For Northwood!

The kingdom of Northwood is desperately in need of unity, and only you have the capability to have a dialogue with the 8 rulers of the kingdom, to convince them to unite. Can you make the impossible happen? Can the kingdom stand strong one more time?Â
For the kingdom! For glory! For Northwood!
It certainly raised my eyebrows to see a solo trick-taking game. To this point in my journey as a game enthusiast, For Northwood is the first of its kind. It was published in 2021, designed by Wilhelm Su, and published by Side Room Games.
Now, what got me to try out the game?
Being a game developer and blogger, I am always on the lookout for games that stand out from the rest, and the solo trick-taking mechanism certainly was a big plus point for me. I heard about the game a lot in the PnP communities, and a little search on BGG also revealed the amazing achievements of the game:
Best Overall Game + Best Art + Best Solo Game + Best New Designer.
Convincing enough? It certainly convinced me for sure! That and the first impression of the beautiful art on the cards worked the magic.
All you need to play For Northwood!
I was delighted to find a free PnP copy of the game and printed it out on cardstock paper. Even though I assumed the cardstock wouldn’t do justice to the art of the game, the end product turned out to be quite neat! Like always, I opted for my unconventional method of printing and pasting two ends of the cards with glue. It takes a while, but for some odd reason, I find real comfort in building games like that. It’s really up to your preference. The majority would find it convenient to sleeve the cards. I’ve provided the link to a handy printer and high-quality card sleeves at the end of the blog.
Not a fan of building games with a handful of two-sided cards? No worries, opt for the boxed version of the game! Let’s call the PnP version a litmus test for you to decide whether to opt for the one that Side Room Games created. I’ve provided the link at the end of the blog. I can vouch for the built quality of the boxed version since the reviews of Black Sonata (launched by the same publisher) is amazing!
A heads up though- the game involves shuffling of cards in each of its 8 rounds in a game. So it’s wise to either opt for card sleeves or the boxed version of the game. My cardstock both-side-pasted cards were difficult to deal with while shuffling. So, less the friction the better.
With the game sorted out, it’s time to pick a handy playthrough video. And it’s been many times that Sir Thecos has been my go-to for PnP games! Check out the video at the end of this blog. It’s a long one (above 40 mins) but it covers all that you need to know to play the game.

In a Nutshell
The game involves 8 rounds where you have 8 dialogues with the rulers of Northwood, to convince them to unite for the kingdom. The game will involve 12 rulers, 4 of whom will be your allies- the Jack of Claws, Eyes, Flowers, and Leaves. The rest of the 8 players are the ones you will be having the dialogue with. Each of the 8 ruler cards will be placed on top of a fief card that contains the target (0 to 7) for the exact number of tricks that you need to win the dialogue, along with the points you’ll get.
How to win tricks?
You get to visit each ruler exactly once in the game. To decide which ruler you’ll go to, you shuffle and randomly pick 8 dialogue cards- these are similar to a standard deck of cards but with their own 4 suits- Claws, Eyes, Flowers, and Leaves. Once you select 8 cards at random, you will assess them to decide which ruler you want to approach to initiate the dialogue.
After selecting a fief, play dialogues (tricks) with the ruler, and take the help of your allies, until you run out of cards. Each dialogue involves the ruler playing a card (their statement) and you responding with one card, following trick-taking rules: match the suit if possible; otherwise, play any card. Score if your response is a higher card of the same suit or matches the ruler’s trump suit when theirs doesn’t. Scored cards go to your score pile; others to the discard pile. Once the dialogue is complete, you move on to the rest of the rulers. The game ends when you’re done visiting all the rulers. At the end of the game, count the points you’ve earned: if it’s 16 or above, you’ve won!
My take on For Northwood!
Easy come, easy go? Nah!
I went through the playthrough video and thought to myself:
– visit 8 rulers
– win 8 arguments by scoring the target mentioned in the fief cards
– get at least 16 points to win.
Is that it? That’s easy!
It took me only a round of the game to change my mind.
You see, it is not just a trick-taking game- it is a precise trick-taking game. The numbers mentioned on the fief cards are exactly the number of tricks that you need to win in every round, and that’s where it got interesting! While it was easy for me to win 3/4/5 tricks in a dialogue, things got really intense when the target was 0/1/2/6/7. Think of the target 0, where the aim is to win zero tricks out of the 8 dialogues or to win 7 out of 8 tricks- you cannot do it by sheer luck. Some brainwork is required to work out the two extremities of the fief cards.

Luck at play? Think twice!
Are you scoring less than 16? Are you cussing on the dialogue cards every time you draw them in a round?
It’s not the game, it’s you overlooking the heart of the game- the allies!
The allies play an instrumental role in the game, and how you perform in the game will very much rely on how well you use the allies. You will have 4 allies at your disposal at every game, whom you can use just once per visit to a ruler. I highly recommend going through the specialty of the allies, and also for the rulers whom you’ve convinced to unite. The rulers who you’ve won over can substitute an ally for a round, so their specialty will definitely come in handy.
For example- if we look at one of your allies, Jack of Flowers, his specialty is to discard all cards in hand that match the current ruler’s suit. This is particularly handy when you’ve already reached the target in a dialogue, and don’t want to win any more tricks. Use your ally, discard the trump cards, and reduce the chances of winning any more tricks. Super handy!
Also, take a while before choosing a ruler to have the dialogue with. The 8 dialogue cards you’ve drawn can be played in many ways, so take a while to understand how many tricks you can win, which allies you can use in the dialogue, and then go for it.
V for variety, V for victory!
There are 24 rulers in total, out of which 8 of them will be used for dialogue, 4 for being your ally. You know what this means. Variety!
Having 24 rulers with their distinctive specialty makes the game much more repeatable. While it took me a while to get the gist of the game for the first couple of rounds, I ended up having multiple rounds at-a-go, with each session lasting less than 20 minutes. To make things more interesting, there are also scenario-based challenges on the boxes version that can take things to the next level. All the more factors to increase the repeatability of the game.
Prognosis
I’m a huge fan of solo games, and to see a solo trick-taking game getting the limelight makes my day. The gameplay, captivating artwork, and the repeatability of the game definitely prompt me to recommend the boxed version, if you want a solo game for those quiet evenings. A big shout out to the designer of the game- this easily could have been a game that incorporated a standard deck of cards. But the incorporation of the 4 suits elevated the game to another level- be it by visual appeal or context appropriation.
Enough said, go unite your kingdom! It’s now or never.
My Recommendations:
Game Overview | For Northwood!
Publisher: Side Room Games
Designer: Wilhelm Su
Artist: Wilhelm Su
Number of player: 1
Difficulty level: Easy to Medium
Rounds of gameplay needed to learn: 1 to 2 rounds
Game duration: 20-25 minutes
Available on: PnP (free) and Boxed version
Theme: Solo precise trick-taking game | Uniting a KingdomÂ
Number of pages and color: 16 pages (color print) for the PnP version
Assembling difficulty level: Easy
Lamination: Not recommended
Additional elements required: Card Sleeves
Time to learn: Within 30 minutes
Travel-friendly: 9/10
Shelving friendly: 10/10
Rating from PnP Time: 9/10

Tasliman is a board game developer based in Bangladesh, with the dream of exploring the world of games and introducing it to anyone new to it. He is the founder of Kraftz, a brand that develops board games commercially, as well as with reputed entities like BRAC and The Gates Foundation.