Designed by Jack and Lottie Hazell, Birdwood Games' Dog Park game may look like a canine version of Wingspan (Stonemaier Games), but it's actually much more chilled with hints of Tokaido (Funforge), and a bit of auctioning thrown in as well.
The description starts just like Wingspan: over the course of four rounds, players will gain animal cards and deploy them using resources, trying to score the most points by having the best collection at the end as well as making the most of in-game scoring opportunities and end-game bonuses. However, there is more to it than you might think...
The dogs that players are recruiting and walking are drafted via an auction at the start of each round, with players bidding their 'reputation' (victory points). Shrewd bidding can certainly be advantageous but this element isn't so significant that it should put off people who don't ordinarily like auctioning games. Players should always end up gaining two dogs per round and thus eight by the end of the game, so there's no difference between players in that regard.
Players then choose up to three dogs to take on the walk. The walk is the part that feels like Tokaido, with players vying for spots along the way yielding different rewards, perhaps taking advantage of bonuses that their dogs might provide or focusing on obtaining the resources they'll need for the following round. There are also opportunities to swap dogs in their kennel with dogs in the field, which seems slightly unthematic but can be crucial strategically.
Since dogs don't have an inherent value of their own, players will have to make the most of the end-game scoring bonuses and points that can be picked up during the game. There is a lot to think about, but if players just focus on walking as many of their dogs as they can by collecting the right resources, they won't do too badly. This makes it fairly accessible, but if people choose this game purely for the cute theme and the beautiful artwork from Kate Avery, Holly Exley and Dann May, they may end up overwhelmed if they weren't expecting much complexity.
There are a good number of random setup elements here, with forecast cards adding a rules tweak each round, bonus locations on the walk changing each round, and the value of breed-type majorities changing completely each game. There is also a huge number of dog cards, so there's excellent replayability.
And as if that wasn't enough, there are various expansions, including the main one - New Tricks - which brings in an extra layer of bonus abilities available to each breed by training your dogs. It introduces multi-breed dogs and also enables a fifth player to join in. The added complications of the expansion can be hard to keep track of, so New Tricks adds significantly to the complexity. That will be great for some players but not for everyone.
The solo and two-player rules use an 'auto-walker' which helps the game work well at any player count. If you like light-to-medium weight strategy games with a little bit of engine building that play in about an hour with lots of replayability, you're very likely to enjoy this game. If you like dogs as well, you'll probably love it!
(Review by Matt Young)