Trekking The National Parks How To Play

Box

Base price: $50.
2 – 5 players.
Play time: xxx – hour.
BGG Link
Pre-lodge straight!
Logged plays: iii

Full disclosure: A review copy of Trekking the National Parks [Second Edition] was provided past Underdog Games.

Hey, look, non a Gen Con or Essen game. I still sometimes accept been responsibly replying to requests, as I get them, but I have been overwhelmed with email and review requests for the last few … months, so I'grand making do with the ones that I can respond to when I tin. This one caught my eye, and so here we are, checking out the second edition of Trekking the National Parks.

In Trekking the National Parks, y'all play as intrepid explorers and outdoorsy-type people, looking to spend some time on the hills, trails, volcanoes, beaches, glaciers, rainforests, and rivers that comprise the National Parks of the U.s.a. of America. Not willing to settle for merely having a nice trip, y'all're also competing confronting your beau travelers to run across who can out-trek the other players. Volition you be able to see all that the US has to offer? Or are you better off just taking a hike?

Setup
Gameplay
Player Count Differences
Strategy
Pros, Mehs, Cons
Overall

Setup

First matter y'all're gonna want to do is set out the board:

Board

It'south pretty massive; I can barely play it on my normal Photography Tabular array. Side by side, place stones on each of the locations on the lath:

Stones

Yous'll be able to collect those later. Accept each player choose a player colour, and requite them the tents in that color:

Tokens

The bear should be given to the first histrion and the backpacker tokens should be placed on the kickoff space. It'southward hard to miss.

Shuffle and set out three Major Parks:

Major Park Cards

Too shuffle the other parks and set out iii:

Park Cards

Shuffle the Expedition Cards and requite each player two, to start:

Trek Cards

Play v face up-up, near the board. Ready out the Stones Bonus Cards:

Bonus Cards

For a two-thespian game, you'll merely use the Most Stones bonuses. Once yous've done all that, y'all should be set up to start!

Setup

Note that I fabricated a slight mistake — each player should only take two cards.

Gameplay

Gameplay 2

So, a game of Trekking the National Parks is an endeavour by players to hike the US and run across as many great parks as possible. Naturally, you're competing against other players to have an excellent trip, and then you lot'll vie to see the sights and score points for which parks you hit, first. The player with the about points wins.

Gameplay 3

On a turn, you'll perform ii of these four actions (you can perform the same activity twice):

Movement:Discard any number of Trek Cards to motion that many total spaces. If I discard a 4, I moveexactlyfour spaces. If I discard two 3s, I moveexactly6 spaces. You lotcannotmove through other players (except for the Start Space), only if yous country on the same infinite equally another player, yous bump them back to Start. It's unclear, narratively, why that'southward the case, but roll with information technology. You are besides not immune to double-back, nor can you lot pass through a location more than than once in a Motility action. That'due south … a bit tedious, but any. When you land on a location, collect a stone, just youpractise notcollect stones for moving through a location; you only gain it if you end your Movement Action on a space.
Draw a Trek Bill of fare:You may take any of the five confront-up cards, or you lot may do a bullheaded draw and add the elevation card of the deck to your hand. In a move reminiscent of Ticket to Ride, if four of the five face up-upwards Trek Cards have the same color / symbol, discard all 5 cards and reveal five more to supervene upon them. You may only have up to12 cardsin your paw.
Claim a Park Card:If y'all are on 1 of the locations of a face-up Park Card, yous may claim it from the supply by discarding Trek Cards whose symbols match the symbols on the Park Menu. Y'all take it and keep the Park Carte du jour face-down (for some reason), then supervene upon the now-empty space with a new Park Card from the deck.
Occupy a Major Park:This works the aforementioned manner equally Challenge a Park Bill of fare, but rather than taking the card, y'all identify one of your tents on the Major Park Card. This gives yous an power which may let you move more, draw more than, swap stones, use cards as wild, or a variety of other abilities.

Go on doing that until one of two events take occurred:

All stones on the board accept been claimed;
A actor has claimed their 5th Park Carte du jour (Major Parks practisenot count for this).

When that happens, finish the circular so that all players have taken an equal number of turns. Then move to scoring!

Gameplay 4

When you score, yous score the following:

Stone Bonus Cards:Laurels Stone Bonus cards to the players with the most and 2d-most stones of each color. If in that location is a tie for the nigh, do not award it (y'allwillstill award 2d-nigh). If there is a tie for the second-nigh, do not honour it either. Each Rock Bonus card is worth the indicated number of points.
Stones:Each rock you collect is worth 1 VP.
Major Parks:Each Major Park you occupy is worth 5 VP.
Claimed Park Cards:Each claimed Park Card you have is worth 5, 7, or 10VP. It volition say how much it's worth on the card.

Add up those 4 values, and the player with the well-nigh VP is the winner!

Player Count Differences

Then the biggest thing you're going to see change at higher role player counts is more blocking. There are now4other spots on the board you tin't motion through (as opposed to 1 with ii players). Besides, now, since at that place are just three Park Cards at whatever given time, you should expect to see alotmore contention at higher actor counts than lower (where you tin mostly stay out of each other's way). While those 2 things don'tgenerallybother me all that much, the increase in downtime at higher actor counts is going to really slow the game down. I'd say you tin get through a two-player game in almost thirty minutes and a 5-player game in near 60, and that's a pretty significant uptick for me. Not actually ahugenegative; just something I'm non overwhelmingly enthusiastic most dealing with.

Oh, also, at higher player counts you actually need to watch the stones; it'south very likely that other players can knock you out of contention (either by error or intentionally) on stones if they're feeling like a bit of have-that play.

Either manner, I'chiliad probably most inclined to play this at 2 or 3.

Strategy

The Major Parks are better at sure points in the game.In that location are a few that boost your card-drawing / motility abilities, then go those early on; there are some that let y'all swap stones or depict cards immediately, and it's improve to get those afterward on. Knowing when to striking the Major Parks is pretty clutch, especially for the ones with more relevant abilities.
If yous can get a Park Card, you lot might likewise.It's slightly more than efficient to get the 2 or 4 icon cards (2.five points per icon rather than 2.25), but it also uses a full turn (move to location + get card) to get a card, which makes the two icon cards fine unless you're trying to catch upwardly to another player. If the game weren't to 5, it might make sense to effort to optimize more, but honestly just kinda pick upward what you can, card-wise.
If you can't exercise anything, you lot might likewise motility or draw.Cartoon will help set you up for time to come Park Cards, which is good, and moving will help you get more stones, and stones are points, which is also good. If yous tin't move to get stones, well, why not move onto a infinite where your opponent is and Sorry! them back to start? Should be funny.
Information technology's probably not a great idea to terminate your turn on the same space as an unoccupied Park Card.This usually ends up with another player attempting to spite y'all and bump you dorsum to showtime. That said, if you'dliketo become back to Get-go, that may non be a bad manner to bait someone into potentially wasting a Move action to "thwart" you.
Be conscientious of the hand limit.This isn't Ticket to Ride.
You should be enlightened of how many stones other players have basically at all times.Is it worth yous trying to get Ten stone or Y stone? Information technology's usually worth getting a stone of each colour (since it's points either style), every bit it forces opponents to actually exercise some work to earn the Nearly Stones of a sure color (as opposed to a few games where I've seen someone win it with one stone, infuriatingly). Information technology'south a pretty major scoring office of the game (several of the cards are worth as much or more a Park Card), then don't overlook how valuable stones are when you lot're strategizing your turns.

Pros, Mehs, and Cons

Pros

Beautiful theme.This volition definitely appeal to the hikers / backpackers in your group (or people looking for a gateway game)
The photography fine art is peachy.It does a practiced job of conveying how beautiful the park is. It's a fleck juxtaposed strangely against the art on the encompass of the game and the icons (sort of iii different things going on), but information technology does look dainty on the cards themselves.
The hand limit is a adept motion.It blocks my go-to strategy from Ticket to Ride USA, which is probably for the all-time.
I like the information on the various cards.I'm a fan of games with an fifty-fifty-minorly educational component to them, so I'chiliad beholden of the extra info about the parks on the cards. If you're planning a trip, this is a dainty way to practise information technology! It'due south sort of got the same appeal as Highways and Byways, though I practice prefer the route-building aspects rather than merely going to a location.

Mehs

It'due south very big.I waffle on this one a scrap considering it'southward nice that the cards and the tokens are all then large, merely information technology takes up alotof space; it might be far bigger than you take space for, which is ever interesting. Information technology's more of a alarm than annihilation else, in my stance.
The "adapted" map of the U.s. throws me off, a bit.Just minorly, simply it was pretty confusing when I first saw it.

Cons

In that location are a few specific things in the rules that I notice frustrating.Virtually of them are pretty modest, like having to call out your route in accelerate, simply they add a fleck of somewhat-needless overhead to what is, as far as I can tell, a pretty light gateway game with a lot of similarities to the archetype Ticket to Ride. Information technology seems to exist but a situation that would benefit from some boosted rules streamlining. The other one I don't really become is application second place for stones when first place cancels out via a tie. That 1 merely seems similar a surefire mode to make players irritated; even if it works strategically, the frustration cistron makes me feel like information technology'south something I'd rather just ignore. I guess it creates some incentive to tie the player in first, but that almost feels like a take-that element in a game that doesn't really need it (since it already has a strong blocking chemical element).

Overall: 7 / 10

In Progress

Overall, Trekking the National Parks is fun! Like I said, information technology comes off to me as a gateway game, which is perfectly fine; it's a bully game for people in your group who honey Ticket to Ride but don't emotionally identify well with trains and are looking for something that appeals a bit more than to their interests. My gripe with it is that I find some of the more nuanced rules a bit frustrating because I think they create additional unnecessary overhead which clashes with that whole "gateway game" idea. I'm also a bit of a fan of route-building, so I was slightly disappointed to meet that this was more than of a "motility to a location" and not a "build a really skilful backpacking trip" game. That's not the biggest deal, though, considering the cadre of the game is still pretty fun, and I've enjoyed the games I've played of it. If you love backpacking and want to see more than of the US, or if you're looking for a great gift for the outdoorsy person who'south starting to spend a flake more time inside every bit the wintertime starts, Trekking the National Parks might be a solid choice to cheque out!

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