There are two additional types of cards used in the game. Each player has a cave card on which some wildlife and fauna card actions let players discard cards to gain one point each at the end of the game. Also, there are three winter cards that are placed into the lower third of the game play card deck. When the third winter card is drawn, the game immediately ends.
The other key component of Forest Shuffle is the clearing, which is an area that players add cards to under either of two conditions during game play. See the section below for details:
Basic Game Play is as follows with one of two choices taken by players each turn:
- Draw Two Cards from the clearing or the deck. Players may only have ten cards in their hand at any one time.
- Play a Card and check the clearing. The first card played in everyone’s forest tableau is a tree. If there is a cost to play a card, pay its cost discarding that number of cards from your hand into the clearing.
Animals, Plants and Mushrooms: All cards contain two choices of wildlife. Some are in the top or bottom half of the card while others are split between the left and right side. Play a card in an empty slot on one of the four sides of a tree. There may be immediate or ongoing benefits and/or game-end points from these cards.
If there are more than ten cards in the clearing at the end of a person’s turn, they discard all cards from the clearing and remove them from the game.
Once the third winter card is drawn, the game ends, all players tally their points and the person with the highest score wins!
Forest Shuffle was one of the most popular new games of 2023! It is compact with beautiful components, and due to the great variety of cards, goals and scoring options interesting enough to keep everyone playing over and over. For 2-5 players with a 60-minute playtime. ~Marsha