Witch Hunt from Dr Wood Challenge Centre is a clever strategy game, beautifully finished with gorgeous artwork, suitable witchery-relevant typography and cunning silver foil printing. Retailing at just `299, this is incredible value for money and the local manufacturer in Noida has done a first rate job.
The square game board opens up into a delightful rectangular 5x3 play grid. Play begins from set positions for your four pieces: A glamorous skimpily clad witch, a red-eyed bat out of hell, a moth eaten mangy blue cat, and a demented looking pop-eyed owl. To win, you capture the opponent’s witch or sneak your witch to the opponent’s baseline.
Arrow heads on every piece indicate individual moves your odd assortment can make. We’ve seen this sort of movement plan on other Dr Wood games, but it’s very intriguing to see it all come together on a small play grid or a forest, as the designers would have you believe!
Two quick games in a row, and I lost in exactly the same manner each time. The opponent’s distractingly comely witch suddenly materialised on the left corner of my baseline! While I was busy conjuring up the most devious plots to capture her pieces and then use them against her, my wily opponent was light years ahead! She ruthlessly cast spells on (captured) my cat and owl, and didn’t even bother to re-introduce them in play against me. So complete was the rout. What to say, life’s a witch!
— The author may be contacted at arup_kavan@yahoo.com