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Ah, Mother Nature’s guardians. The quiet cleaners that stand amongst us, providing shade from the sun and shelter from the rain. Autumn is my favourite season because of the rainbow leaf blankets woven by these beautiful beasts. Created by The Tree Council, November 23 to 1 December is National Tree Week. And, as we love trees here at Zatu, we thought it would be a perfect time to put them front and centre, particularly as Pines are coming into their most famous season! Not only do they provide the raw materials for our favourite titles, they feature in so many of them too! We therefore welcome the ever increasing focus on sourcing sustainable components, as well as any excuse to showcase their majesty and wonder!
Here are 5 top tree inspired games to play during National Tree Week and any other time of the year!
Earth
Earth is chock full of beautiful trees. It’s a tableau building game for 1 – 5 players where there are endless possibilities and opportunities to combo actions together. It’s also one of those delicious games where you can do something every turn! By that, we mean the active player chooses one of 4 actions and the passive players get to do a weaker version of the same action. There are also event cards which can be played anytime that trigger another opportunity to gain something (although it usually comes at a cost) and powers on your player board. It’s like a colour collecting engine – once you have a few of each power, they will fire off every time that action is selected. And if you have managed to synergise the abilities, you’ll be overflowing with growth and VP opportunities before you can say happy horse chestnuts! It's hard to encapsulate just how many different options there are in Earth (and just how delightful it is). You and the other players could each follow a completely different strategy when building your ecosystem and racing to complete public goals. But, if you are like us, you might also want to keep an eye on what they need. Opting for an action that could give them the keys to a killer card may just be a step too far!
Forest Shuffle
Oak, beech, horse chestnut, fir, birch……..the gang of garden guardians is all here in Forest Shuffle! And it’s a good job too as you won’t get anywhere if your forest has no trees. Published by Lookout Games, Forest Shuffle has been a hand management, card laying phenomenon and for good reason – it’s brilliant!
Every turn you decide whether to take cards from the market (or face-down from the deck), or play card from your hand to your forest. To play a card you must pay the cost in cards printed on the one you want to place. Those then go into the clearing for other players to pick up. What’s super cool is that the card you play will trigger an ability (and likely give instant VPs), and if you pay using the specific card type it prefers, you’ll trigger a bonus ability too! Synchronisation is key here – the set collection emphasis of many of the card types is obvious, but the sneaky symbiosis is where the magic truly lies. And with so many different types of flora and fauna in the deck, you can focus on a different strategy every game, depending on what is available. The temptation to dip into the deck is real, but it’s also the timer for the game – as soon as 3 winter cards are revealed, it’s all over and time to count up your VPs. With 2 expansions, I’m super happy the trees (and other species!) are multiplying in Forest Shuffle!
Living Forest
Living Forest is a celebration of trees from start to finish! Playing spirits trying to save a forest home to a very sacred tree, our nemesis is Onibi who wants to burn the whole lot down. With three different ways to win, your own path to victory can be unique. Planting trees, extinguishing fires, or collecting flowers – whichever you choose, you will be victorious if you are first to gain 12.
Focussing on deck building, players reveal Guardian Animals from hand until they either decide to stop, or luck runs out and three solitary symbols come out in a row. The Guardians in your Helpline are the way you gain abilities so the temptation to keep flipping cards over is intense. But if you don’t bust like a dropped conker, you’ll get to do more actions. Will you spend tree points to plant protective trees? Will you use water points to put out fires spreading dangerously close? Will you buy another Guardian Animal to add to your deck? Or will you go for a spot around the Spirit Board which could give you a special action, as well as steal a victory tile (a wild) from another player? Easy to learn with a light rule set, Living Forest is full of trade-offs and terrific trees!
Bosk
We need to grow more trees! And Bosk is a good start in its focus on planting and nurturing trees that are growing in a national park. Played over 2 seasons, Spring is all about planting trees of differing values along trails. Then as days warm and lengthen, visitors hike the trails in Summer to marvel at all the resplendent colours in a push for area control. Both of these activities will score you points in the first scoring phase. Then, as Autumn arrives and the wind picks up, cheeky squirrels come with it. As you may have guessed, the gusts blow leaves off your trees onto the board. This is effectively setting you up for a second shot at area control. When Winter hits, players’ majorities are frozen in place ready for the second and final phase of scoring. BOSK is very eye catching on the table. The directional wind board creates some interesting strategic choices although it’s hard to play mean with such charming little trees!
Savernake Forest
Winter is a worry for all the animals in Savernake Forest! A lovely open drafting, tableau building game for 2-4 players from Devir, we are each trying to create a network of paths that our cute woodland critters can follow to gather food. But each of the 23 different animals in the forest have favourite foods they really want to store. And they don’t share food so paths in your 4 x 4 grid must not intersect. Every turn you pick one card from the pool comprising 3 path cards and 1 animal card. But the cards are arranged underneath 4 special animals who award an instant bonus. Once you have picked your card, you add it to your tableau (respecting the adjacency rule of course!), and activate the special power associated with it. After 16 rounds, each player will have built their tableau of 4 x 4 (or 8 x 3 in advanced 2P mode),and then it’s time to tot up the points and see who is the most winter ready of them all!
We hope these suggestions inspire you to recognise everything that is super awesome about our planet’s trees! And if you want to know more or find out about dedicated Tree Week activities in your area, check out treecouncil.org.uk
