Worms: The Board Game

Worms aren’t high up the list of dangerous creatures. But what happens when you hand a worm a bazooka? Chaos.

Worms: The Board Game is a miniatures combat game for two to four players ages 10 and up that plays in about 45 minutes. It’s from Team17 and Mantic Games, and the original concept is from Andy Davidson.

Setup

Worms features a modular game design based around land tiles made up of hexes and the single-hex wind direction tile. The number of land tiles is equal to the number of players. Starting with the first player (the youngest), players will place a tile to create the battlefield.

After all the tiles are placed, players will take turns placing the Worms miniatures, and Things (oil barrels, supply crates, and mines, each equal to the number of players playing) on the battlefield.

What makes this interesting is that players do not know which color Worms they will be playing. Players are setting up the battlefield blind, so it prevents players from setting one specific player up for success or failure. Or, at least it should. Sometimes, chaos happens anyway.

Once all the Worms and Things are placed on the battlefield, players will take a Reference Card at random.  On the back side,each card has a color matching one set of Worm bases. Then, the player with the lowest number in the bottom right corner of the card goes first.

Each player will get four starting cards: Uzi, Bazooka, Girder, and Ninja Rope. Then one random extra Starting Card. Return the rest of the Starter Weapon cards to the box.

Shuffle the rest of the Supply cards and create a face-down deck on the table. Next, place a Sudden Death card face-down and top it with Drop cards (two per player plus two additional cards) to make the Drop deck.

Now the chaos begins.

Gameplay

Players control four Worms across the map they assembled. Each turn, a player will choose one of their Worms. Then players will complete the following list of actions – in order! – before the next player acts.

• Activate chosen Worm – This is when the player chooses which worm they will use that turn. If the Worm is on a hex with a Supply Crate, the player removes the Supply Crate and draws the top card from the Supply deck
• Heal The Worm – If the chosen Worm is damaged (laying on its side), put the Worm upright
• Inch or Jump – Worms have two ways available on every turn to move – Inch (move to an adjacent Hex) or Jump (choose a hex within two of the starting point and move it to that spot before rolling to Scatter the Worm). You do not have to move your Worm if you do not want to
• Inch or Jump… Again. – If your Worm can still move after the first move action, you can do it again
• Play a Weapon Card from your hand – Each weapon will have specific instruction on how to resolve it
• End Turn
• Draw a Drop Card – Take the top card from the Drop Deck and follow its instructions, including changing the Wind Direction

Players will continue taking turns until one player’s Worms have been eliminated (by taking two damage before healing, by destroying the hex they’re on, or knocking them off the map).

In a two-player game, the other player wins. In a three- or four-player game, each surviving player gets one more turn, and the player with the most Worms remaining wins. If two players have the same number of Worms, the player with the most undamaged Worms wins. Otherwise, it’s a tie.

Impressions

Worms: The Board Game is all about Worms inching around the hexagonal map and blowing things up as much as possible. As befitting the Worms legacy, it’s anything but predictable.

While some of the Weapons cards are straight forward (Uzi), most cards require players to roll dice to see if the shot lands on its intended target. And that’s where we get the chaos emblematic of the original Worms computer games (starting in 1995!).

Because your carefully-aimed Bazooka shot may miss the intended target and instead hit one of your Worms. Or it may hit the Oil Barrel in the next hex over which leads to a spray of fire across the map. And if you’ve got multiple Oil Barrels in close proximity, you can turn what was a pristine battlefield into a raging inferno in one short turn. Then there are the Superweapons that can hit multiple hexes. This is chaos.

And one of the really fun mechanics of the game is what happens when you start damaging the hexes. Yes, you and your players can damage the battlefield. If you place three craters on a single hex from blasting it with weapons, the tile is submerged with water. Anything on the tile, including Worms, is destroyed.

And you can even end up with too many Things (including Worms) on a single hex. If so, you have to knockback scatter a Worm by rolling a die and moving the Worm in the rolled direction. Yes, that means a Worm can end up on a Mine, in a fire, or even launched off the battlefield. The battlefield is never safe in Worms.

I made a mistake the first time or two I played Worms The Board Game. Namely, I played to win the game. And the biggest and best weapons in the game have an increased chance of unpredictability, which means you’re just as likely to sink part of the map or hurt your own Worms as you are to wipe out your opponents.

Instead, I’ve enjoyed playing this game by leaning fully into the chaos. That means stop trying to find the perfect attack and just let it rip for maximum carnage. This is a game made for having fun and blowing things up. Embrace it!

Final Thoughts

Worms: The Board Game delivered on the nostalgia factor with many of the elements, including the cute Worm miniatures. The gameplay is simple enough for children with a little assistance or reminders on the terms.

If your kids get easily frustrated by dice randomizing the results of their choices, this may not be a good fit.  If you want to play simply for the nostalgia, or if you have more than half an hour of play and want a non-party game that isn’t too serious, this may be a fit for your family. Just embrace the chaos and watch the battlefield burn!

Find Worms: The Board Game from Mantic Games, on Amazon, or at your local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a promotional copy of Worms: The Board Game for this review.

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