Designed by: Michael Schacht
Spirits of the Forest is a simple game of set-collection: each player is trying to score points for having the most of something: the spirits of the forest, and the elements of sun, moon and fire.
The forest is made up of spirit tiles: they are laid out in four rows of twelve on the table. Each tile shows the spirit animal it represents: there are snakes, crabs, elephants and so on. Eight Favor Tokens are also added on certain spots before the game begins, and each player takes three gemstones in their own colour.
Play is simple: on your turn, you take a tile from either end of the forest and keep it for yourself. If the tile has a Favor Token on it, you keep that too. If the tile has a single spirit symbol on it, you may take a second tile of the same type, as long as the second tile also has a single spirit symbol. If the first tile you took has two spirit symbols on it, you may not take a second tile.
Before your turn ends, you can ‘reserve’ a tile in the forest by placing a gemstone on it. You can take a tile anther player has reserved, but doing so will lose you a gemstone from your limited supply – and thus quickly limits your ability to reserve tiles for yourself.
The game ends when all tiles are taken: the player who has the most of a particular spirit symbol scores one point per symbol, and everyone else scores nothing. If there’s a tie, both players score. The same scoring system then applies to the sun, moon and fire symbols which crop up on many of the cards. The Favor tokens now come in handy as extra symbols – and as they remain hidden until scoring, can provide pleasant/unpleasant surprises!
It seems almost too straightforward at first, but strategies do emerge as you play, as each tile you take offers your opponents freshly uncovered stuff. In the end though, it it all felt a bit 'ho hum', and not doing anything very different or clever.
The worst that can happen is someone taking the tile you reserved for yourself. To be fair, this is often the best move for them!
Low - decisions aren't heavy, although...
...you do need to factor in what tiles you reveal - and make available - when you claim tiles for yourself.
Set-up is random, but the game will otherwise play out the same: a gentle collecting of tiles.
1-4
Players
8+
Years
15-30
Mins
Sam says
The art on the tiles is lovely, and the light rules mean kids even younger than eight could play this - if they're okay with the slightly possessive nature of proceedings. There are decisions to be made here: which tiles you take dictate what becomes available to the other players, reserving tiles is more important than it might first appear, and focusing your efforts on grabbing Favor tokens can pay off, but does represent a gamble. For me, however, in spite of all that there is still a slightly plodding nature to it that doesn't match the beauty of the tiles and the mystique of the theme. There's nothing inherently wrong with Spirits of the Forest, but just not a real itch-scratcher for us.