Games about preserving wildlife have become almost as ubiquitous as games themed around zombies and Cthulhu incursions. Some will be disconcerted then by the theme of Play to Z's Lynx: it's a game that's indeed about wildlife but this game isn't so much about preserving animals as trapping them and selling their fur! If it eases sensibilities, the game has a historical setting: the 2-5 players are fur trappers in the Hudson's Bay (northern Ontario) in the late 18th Century.
Tho' skinning animals and trading in furs may seem outré these days, Bradley Davis' design for Lynx doesn't ignore the need for nature preservation. After all, who has more of a vested interest in the continuation of a species than those who depend on it for their livlihood? Tho' players in this game are primarily focused on trapping lynx and selling their pelts, they need to ensure that the lynx thrive. Canadian lynx are predators that are primarily dependent on devouring snowshoe hare so within this game players need to ensure that the hare population doesn't decline to the point where the lynx are deprived of prey...
Lynx is won by the player who ends up with the most money but money in this game is tight; so much so that players are likely to spend much of the game in debt to the Hudson's Bay Company. Players are each turn simultaneously selecting an action card. Usually these will be cards for trapping lynx or hares, or for selling pelts. The success/profitability of an action will often depend on the order in which it is taken. For example, in this economic game, you might expect the first pelts sold to command a premium over those that are sold into an already saturated market, and likewise the cost of trapping increases as the animal population declines... When you play cards as trap actions they are resolved lowest number first, while cards with the highest number are resolved first when selling pelts. Instead of trapping or selling, players also have the option of playing an 'Off-Season' action card to play a 'venture' card. These tend to involve a gamble; 'Explore', for example, pays out most if yours is the only venture card played this turn, while 'Campfire Cook' pays out for all the venture cards played by other players.
Lynx is a game about timing your actions and you can expect success or otherwise to be predicated on how well you fare in second guessing the actions and numbered cards that other players are selecting... The bluff and counterbluff element feels especially strong at higher player counts, so we've particularly appreciated this game with four and five players. And even with five players, Lynx plays in a very manageable 60 minutes.
Play to Z have incorporated an advanced version of the game within the rules. In this 'Wildcat' mode, players have to plan their next turn in advance of each turn's action card reveal... Definitely worth trying but we've so far preferred playing with the standard 'Snowshoe' rules.
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