Welcome to the second installment in our continuing Eulogy series (aka When Bad Things Happen To Good Games) in which we examine games which are out of print, but shouldn't be. This time the fly under our microscope is Ravensburger's Wildlife Adventure, published in 1986 and out of print just a few short years later.
The idea behind Wildlife Adventure is just about as politically correct as you can get. Players jointly control three expeditions travelling around the world visiting (and, one can easily extrapolate, rescuing) endangered animals. The board is a map of the world with encyclopedic illustrations of seventy- two animals scattered across six continents. Each animal is labelled and has a corresponding circle. These circles, and many not related to any animals, are connected by a network of lines representing the paths along which expeditions may travel.
Players are dealt a number of animal cards at the outset and spend the rest of the game trying to get rid of them. For every animal there is one card bearing a picture identical to its image on the game board. To aid players in locating animals on the board, each continent is identified by a unique color. Animal pictures on the cards are framed in the color of the continent on which the animal is located. Each card also gives information about how many of that animal are left in existance and why it is threatened with extinction. This data has no function within the game, and is provided for educational purposes only. Also included with the game is a forty-three page booklet providing supplemental information about all the animals. Again, this booklet plays no part in the game itself (it's not just a game, it's an educational experience!).
All expeditions start from the same spot (smack dab in the heart of Germany-- Ravensburger HQ, perhaps?) and are represented by blue, red, or yellow plastic arrows. To start an expedition a player places one of its arrows on one of the four lines leading away from the start space. That expedition has now "arrived" at the circle on the other end of that line. When the expedition moves on, another arrow is placed on one of the vacant lines leading away from that new circle. In this way the paths taken by each expedition are mapped out on the board as the game progresses. Each player may lay only one arrow per turn, but may do so for any of the three expeditions.
When an expedition arrives at a circle, things may happen. If it is an animal circle, any player holding that animal card may claim it by placing it face up in front of him. Since the goal of the game is to get all of your animals played face up, this would be a good thing to do-- if you forget, you can't play the card unless an expedition arrives at that circle again. If you snooze, you lose. Six animal cards are turned face up at the start of the game. These animals are up for grabs, and anyone who brings an expedition to one of them can claim it, earning an extra point at the end of the game.
If an expedition arrives at a dark green circle, the player who brought it there may immediately lay another arrow for the expedition of his choice. A red circle allows you to draw a Chance card. These cards bestow a benefit to their bearer, such as laying an additional route extension or removing the last two extensions from an expedition. Chance cards are never harmful to the player drawing them, although they may not be particularly useful. Some effects occur immediately, others may be saved until needed.
Blue circles present the player with a choice-- either force every other player to draw an additional animal card from the deck (this can be particularly devastating towards the end of the game, when maneuvering expeditions back to animals already visited can be extremely difficult), or instead draw three additional travel vouchers for himself.
Each player starts the game with ten travel vouchers. No more than three may be spent in any one turn. By spending one voucher a player may discard one animal from his hand and draw a new one to replace it. Also for one voucher, a player may place, remove, or reposition up to three obstacles. Obstacles render the path upon which they rest impassible until they are moved elsewhere, hindering opponents' progress or steering an expedition in a desirable direction.
Spending two vouchers allows more interesting options. For two vouchers you may: lay another route extension to any expedition (always from that expedition's current location); remove the most recent extension from the end of any expedition; or lay an extention along a route which already has one (an act normally prohibited).
When someone plays his last animal card the game ends. Everyone gets one point for each animal in front of them and loses a point for each animal left in their hand. All together now: the player with the highest score is the winner.
Although your chances of winning can vary greatly depending on the animals you're dealt, strategic use of travel vouchers is the key to Wildlife Adventure. They're a very limited resource, and managing them well is essential. The "spend two to earn three" maneuver (spend two vouchers, lay an extra arrow to reach a blue circle, draw three vouchers for a net gain of one), is a favorite. When an expedition is one space away from your animal, should you spend vouchers to make sure it gets there or hope that other players will visit your animal for you? Forcing players to draw a new animal card could slow them down or just as easily give them a quick point. Dare you risk it? Nothing can match the frustration of watching an expedition come agonizingly close to your animal, veer away, and march right by.
I suspect the game's theme was the cause of its demise. How many of you would ever pick up a game called Wildlife Adventure unless you knew it was superior? Environmentally- and ecologically- aware games are notorious for being no fun to play, and only the fact that it was put out by Ravensburger (and designed by Wolfgang Kramer) offered any clue to its quality.
When a cache of copies was spotted at a San Diego wildlife park last year, some kind soul spread the word on Internet. That's where I got my copy, and that cache quickly disappeared. Perhaps another cache will turn up. Meanwhile, White Wind's railroad game Santa Fe uses a system inspired by the expeditions in Wildlife Adventure. In the best of all worlds, Ravensburger would reissue what is unquestionably one of its finest products. Until then, snag a copy if you can and you'll be rescuing a game well on its way to premature extinction.