Overview

Defenders of the Wild is a card-driven cooperative area control game for 1-4 players. Players take on the roles of animal faction leaders fighting against encroaching machines to protect the wild. Each player commands a unique faction and assembles a crew of animal defenders to resist the machines across a modular map. All players win or lose together. The game was designed by T. Alex Davis (designer of PARKS) and published by Outlandish Games / Allplay.

Components

• Modular game board tiles
• 72 unique Defender cards
• 8 unique Organizer cards
• 13 Machine cards
• Wooden components: engines, mechs, walls, camps, tiles
• Faction boards (one per player)
• Various tokens and markers

Setup

1. Assemble the modular map (changes each game for replayability).
2. Each player chooses one of four unique animal factions and takes their faction board.
3. Place initial machine components on the map as indicated.
4. Shuffle the Defender deck and Machine deck.
5. Each player draws their starting hand of Defender cards.
6. Place camps, walls, and other starting components as indicated by the scenario.

Turn Structure

Each round consists of:

1. Player Phase: Each player takes their turn in order, playing Defender cards, moving defenders, and taking actions.
2. Machine Phase: Draw Machine cards and resolve machine actions (building factories, deploying mechs, spreading influence).
3. Check Phase: Check for victory or defeat conditions.

Actions

Deploying Defenders

• Play Defender cards from your hand to place animal defenders on the map.
• Each defender has unique abilities that affect combat, movement, or area control.

Building Camps

• Place camps in controlled areas to extend your faction’s influence and meet victory conditions.

Rewilding Factories

• Attack and rewild machine factories that have been built on the map.
• Rewilding requires sufficient combat strength from your defenders in that area.

Using Organizer Cards

• Organizers provide powerful one-time or ongoing abilities that coordinate actions across the team.

Combat

• When defenders occupy the same area as machines, combat is resolved using card-driven mechanics.
• Coordinate with other players to concentrate forces against key machine positions.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

All players win together if both objectives are completed:

1. All machine factories on the map have been rewilded.
2. Each player has built all of their camps.

Players lose if the machine deck runs out before both objectives are completed, or if the machines overrun too many areas.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Modular Map: The map layout changes each game, creating different strategic situations.
• Faction Asymmetry: Each of the four animal factions has distinct strengths, abilities, and playstyles.
• Cooperative Planning: Communication and coordination between players is essential – players must decide where to concentrate defenders and which factories to target first.
• Machine Escalation: The machines grow stronger as the game progresses, building more factories and deploying more mechs.
• Solo Mode: The game includes rules for solo play controlling one or more factions.

Player Reference

Win Conditions: Rewild all factories AND each player builds all camps

Lose Condition: Machine deck runs out before objectives are met

Turn: Play Defenders → Move/Attack → Build camps → Resolve Machine phase

Key Strategy: Coordinate faction abilities and concentrate forces against machine threats