Tips & Strategy

Advice for teaching and playing Wendake: balancing the paired tracks, planning the grid, turn order, Canoes, Military and Masks, tribes, player counts and New Allies.

Advice, not rules: where a tip and the rulebook differ, the rulebook wins.

How to teach it

• Lead with the paired tracks: only the lower track of each pair scores. Every decision follows from that.
• Show the grid on a real Action board: three tiles in a line, then how the used tiles flip and the bottom row drops off at the end of the year. The Getting Games tutorial calls it a “customizable waterfall action puzzle”, which is a good picture to give new players.
• Put pieces on the map to show Guards vs Outposts and the transfer — the most misread part of the rules (The map).
• Use Teach the Game as a script; it takes about 15 minutes.

Your first game

• Use the identical Tribe-card side and the suggested track pairs (Mask–Military, Economic–Ritual).
• Watch your lowest track in each pair. Pushing one track to 20 while its partner sits at 5 scores 5.
• Swap weak single-action tiles for Advanced tiles that combine two or three actions, and do it early: a Level 1 tile taken in Year 1 works for seven years.
• Remember that the tiles you use flip to Rituals. Rituals are not bad — they bring injured Natives back and score — but a grid full of them by accident is.
• Keep Outposts in place until just before you Harvest, Hunt or take the Military action: they defend the area better than a Woman or Hunter.

Turn order

The fourth marker is not a throwaway. First place lets you pick the best Advanced tile and act before others reach your fields, Turtles or the face-up Mask card — but claiming it early means acting last this year. The developer, Mario Sacchi, notes that he sometimes waits to see what the others do. In Year 7 turn order breaks ties.

Tracks and actions

• Canoes improve Fishing, Exchanges and three Turtle tiles. Placed Canoes never leave, so a late Canoe rush is a valid plan.
• Military scores every time you take it, but needs Guards to hold territories. Remember that a 0–0 tie in your Home scores nothing.
• Masks grow over the year: hold cards for the bigger combinations (two pairs, four different) rather than playing a pair at every ceremony.
• Ritual scores your smallest group at Home, so bring back the kind you lack.
• Progress tiles score twice on purchase; the “Lowest” ones are a good way to fix your weak track.

Tribes

On the tribe side, players most often rate the Ottawa (a Sacred Fire that never flips), Seneca (two Swap tokens) and Fox (two Progress tiles per Trade) as strong. In solo, any tribe power makes the Ghost easier to beat.

Player counts

Three players is often called the sweet spot: everyone neighbours everyone on the map. Four players brings more fights and a longer game; two players is quick and tight on the small map.

New Allies

The expansion makes the game more interactive: Ships and Patrols bring conflict to the Lakes and territories, and Rifles are a flexible currency for Turtles, Turn cards and points. Look at the Turn cards on offer before choosing your turn-order space — the card can matter more than the position. (New Allies)

Host game

Rehearse one Warrior becoming an Outpost, then end the Move action before transferring it home and replacing it with a Woman or Hunter. On the first three turns, ask players to name the three-tile line they are building and read multi-action tiles from top to bottom. Correct a transfer attempted halfway through movement before more pieces move; a returned Warrior cannot use leftover steps from that same action.

Videos and the rulebook

• In older preview videos tiles are sometimes resolved out of order; the rulebook says top to bottom (a Level 1 Ritual Progress tile allows any order).
• Smallpox is checked only after an Exchange in the Trade action — not when you take a Mask card from the discard pile, and not when you only buy a Progress tile.
• Transfers cost no movement and can happen on any of your turns, outside an action — the Heavy Cardboard teach explains this well.

Sources

• How to Play - Wendake — Gaming on Board
• Wendake Tutorial - A customizable waterfall action puzzle! — Getting Games
• Wendake - 3p Teaching, Play-through, & Roundtable Discussion by Heavy Cardboard — Heavy Cardboard
• Wendake Board Game Review — Tantrum House
• Wendake - New Allies - Vorstellung — Austrian Boardgamer (German)
• The BoardGameGeek Rules forum and its FAQ on this site.