Wandering Towers

The Wandering Towers, you want to bring all of your wizards home to the raven castle before anyone else.

To set up the game, place the game board tiles into a circle, the raven castle on its starting space, and the nine towers clockwise from the castle; five towers have a raven shield on them. Distribute the players' wizards — 3-5 based on the player count — on the towers, and deal each player a hand of three cards.

On a turn, play a movement card from your hand, then play a second movement card, then refill your hand to three cards. Cards allow you to move one of your wizards, a tower, or either a tower or wizard. Movement is always clockwise; sometimes movement is a specific number of spaces, and sometimes it's determined by a die roll, with you being able to roll the die up to the number of times shown on your card.

When you a move a tower, any wizards on that tower are carried forward on it — and you can move a tower on top of another tower, trapping any wizards on that lower tower. When you trap one or more wizards, you fill one of your magic flasks; you must fill all of your flasks in order to win. Additionally, you can spend filled flasks to cast one of the magic spells active in the game, with the basic ones allowing you to move a wizard or tower. (Spent flasks still count as filled.) To free your wizard, you must move the top part of the tower away.

If you land a wizard in the raven castle by exact count, your turn ends, then the raven castle advances on the game board to the next unoccupied space or tower with a raven shield. Whoever places their final wizard on the raven castle and has filled all of their flasks wins.

The Wandering Towers can be played in teams, with or without a "master wizard" variant that makes lots of spells available.

What People Are Saying

"Excellent — Always want to play." — Meeple Mountain

"The adults who tried it loved it even more than the kids did." — Meeple Mountain

What players love:

• Instantly fun for all ages — kids love dropping towers on each other; adults love the strategic depth hiding underneath
• Fast with no downtime — limited card choices mean no analysis paralysis, just constant action
• Always close, always dramatic — it's a race that goes right to the final turn
• Wildly flexible — plays solo, competitive, cooperative, or in teams, with 1 to 6 players
• Pedigree you can trust — from the designers of Azul, one of the most beloved games of the last decade

Kids will gleefully announce "I'm gonna crush that wizard!" Adults will quietly plan two moves ahead. Everyone will want to play again.

Game Mechanisms

Hand Management Players hold a small hand of cards and must choose wisely which two to play each turn. Since cards dictate how far you can move a wizard or tower, managing your hand means thinking ahead — playing the right card at the right moment can be the difference between reaching Ravenskeep or getting buried under a pile of towers.

Memory Towers stack on top of one another, hiding the wizards inside. Keeping track of who is buried where — and how deep — is half the game. Sharp players remember every wizard's location; everyone else will be in for a few surprises.

Race Every player is sprinting for the same destination. The board is circular, movement is clockwise, and only one player can win. Every decision is shaped by the urgency of getting your wizards home before anyone else does.

Track Movement All movement follows the circular board in a single direction. Wizards and towers advance along this track, sometimes leapfrogging each other, sometimes getting carried forward unintentionally. Understanding the flow of traffic around the board is key to planning your path to victory.