WOODS GOT THE GOODS (Forest Shuffle Review)

Boardgames Shut Up and Sit Down
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2024-08-01T17:58:38Z

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That looks quite nice. I’d like to try it sometime.

The whole problem of needing to discard cards to a pile that your opponent can pick them up from, and therefore not wanting to discard anything at all, also sounded reminiscent of Arboretum. What with that and all of the trees, I was half-expecting that comparison to happen early in the video (although in the end the similarities weren’t as significant as they’d initially seemed).

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The “I don’t want to discard” feeling (because you want to get points for the card later AND don’t want your opponent to access it) is also a main mechanic in Lost Cities, and can happen from Turn 1!

Given that it’s very fun there, and I’d heard a lot about Forest Shuffle already without knowing it does this, I’m now quite interested in playing Forest Shuffle.

For those who have played it, I did hear that some combos are just straight up better than others and the game balance isn’t good - did anyone find this?

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I’ve played it twice. I am told that the deer-wolf combo is particularly effective, but it’s a Huge Deck Game and so you can’t actually plan to play that, you just do it if it’s handed to you.

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I’ve played this game a few times and our friends have played it A LOT. In fact so much they know all the various strategies and which cards you need for it and… and it loses a lot of the cozy factor when the knives come out :wink:

My take-aways are this:

  • it’s a cozy but somewhat mean game with up to 3 players
  • With 5 players it is pure chaos and you will NEVER see a card again
  • If someone knows how to pull of one of the Strategies™ (deer, wolves, bear, I don’t quite know which ones work and which ones only pretend to work, haven’t played enough) and the others don’t … that person will likely win–but unless you are really unlucky you won’t find out until the game is over and in the meantime you are building a nice forest
  • This has the worst scoring ever of any game I can think of. So many elements and interdependencies…
  • Butterflies suck. Even with the alpine expansion. They just suck.
  • Never do butterflies.
  • There is another expansion announced. Which I will get of course.
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