spaces for the discard pile and point pile

Draw starting hand

Draw eight dialogue cards into your hand

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Choose an unvisited grove

Review your eight cards in hand, then decide which grove to visit and place the visit card above it

Consider trump suit

The Grove Keeper's color determines the trump suit for this visit

Deploy befriended Grove Keepers

Optionally place any number of previously befriended Grove Keepers on top of Ally cards to replace them for this visit only

Activate Ally ability

Before any dialogue, optionally exhaust one Ally by rotating their card 90° right and executing their ability completely

Reveal Grove Keeper's card

Flip the top card from the draw deck onto the discard pile - this is the Grove Keeper's "statement"

Respond with a card

Play one card from your hand following suit if possible; if you cannot match the suit, play any card

Determine if you win the dialogue

Win the trick if your card is higher and matches the Grove Keeper's suit, OR if your card is trump when theirs is not

Place winning cards

If you win, place your card on the point pile face-up; if you lose, place it on the discard pile

Repeat dialogues

Continue playing dialogues until your hand is empty or the draw deck is exhausted

Count points

After the visit ends, count cards in your point pile

Check for success

If points exactly match the grove number, befriend the Grove Keeper and slide their card down; if not, remove the Grove Keeper from the game and flip the grove card face-down

Remove temporary Keepers

Remove all Grove Keepers that replaced Allies, whether their abilities were used or not

Restore exhausted Allies

Return starting Allies to active upright position

Prepare next visit

Shuffle all dialogue cards and draw a new hand of eight cards