Grab the lead, lace up your walking shoes and prepare to grow your dog-walking empire, as Dog Park invites you to stroll through scenic trails and build your reputation in this captivating board game designed for dog lovers and strategy enthusiasts alike.
Overview:
In this game aspiring canine entrepreneurs look to grow their reputation over 4 rounds, each round consists of 4 phases, the recruitment phase, selection phase, walking phase and the home time phase. The dog walker with the most reputation at the end of the game is crowned the most accomplished walker of them all and wins.
Components:
We have played this game once before receiving the review copy and we immediately fell in love with the components provided.
Insert
As you first open the box you are welcomed with a beautifully constructed insert by none other than GameTrayz, which even includes 2 bone shaped component holders which are just the cutest.
Game Boards
The game comes with a high quality game board with a beautifully illustrated dog park where you will eventually walk your dogs. Each player also has their own lead boards, this is where they will place their dogs chosen during the selection phase.
Wooden Tokens
This game certainly doesn’t script on the tokens and is packed with many high quality wooden components. Firstly, the 4 dog walker tokens alongside the reputation markers come in incredible pastel colours with cute characteristics. Resources in this game come in the shape of balls, sticks, treats and toys. The game also includes a 1st walker token in the shape of a kennel, an auto walker die with the pips being paw prints as well as a round tracker in the shape of a bird.
Cards
There are 163 dog cards in this game, all with beautifully illustrated dog breeds. The game also includes 16 location cards, 10 objective cards, 11 forecast cards, 7 breed expert cards as well as 8 player aids and 4 solo objective cards.
Other components
Players will also receive an offer dial in their chosen player colour, which depicts a dog lead. Finally, the game also contains walker tokens in the shape of collars, as well as cardboard tokens that coincide with the tokens depicted on the location cards.
Gameplay:
The game begins with players choosing their colour and taking the associated lead board, offer dial, walker token and reputation marker as well as a standard and experienced objective and choose which one to keep. Players also begin the game with 2 sticks, 2 balls, 1 treat and 1 toy token.
The game consists of 4 rounds, each of which contain 4 phases.
The first phase is recruitment, this is where players compete in two rounds of offers to attract their most desired dogs into their kennels. In turn order players privately select an amount and place their walker in a queue next to their desired dog. If a player is opposed they deduct that amount from their reputation score, if multiple players have offered the same dog the highest bidder wins and any unsuccessful players will pay 1 reputation for any remaining dogs. This is repeated for another round before the next phase begins.
The next phase is the selection phase, this is where you take the dogs from your kennel, pay the price of walking them and place a collar token on any dogs you select.
Next it is time to walk your dogs. In turn order players can move up to 4 spaces, claiming the resource depicted on the space they land on. Each player does this until everyone has reached the end of either of the paths.
Finally, you have successfully walked your dogs and made it home. Players gain 2 reputation for each dog walked, lose 1 reputation for each dog without a walked token in their kennel and place their dogs back into the kennel.
This is repeated 4 times before the game ends. Throughout each round, dogs that you walk will have special abilities that are triggered by either when selecting, walking or at the end of the game for final scoring.
Replayability:
With 163 different dog breeds within this game, there is a lot of replayability within the different dogs that are available throughout the game, each with different abilities. The only negative to replayability is the same phases in each round and having similar spaces when walking your dog, however the creators have thought of this by introducing location bonus cards.
The only way I would improve the replayability is by having different maps/parks to explore each game with different resources available including maybe a park with 3 paths with more of a risk and reward element of taking certain paths over others.
New Tricks Expansion
The New Tricks expansion introduces three elements to the game, multi-breed dogs, tricking taking and super locations. I really enjoyed playing the game with these additions as it deepened the strategy somewhat and also enhanced the replayability by allowing players to teach tricks based on the breed of their dogs, providing new actions to explore. The expansion also allows for a fifth player.
Pros:
This game features stunning components, such as the beautifully illustrated cards and high-quality wooden play pieces that enhance the gaming experience. I really like how this game is accessible and enjoyable for newcomers to board gaming, especially those who love dogs.
I really liked the inclusion of the expansion, it adds a layer of strategy and variety. It also aids my concerns regarding replayability by introducing multi-breed dogs and trick taking.
Cons:
I found the gameplay to at time feel repetitive as the core actions remain the same across the rounds, this changes somewhat with the season cards but I feel the New Tricks expansion is a much better game.
I found the game played much better with 3 players, the automated walker is great for when you can only get 2 players together but it is best enjoy with 3+ players.
Final verdict:
Overall, Dog Park is an absolute delight for both dog lovers and those that prefer light strategy The stunning components and engaging gameplay create a charming experience that’s hard to resist. Though it may not be heavily strategic, its accessibility makes it a perfect choice for newcomers to the hobby. With the expansion, Dog Park: New Tricks, the game only gets better, introducing fresh challenges and layers of strategy that keep each play feeling new and exciting.
