Kavango Lodges Expansion - Examples

Some more examples of choosing and building lodges in the Kavango Lodges Expansion

Start of the game

You get dealt three of each level of lodge card at the start of the game, you will choose two of each level to keep.

At the start of the game, take some time to work out where you want to place your lodges and how well they overlap with other lodges. Overlapping your lodges is what you're looking to do here. If two lodges share two common animal types then you can place them beside each other and the animals you place will contribute to completing both lodges, meaning it will take fewer turns and less space to complete your lodges.

From the nine lodge cards I was dealt at the start of the game, I've come up with two viable selection options. The second selection looks best though so I'll go with that.

Tip: as well as the optimisation of the lodges you will want to think about the total number of different animal types your lodges will require. Having a variety of different animal types is usually better than being overreliant on a few animal types.

Round 1

Keeping your lodge cards on the board really helps with keeping track of which animals you need and where you need to place them.

Remember you can move animals on your board as long as they are not part of a complete lodge. In this example, we've moved the Hyrax from where we first placed it so that it can be part of two different lodges.

Laying your animal cards on top of the lodge cards and tucked underneath so you can still see all the crucial information is a really good way to lay out your play as it makes it much easier to track what you are doing.

At the end of this first round I've made very good progress towards my two Level 1 lodges, with three out of the four animals needed for each. My Hyrax and Guinea Fowl both working towards both lodges.

Round 2

These images show how you continue playing through the game with the same approach of overlapping and tucking around the lodge cards.

When the Warthog is played the first Lodge is complete. I remove the lodge card and place the Level 1 lodge piece. We recommend playing them standing upright so they don't block the view of any key information on the cards.

Notice that the Genet has also been played, in this case we've placed it away from where we want to build our lodges, because it doens't help achieve any of them.

You'll also see that our lodge placement at the start of the game has worked out very nicely: our lodges are overlapping so that most animals we are playing are contributing to completing two lodges.

Round 2 onwards

Later in the second round I play the Kudu to complete a Level 2 lodge. I have completed three of my lodges now and will work the rest of the game to complete the remaining three. At this stage I might also be thinking about the Golden Lodge if we're playing with it.
The money I've earned from completing my lodges will help unlock the spaces locked by the community protection markers, which will help me to contiue to progress throughout the game.