It’s almost October and we here at the Cardboard Cantina find ourselves preparing for the spooky season and all that it brings. One wonderful treat right up our alley is a new Kickstarter from Gadabout Games called Turf War: Trick or Treat. Turf War itself was crowdfunded on Kickstarter in 2021, and the newest expansion brings quite a bit to the table including new events, ways to score, and some charlatan children set to swindle you out of your sweets or punk your plans if not placated.

If you haven’t played previously, Turf War is a quick two-player game with strong take that mechanics set in the scenario of swaying your neighbors’ favor and earning grounds-keeping glory. As cards become available, you will first have to leave your home to go to work, earn money, and visit the store, but in doing so leave your yard vulnerable to sabotage. Returning home allows you to use cards you’ve bought both in your own yard as well as others if their owners are away. It plays well at two players, but we found the game to be much more enjoyable with a second set of the core box (allowing up to four to compete), as it changes the brutality of the game into something much more strategic.

As a completely new mechanic, Turf War: Trick or Treat adds candy as a concurrent currency that can be purchased while away for three coins each. Leftovers can score extra points at the end of the game, but it also serves as a way to fend off the trick-or-treaters that will occasionally visit. The kid cards will be shuffled into the store deck before playing. Same with the new event cards (more on those later). When they come knocking, a player must either give them a number of candies as per their card or they will perform some nasty action and can really mess up your plotting, pun intended. Securing a stash of sweets early is suggested. New neighbors are also shuffled into their respective decks and add not only a holiday theme to the options but a new sway mechanic if you want them to favor your yard. The original game only had one event in the deck that caused a reshuffle and ensured the store was never empty, but this expansion adds several copies of two new events: one of them will give players more candy if they have neighbors scored already, and the other trades out neighbors currently unswayed for new ones and will cause players to have to change tactics on the fly. Many new tools, ornaments, features, plants, and pests are also included to increase the theme and variety of the store.

While our demo copy included some truly terrific elements, we look forward to seeing what the campaign will include and possibly add to the game. One thing we did notice was the design of a community-decided trick-or-treater on Gadabout Games’ website. A second element we really hope stays in is that the expansion comes with enough counters and cards to accommodate being added to either a two or four-player set. Turf War: Trick or Treat is a well-designed thematic trek into trick or treating that brings already lively litigation into the holiday spirit. If these themes are your thing, we highly encourage checking out the Kickstarter, or if it’s already completed finding a copy to add to your collection wherever you buy games.

All photos of Gadabout Games products were taken and edited by Krista.