Wild Tiled West Designer Diary

July 6, 2023

Wild Tiled West is just about ready to roll into local game stores this summer, before that happens, Lead Designer Paul Dennen (creator of the award-winning Dune: Imperium and Clank! series) wants to make sure that you have what you need to develop a winning strategy.

Paul has crafted a series of strategy tips that discuss the different buildings and tile types.

Starting with the “Town Hall” he will be discussing what each building’s function is and how they affect the overall game. Saddle up, have a Sarsaparilla, and let’s chat about Wild Tiled West!

Town Hall:

The Town Hall is the biggest building of all. Well, tied anyway! It’s also quite expensive, with a 2 gold price tag. It’s one of the “red buildings” which means when you surround it, you get a reward. In this case,10 points. But buyer beware: it’s not always easy to fully surround a Town Hall. Don’t hesitate to buy it if you’ve got the gold and a nice place to put it; otherwise you may want to chase easier endeavors.

The Barn:

The Barn feels right as a 2×2 square, it doesn’t often present town planning problems like the Town Hall can. The Barn has a yellow signpost signifying that you have an ongoing ability for the rest of the game. With a Barn, every time you wrangle cows, you gain 1 gold. So, wrangle just once and you’ll get back the cost of the Barn. Cows, be glad they don’t have horns.

The Stables:

Every board in Wild Tiled West has a series of horseshoes printed on it. It’s a good idea to cover up these horseshoes during the game, because when it’s time to settle the score, you’ll lose 1 point for every exposed horseshoe. We sometimes call this the “trailblazing” part of the game, partner.

The Stables has a pink signpost, indicating that its ability kicks in at the end of the game. Building the Stables, earns you 8 points if you covered all the horseshoes on your board. So, you don’t want to spend your gold on the Stables if you can’t cover all of the horseshoes. Only pull the trigger only if you can commit to blazing those trails.

Fancy Saloon:

So far we’ve covered three types of signpost colors:

Red: Surround for a bonus.

Yellow: Ongoing ability.

Pink: End of game bonus.

Today is the fourth and last type of signpost color: White. White signposts can immediately give you something when you place it.

In the case of the Fancy Saloon, you can take any of the four Ace cards. In Wild Tiled West, you get points at the end of the game based on the Aces you collected. 3 of a kind is good, but just like at the poker table, 4 of a kind is better. You can also earn points for 3 or 4 different kinds of aces.

The Fancy Saloon is great for finishing up your hand of Aces, especially when your opponents have taken all the tiles that you were looking for. However, this tile ain’t cheap. It costs 2 gold and sits in the middle of a river, so you never know when a filthy rich opponent might “Claim Jump” their way to the Fancy Saloon before you do.

Wheelwright:

The Wild Tiled West is full of empty spaces just waiting to be built on. And if you’ve got the cash to splurge on a Wheelwright, you’ll find that it’s much easier to fill all that space. When you lay down a Wheelwright, there is no immediate effect. But it will improve your street-building skills for the rest of the game. From now on, every time you trigger an “Alley” icon, you can place a double alley instead!

But hang on, partner, I know what you’re thinking. Why pay 2 gold for this relatively small building if it’s late in the game? There won’t be enough time to take advantage of the alley bonuses. Well, fortunately, the Wheelwright is a double-sided tile with a different special ability on the other side!

If you play the Wheelwright for the one time ability, instead of the ongoing benefit, you can immediately place two alleys, anywhere on your board. Perfect for filling in pesky holes that are still on the board. Oh, and if you were wealthy enough to place two Wheelwright’s on the board for both bonuses, you can take two double-alleys anywhere on your board.

Cache & Sheriffs Office:

Let’s talk a bit about Bandits. Bandits are the scourge of the west. They prevent you from connecting to other tiles and if you get one in your settlement, you’re gonna need bullets to get em out!

Sheriffs and bullets are generally the way to get rid of these varmints.

The Cache is only of the smallest & simplest tiles in the game. When you buy it, you immediately get two bullets.

Lining up shots against bandits is not always as easy as it sounds. Sheriffs may be in short supply (maybe because your opponents are prioritizing them). Other times, the bandits are protected by hills, buildings, or even cows! In either of these cases, if you’ve got bandits running rampant on your board and you have some bullets on hand, it’s almost certainly time to make sure you have a sheriff in town.

A Sheriff’s Office sits in the middle of a river and it costs 2 gold, just like the Fancy Saloon. So it’s not easy to buy early in the game. Your best chance of getting one is to become filthy rich and sit on a pile of gold, then Claim Jump your way to one. But whether you take that approach or find yourself a cheaper way, one thing’s certain: when you place a Sheriff’s Office, it’s time to use those bullets.

When you place a Sheriff’s Office, you can shoot any number of bandits on your board, as long as you have the bullets. You don’t need line of sight with a Sheriff; just place your bullets down on bandits and turn them into tombstones.

Sawmill:

Are you NOT feeling lucky, punk? Well, then the Sawmill is just for you. After you place it, in a later round, you can ignore the dice on the bins and instead flip over your Sawmill to take ANY TILE YOU WANT. No luck required!

In previous posts, we talked about how it can be difficult to build a Sheriff’s Office or Fancy Saloon. Well, if you set yourself up with a Sawmill early on, you don’t need to worry as much.

Hotel:

The Hotel is among the largest buildings in the game, similar to the Town Hall and Fancy Saloon.

Hotels are particularly great to buy early in the game, because they’ll set you up with a strategy to pursue. The sign on the Hotel means that for every tussle you win, you’ll score an extra 2 points

Hideout & Chapel:

Not the hero type? No problem, the Hideout comes with a Bandit and a nasty ability to immediately turn two of the sheriffs on your board into tombstones. What’s the upside you ask? Well, you’re more interested in points than credit than the law (you get 2 points per tombstone at the end of the game), and that’s your choice, you devious devil.

The Hideout works quite well with the Chapel, which at the end of the game gives you 1 point for every Tombstone on your board.

Bank & General Store:

If gold is your game, consider starting up a Bank.

Banks only take up two tiles, so they’re not going to cover a lot of your terrain. But if you’re short on cash, a bank could be the answer. As soon as you surround a Bank on all sides, gain 3 gold!

Now, if you’ve got gold to spend, you might consider Claim Jumping your way to a General Store. The base price is 1 gold, but some players might Claim Jump it early by paying 2 gold. The General Store is a fine addition to any town and it offers you three great options once it’s surrounded: 2 alleys, 2 bullets, or 2 pickaxes.

Ranch House:

OK cowboys and cowgirls, hop into that saddle and listen up. A Ranch House is THE most expensive tile you can buy for its size. It only covers 2 spaces and costs 2 gold. But the rewards for high quality ranching can be well worth it. At the end of the game, you’ll earn 1 point for every cow that’s in a pasture connected to the Ranch House. For serious town planners only!

That’s it partners you’re all set to keep those pesky bandits out and start earning gold when Wild Tiled West hits game tables this summer!

Pre-Orders for Wild Tiled West end tomorrow, Friday, July 7th. Make sure to order a copy today so you don’t miss out on the exclusive promo card, “The Surveyor”