Children’s Board Game Review: Conservation Crisis by Tunza Games*

As a family, we care about conservation and also enjoy playing games, so we were eager to try out the Conservation Crisis board game by Tunza Games.

Conservation Crisis combines real-life conservation issues with the feel of a traditional board game.

It’s described as a fun strategy game where players take control of a wildlife reserve in crisis and save an endangered species.

With a limited budget of $100,000 of funding per round, players have to choose which projects to build and which staff to hire to rebuild their reserve and keep their wildlife safe. Along the way you can hire vets to ward off disease; train rangers to protect wildlife from poachers; or build tourist lodges to generate more revenue for your reserve.

Players need to manage their funds and ensure there’s still cash in their ‘crisis fund’ pot for emergencies that crop up throughout the game.

To add an extra layer of reality to the game, there’s a checkpoint where players choose between waiting or paying a ‘bribe’ to the poachers to pass straight through. Waiting slows players down but those who pay the bribe must take a ‘bribe card’, but beware, this leads to consequences later in the game.

And the more you play, the more of a conservation expert you’ll become.

Conservation Crisis is aimed at ages 7-plus and is for 2-4 players. The estimated playing time is one hour.

What we thought of Conservation Crisis board game

The game is completely different to anything we’ve played before. For while it involves money, the focus is on doing caring things with the cash you have, rather than striving to become rich and drive your competitors into bankruptcy, as you would in games such as Hotel.

Our first impression was that the game was bright and colourful, making it appealing to children. We were also impressed there weren’t any plastic playing pieces. Instead, the makers have used wood, making it more environmentally friendly. After all, there are too many games and toys on the market that use too much plastic.

Before starting to play, I read out the instructions to my husband and our 10-year-old son, Ewan.

And there are a lot of instructions – in fact, seven pages.

My husband and I found a lot of the instructions complicated and confusing. So much so, that by the time we were ready to start playing, we weren’t quite sure exactly how everything would work.

But thankfully, Ewan had absorbed and understood the information far more easily than us, and he was able to show us what to do as we played.

I imagine the complexity of the instructions is part of the game makers’ mission to accurately reflect the complex world of conservation. And while being realistic and accurate is important, I would have preferred something a little less hard work for a board game.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed the game, and by the end had learned more about conservation than we knew before.

Some young children who are aged seven, eight or nine might find the game hard to understand and may therefore get bored. But Conservation Crisis worked well for our 10-year-old and has the added benefit of being educational.

It’s an ideal game for playing on a rainy afternoon but it may be a little bit too much hard work on Christmas Day, for example, when the grown-ups have had one or two glasses of wine and are ready for a nap.

A big positive is that the game stretched Ewan mentally and got him away from computer gaming for a while. And afterwards, he was keen to play the game again the next day, which we’ll happily oblige.

He also liked that the players don’t have to follow a set path around the board, which made it more interesting.

Regarding the instructions, it might be a better idea not to read them in full before you start. Instead, you can simply refer to them as you go around the board. And I imagine the more you play the game, the easier it becomes to understand. Plus, there’s a useful quick summary of the game within the notes.

Conservation Crisis is a fantastic idea, because conservation is an issue we all need to think about, including children. The game is also great for challenging the players. It’s definitely not boring!

Where can you buy Conservation Crisis board game and how much does it cost?

You can buy Conservation Crisis board game direct from Tunza Games for £29.99 or via Amazon. With every sale, a donation is made that goes towards funding conservation projects run by four key partner charities to help protect wildlife around the world.

About Tunza Games

Tunza means ‘we care’ in Swahili. Tunza Games is a social enterprise with a mission to produce entertaining and educational games to raise funds and awareness for wildlife conservation. Conservation Crisis has been designed and tested by conservation experts to provide a game that is not only fun to play but also accurately reflects the real-world challenges of protecting wildlife.

Review by Colette Warbrook

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*We were given a copy of the board game in return for a feature. All opinions are our own.