What's Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mtns all about?
Transcript
Forest Shuffle travels to the Great Smoky Mountains in North America.
Thanks for joining us at Tantrum House Studio D. I'm Melissa Del
and I'm Kevin Delp. Forest Shuffle Smoky Mountains is the third standalone game in the Forest Shuffle ecosystem. It's a hand management tableau building game for two to five players that takes about an hour to play.
It's designed by Kosh and published by Lookout Games which is connected to Asthma Day.
Now, they sent us this copy to review. And in this video, we'll give a quick overview of the game and then share our thoughts. In Forest Shuffle Smoky Mountains, you're building out the Smoky Mountains National Park with trees, birds, bugs, plants, and large and small forest animals. You'll also have water habitats and fish.
During the game, players take turns. On your turn, you'll either draw cards or play a card. You can draw cards from the faceown deck or the face up clearing.
Most cards have a cost to play them. You discard a number of cards from your hand equal to the cost. The discarded cards go face up in the clearing. Sometimes you'll get an extra benefit or action if you pay with the cards that match a certain color. The card you played needs to have an available spot, like above or beside a tree. Trees can be played anywhere in your forest.
A new feature in this game is the rivers. When you play a tree, you have the option to place a card from your hand face down under the tree as a river. Other rewards may let you place rivers on their own. Plant and animal cards that show a river requirement must be played on a river or a tree with a river. Placing cards in your forest will give you benefits like drawing cards, playing additional cards, and even taking an extra turn. They also increase your scoring opportunities.
The game ends when all three winter cards in the deck have been revealed. These cards are shuffled into the bottom third of the deck during setup. The game ends immediately and players count up their points. The player with the highest score wins. If you've played any of the other Forest Shuffle games, this overview probably sounded familiar. The main gameplay is the same.
We know you love board games. So do we. That's why we enjoy talking about them. And we couldn't make this video or other videos like this without your support. And we're running our annual Kickstarter campaign that's running until September 25th. We've got board game t-shirts, promos for board games, and something a little different this year, a Christmas mystery box. Check out the campaign and I'll pin a link to it in the comment section. As we move on to our opinions, we'll start with comparisons to the other four shuffle games, then move on to our critiques, our commendations, and finally our conclusions.
So, first up is the comparisons. So, we've sort of already mentioned that all three of the standalone games follow the same general gameplay with either drawing cards or playing a card. Uh, and they also have the same types of components in [clears throat] them with the cards and boards and that sort of thing. Uh, another big thing that is the same is the clearing that it empties at 10 cards with all of the versions of the game.
And another thing that you'll notice right away is that the cards look very similar. You've got animals that are on the left and the right and top and the bottom. So, you're going to say, "Oh, this looks like a four shuffle game with the with the four shuffle cards."
Yeah. differences though I think right off the bat is the
the different regions that they're in. So the original forest shuffle is supposed to be central Europe and animals and trees that are in that region. And then Dartmore is southern England and then finally we have Smoky Mountains which is in the southoutheastern US. It's kind of Tennessee, North Carolina along that border there. Uh the rivers are similar to the moors although you can plant the trees in the rivers which I found kind of intriguing. And the moors um they can put have animals you can have two animals on the tops and the bottoms of the moors but nothing on the [clears throat] sides.
Correct. And the rivers are like
similar to the rivers. I will say that a difference between the moors and the rivers is that Smoky Mountains has animals and plants that have the water requirements.
Uh usually there's maybe one or two things that are like this has to be played in the moore for Dartmore, but there are lots like fish have to go in water. You can't put them under a regular tree. So, there are more requirements of which of the two different terrains, either water environment or non-water environment specific cards need to go in.
There's also a new mechanic that's introduced to in Great Smoky Mountains. It's not I I say the Great Smoky Mountains.
Well, I think that's the name of the national park is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Anyway, so Smoky Mountains uh introduces a new mechanic that has uh cards that say um when you play them, there's an action that says, "Hey, if there's a certain card you're looking for," and it says it on the card, if it's not in the clearing,
well, you can get it from the clearing if it's there and play it
or if it's not there, then you can get it or you can draw a certain number of cards from the top of the deck and it tells you the number of cards you can draw up to. Now, that doesn't guarantee that you're going to get the card, but it does give you the availability of like, okay, it's not anywhere in the clearing, and then I can go to the deck, or if it's in the clearing, then I can just pick it, and I think I can play it right away. Correct.
Yes.
Yeah. Which is I think is cool. And
there, speaking of expansions, we actually also received from um Asay the Forced Shuffle Dartmore expansion called Xmore. Dartmore Xmore, which is another place there. And it also has that same mechanic introduced that you see in Smoky Mountain. So if you're like, "Oh, I don't know if I want to get a whole game, but I and you already have Dartmore, then get this little small box game and say, "Hey, I'll try this that has that same sort of mechanic that lets me uh sort of almost I feel like I'm digging for certain cards."
So yeah, I find I find that intriguing. Um and I'm glad that they introduced it into a game. I actually like Dartmore, too.
Yeah. And uh speaking of expansions, that's another difference. Um for Shuffle, the base game has, I believe, three expansions now. Dartmore has one, and obviously Smoky Mountains just came out, so it doesn't have any expansions yet, but it does kind of combine some of the things from other expansions. Another difference is that Dartmore introduced actual lines
on the board that you're like, "Oh, I can once there's 10 cards on the board, then it's time to, you know, cuz a lot of times when we were playing the original force, someone like counting counting 10." This one has individual lines. So, this is the Dartmore board
for 10 spots
for 10 spots double-sided. And then, you know, we're like, "Oh, look. Great. The Smoky Mountains board also has spots. Thank you, Melissa." And also, you know, I like that. So, similar but different because we played a whole game thinking that there were 10 spots because we've already played dart more. But if you actually count, which we're going to do right now,
you're upside down, but that's okay.
Upside down again. There we go. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 nine.
Uhoh.
Nine spots. We played a whole game where we were thinking, "Oh, it's it's filled. Swipe it and do need to get to clearing." And they were like, "Oh, maybe nine on one side and 10 on the other." Nope. It's still nine spots on here. Which I think what they're what probably the designers or whoever the publisher was thinking is once you have nine, the 10th card does make the clearing. But
when you don't have a spot for a card,
spot for a card. Yeah. I'm like, I kind of personally would rather have 10 spots. Now looking at the Dartmore one, like there are a couple spots that are kind of skinny. So it maybe it was Oh, these don't fit. All 10 don't really fit well.
Let me tell you what you can do.
Make the a little longer cardboard.
I don't know. Oh. Oh, okay. There is room in the box. But anyway, so that's just something to be aware of if you've played Dartmore and then you play Smoky Mountains that there's only nine slots. So, I just wanted to compare the three games really quickly, but just the base games, not any of the expansions. And I would say that Smoky Mountains just out of the box is more similar to Dartmore than the original, which makes sense because they're adding on and and using things from other uh games. I do kind of miss the caves. Dartmore had the caves with different powers or different benefits and Smoky Mountains does not have that.
There also are no bushes or shrubs in Smoky Mountains. Now, those were introduced in Dartmore and I believe the woodlands edge expansion for shuffle
for shuffle that gave you those little shrubs that you could also put things on. Um, and there aren't any of those in Smoky Mountain.
All right. Well, let's move on to our critiques. If you played a lot of the base game or the Dartmore uh standalone game, the rivers in uh Smoky Mountains may might trip you up a little bit because rivers can put you can put cards two above and two below. But if there's a tree with it, then you can only put one above the tree and two below the river. And if it doesn't have a river, then it's like normal and you can only put one card uh uh around the, you know, the tree, left, right, top, bottom, like a regular tree. We've had a friend who struggles with that. It's like, when can I put two cards above or when can I have only when when can I? And then some some cards have a river requirement. So you make sure you have to have a river and you have to remember when you place a tree to actually place the river because that's like a sort of a free action that you can do. So, there's a lot of things to think about when you actually are placing your cards, like sort of planning out my hand to my cards and that I'm playing to make sure I have it all set. Right.
Right. So, it definitely requires a little bit more paying attention to those two distinct habitats. I have river habitats and I have normal habitats. And there are a lot of cards that can only go in river habitats. So yeah, that our our one friend, he was trying to oh, I play this card and now I can play another one. Oh, it needs a river and I don't have any river or it actually I think the opposite happened. It's like a plant, not an aquatic plant. He has a tree with a river. You can't stick it underneath the river. You can't submerge that plant in the river. You have to have a tree that doesn't have a river. So, you need to manage two separate um [clears throat] habitats with all of your cards and which ones they can go in or can't go in. So, that's just a a little extra level of planning and paying attention and making sure everything works out.
Uh the new mechanic that we mentioned with the letting the benefit of letting you draw cards, um two
to find a specific symbol.
Two two things with that. one, if you're doing that and the and the card is not in the clearing, then you're drawing cards, which makes hastens the end of the game because the more cards that are pulling off the deck, the faster you're getting to those winter cards, which ends the game. So, that's a little bit of like, oh,
yeah. Or even just filling up the clearing so it clears out. I know. And then the next player goes, I wanted that card that's not there anymore.
That never happened to you. or um there's no guarantee that when you play that card and you're like, "Oh, this lets me get a fish from the clearing. Oh, there's no fish in the clearing. Oh, I'll draw three to five cards from the deck, whatever the number is." And there's still no fish. You're sort of risking it when you play it. if there is no fish that you there's no guarantee that you're going to get a fish. So maybe strategy-wise it might be better
so that one you're not pulling a lot of cards from the clearing and two you actually get what you want [clears throat]
is to play the card when the thing whether the fish or whatever you're looking for is in the clearing so that you get it. Now I do understand there is also the other type of strategy is like I actually want to hasten the end of the game. I would never do anything like that. Kevin Kevin the race to the end
race to the end. I'm like I got my stuff. Too bad for you. But yeah, so there's definitely that. It's an interesting mechanic, but there is some uh little things to think about as you are playing with it.
So now we're going to move on to our commendations. So I do like that Smoky Mountains is a little bit more complex than the other uh standalone games. It feels like it does incorporate some of the ideas and new things that have come along from the other versions and expansions. So, right out of the box, there's a little bit more going on in the game with different strategies and types of cards. Um, much more than the original forest shuffle, like I said earlier, maybe a little bit closer to Dartmore. And with those new strategies, the rivers, I mean, they are like a big
Oh, yeah.
thing. And as I was playing, I I did have to rethink some of my strategies for how I would play either regular for shuffle or dart more and what I'm trying to do with my card plays. So, I enjoyed the the new puzzle that this one brings where it has a lot of familiarity from the other games, but it's not just the same old same old.
Cool. I think Smoky Mountains has some cards that really combo well. Uh, you've got scoring and just some of the benefits that are on the cards themselves to help you get more stuff going on in your forest, in your Smoky Mountain.
Um, but there are some cards uh that give you 30 points if you meet the specific requirements. You've got bears and bobcats and coyotes and bald eagles and elk. I think the bald eagles like if you get five different fish in your or five fish in your in your area, then it's going to be 30 points. And I I think Hannah one time [clears throat] she got two bears on one tree and that gave her like 60 points cuz she met the requirements. So it's like boom. And if you can do that, if you can get multiple of that, if you're like, "Oh, I've got all the fish. I can get two, you know, two, three bald eagles." Then you're getting 30, 60, 90 points. You can get a lot of points if you meet the requirements. So I really think that's another strategy that could help you win the game.
Yeah. And most of those cards, I think, are worth 10 points if you don't meet [clears throat] the requirement. So, they're still a good chunk of points, but they are usually fairly expensive to get usually at least three cards. Um, so it is a commitment to get them down. But yeah, Hannah, she got a lot of points out of those bears.
Yeah, but I think she might have lost. I think Charlie might have beat her on that one. Barely. Um, let's move on to our conclusions. When this game was announced, I was really excited because we have a personal connection to the Smoky Mountains. We go to the Smoky Mountains, Gatlinburgg, Pigeon Forge, just about every Thanksgiving with my family. And so, it's an area that we know well. The animals in there are familiar, the trees. So, it's just kind of
I guess nostalgia is not quite the right word, but but it gives you that kind of like warm, fuzzy, homey feeling of the familiar.
I totally agree.
Um,
but there's also the flip side of, oh, it's not quite as exotic as some of the others. Um, if I were going to recommend a standalone Forest Shuffle game for someone who is entering Forest Shuffle the first time they've played, I think I would still suggest the original version of Forest Shuffle because it's the least complex. You have the fewest amount of rules overhead. Um, and then I I think Dartmore would be my second pick for someone new because it's a little bit more complex. Some things have been balanced. Um, and then Smoky Mountains
would be the most complex to try to enter in because of the rivers and the different habitats and stuff like that.
What about you? For me, my favorite of the three, just considering the base games, not with expansions and stuff. Um, I think for me it's a tossup between Dartmore and Smoky Mountains. They both have interesting, unique elements. I have played Dartmore a lot more than [clears throat] this one, so I'm more familiar with the strategies and how to combo things. Um, so maybe a slight bit to Dartmore, but Smoky Mountains could
take the lead.
For me, I I'm still my favorite is Dartmore, but maybe we just haven't played Smoky Mountains enough yet. So, we'll continue to play because I will say this, if someone says, "Let's play four shuffle," I'll be like, "Yeah, pick any of the three and I'll play that version hands down anytime." So, and I haven't mentioned this, but I think it plays all of them play up to five players, which is great for our group. You know, sometimes we have four, sometimes five, sometimes six. So, you know, that five player uh player count is great.
Um,
Dartmore right now. But I will say what really draws me to Smoky Mountains, of course, the connection that we have, but the vibrancy of the colors that Smoky Mountains brings on the cards themselves. We showed you the board earlier. Um, Dartmore is a little gloomy,
which I think makes sense with the theme.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I like the animals and stuff like that, but yeah, the vi I really think the colors just really evoke I mean and they have a lot of that fall sort of the oranges and the yellows as you can see in here. So, totally different color scheme from the original and the Dartmore, which I really enjoy. So, as I'm looking at these pictures, I like I liked the animals and stuff like that from this one. But with the fish and the birds and just all that greenery, um, yeah, I think that's one of the points for For Shuffle Smoky Mountains that really will draw me into it again and again. So, if you enjoy uh I think tableau building games and you've never tried it, like Melissa said, try the Forest Shuffle base one first, but then get the other ones. If you've already like for shuffle, this is I think we would both say recommend, right?
Yeah.
So, definitely check out Forest Shuffle Smoky Mountains. Thanks so much for watching and please like and subscribe.