Bethel Woods

About this board game

Bethel Woods is a cooperative board game for 2–4 players, with play sessions of about 40 minutes. Set in the universe of Hours, it combines a mysterious woodland setting with a mancala-like mechanism and a race to save the orphanage’s inhabitants.

Once a place of discovery for young minds exploring space, time, gravity, and light, Bethel Woods has been lost in the forest after an ominous force invaded the world. Now, young people bearing the orphanage’s crest must return, repair the scattered Machines, and protect their technology before it is destroyed.

On a turn, a player picks up all the Workers from one of the six Machines surrounding the Orphanage. They then move clockwise or counter-clockwise, dropping one Worker on each Machine along the way and fixing Malfunctions as they go.

Four types of Malfunction match the four Worker types. Every Malfunction repaired becomes Knowledge in that player’s personal supply. To win, the group must send six of the twelve Workers into Bethel Woods Orphanage to construct the Daydreamer, with each successive Worker requiring more Knowledge of their type than the last.

• Use acquired Knowledge to uncover spies hidden within the Machines.
• You may uncover one Spy only on the final Machine where you place a Worker each turn.
• After every turn, three random Malfunctions are added to the Machines.
• A Machine becomes critical when it has more than three Malfunctions and/or Spies.

The group must carefully maintain the Machines while advancing the Daydreamer. Players lose if four Machines are critical at the end of a turn, if six Spies are ever on the board, or if there are not enough Malfunctions to place. Bethel Woods was released in 2016.