Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mountains Review
Transcript
Hey everyone and welcome back to the Dice Tower. I am Camila.
I'm Z Garcia.
I'm Joy Evans.
And we are here today to review a new version, a standalone version of Forest Shuffle. This is going to be the Smoky Mountains.
You've been there?
I have. I love the Smoky Mountains so much. I was very, very excited about this version. Um because Smoky Smoky Mountains are very near and dear to my heart.
Best part of Wyoming.
Oh my gosh. You know what? This can be a two-person review. I don't think it's too late yet, right? Uh, like I said, this is going to be a standalone version. So, it's not going to work with any of the prior the Dartmore or just I don't want to say vanilla for base game Forest or any of those expansions. So, brand new breakout point here for it. Uh, let's take a look at how it plays. I am going to do this overview as if you haven't played Forest Shuffle. So, this is just the general rules and then we come back we can talk specifically about how it's different and give you our thoughts.
Yeah. Forest Shuffle Smoky Mountains is going to be a standalone game. That means it is not combinable with Forest Shuffle or Forest Shuffle Dartmore or any of the expansions. So for for those two games. So it is going to be a new standalone title in the Forest Shuffle line. Let's take a look here. Generally how it plays. This is going to be in the middle of a game here. To set up the game, you are going to shuffle these three winter is coming cards in the bottom third of the deck. Um, and so the game is going to end when that third card is drawn. It is an immediate end to the game. You're not going to finish the current turn. Take equal number of turns, anything like that. When that third card is drawn, the game is going to end and you go to scoring. So on your turn, turn is just going to continue around the table, everyone taking one turn at a time. And you're going to take one of two actions.
The first action you can take is to draw cards. You can draw cards either from the clearing or from the draw deck. You get to draw two cards and you draw them one at a time. So, for example, maybe I would take one from the deck and then I'm also going to take this tree right here. The other action you can take is to play a card out into your tableau. So, like I said, this game is already in progress here. You start with nothing out. On your turn, you're going to look at the cards in your hand and choose which one you want to play. Looking at the cards a little bit closer here, we can talk about the anatomy. The cost to play the card is going to be in the upper leftand corner and the card type is going to be in the upper right hand corner. That's going to come into play because if you pay for a card using uh certain attributes or card colors, you might get a bonus from that card. So, in order to play this rock the rock cap fern here, I have to pay one card. And if I pay that one card in a purple card, then I get this bonus right here.
Regardless, it's going to have some sort of either action, such as we see on the bottom of the card here, or some endgame scoring bonus. So, let's see. Looking at my hand, I don't have any purple. I still really want to play this fern. So, I'll go ahead and pay for it with this one card. Oh, not the river. Y'all know I'm keeping that river otter. Let's go ahead and pay for it with this card. And then I'll take that fern and just place it anywhere that I can. So when you place a card, you have to place it based on its card anatomy. So this is a top part that I'm paying here. So it needs to go on the top of a of a of a landscape here that I can. If you have a water terrain, this is new for this one. If you have one of these water terrains, then you have to u make sure that the card can be placed on water. So this fern does not have that water requirement. It could not have been placed on this universal water um universal river over here. That's why I put it on top of the tree. So then my turn would be done and it would go to the next person. If you were ever going to play a tree into your tableau here, this one is free. When you play a tree, you have the option of also playing a river and attaching a river to that tree. In that case, if you want to, you would just take another card from your hand and tuck it underneath. The river cards can have two cards above and two cards below, nothing on the side. And and trees can have one on each side.
That rule can of course be broken by the cards themselves, but that would be explicitly stated on the card. So the rivers um can have two two above and two below and then the trees can have one on each side. So in this case here, as you see with this tree, it has one above, one to the left, and then uh it should not have two below. That is not actually allowed, but you could. So this one would have needed to go somewhere else, but you could have in this case played the two different fish below that river. So, um, if you ever play a tree, like I was saying, you also have an option of putting the river down. And when you do that, you also discard a card into the clearing up here. After you take one of those two actions, if there are ever more than 10 or more cards in the clearing, then the clearing does clear away and would be discarded. That's not the case here, but it would just go over there. Um, and then from there, it's just a matter of looking at the cards as you're playing and taking their special abilities. When that third winter is coming card is drawn from the deck, then at that point you go to endgame scoring.
And with the endgame scoring, you're going to score all your trees, which will have different scoring abilities on them. You're going to score all of the cards on top of all the trees, the left and right, and then bottom. And then all of the cards in your cave are going to be one point at the end of the game. And again, different card abilities might put cards into your cave in order to use that scoring. at that point. Highest highest points wins and that's going to be Forest Shuffle Smoky Mountains.
Okay. So, first of all, this one visually I think again I'm I'm biased with the with the actual location here, the Smoky Mountains, but I think that this one looks vastly different than the other two.
I don't think it's just you. I don't think it's just a biased thing. I know you like the Smoky Mountains and I think it's the theme here is fine, but it is it does make for a vastly more vibrant and visually uh diverse
game.
I agree.
I thought the first one looked good. I like the first one, but I thought Dartmore especially, while I think the gameplay was very good,
was drab looking. And I get it, you know, you have to represent what what's there, but it just looked visually was very very drab. very gray and browns, just not interesting. This one, they set it in the uh the fall, the autumn is where most of the cards look like they're set, and it is
gorgeous. The the vibrant oranges and yellows and reds. It looks way better than the other ones.
I agree. It's gorgeous. And I learned a lot of animals, I'll be honest.
Okay. Such as
uh I forgot the name.
Fish. Fish. What are fish? Bald eagle.
Yeah. And and to your point too, I like that they have the two sides of the board for the clearing. One is that fall color and the other one is green like in the summertime. So yeah, I I think that this was a step back up in the in the artwork and just visual nature of the game.
Um, new to this one is the rivers, which can be played underneath the trees, as you saw, or universal as their own. And of course, like we said, introduces those fish. Uh so very different strategies than than the first one as well. I did find that after a couple plays there are a lot of different strategies to go to and scoring seems to be closer together um than in in especially for a shufflebased game without expansion. Sure. Like this one was more out of the gate
different strategies that are viable.
They've had already a few rounds of getting this right the balance or whatever. You know what I mean? The original one some people I don't you know I don't know if this is true or not. I assume it is. So, we're like, well, this strategy is a little too strong. This is too good. And they've put out expansions that supposedly sort of try to corral that and deal with that. Okay, this feels good to me. I don't know if it's balanced or not. Somebody smarter than us, I'm sure, will be like, actually, that one fish is too good. Okay, if you say so.
We also have multiple plays, but we don't have a hundred plays yet. You know, I think it takes a long time to
I don't fancy myself somebody who can spot those things usually.
No.
It felt good.
Mhm. Yeah, the biggest thing is like I think the hardest thing is to do more of these. You don't want to put too much complexity in there. There's a bit more complexity in this, but it's not a lot. And it also it's worth it because it gives you so many more, like you said, avenues of victory because as you play the first couple, you start to gravitate to one place. And I love just the broad place whether or not you want to focus on fish or not. You don't have to. You can go just trees. You can go there's so much to do in here. It's
a little more brain burning, which I kind of like. It does take a little bit to wrap your head around the you play a tree, you pay for that tree, you can put water under it. Okay. What can that structure now hold?
Yes.
One on each side, one above, two below, which have to be waterbased. Okay.
Sometimes you'll end up with just a river that can have two above, two below, no sides.
Okay.
Right.
Just the old tree is 111 and one because you don't have to play a a river to it. it that that's a little that's going to take a little sort of getting used to. It is a little weird. That's a rule. It's a little bumpy.
I will agree. It did seem to step up the complexity with the symbols in this uh in in that. Where can you play stuff? There is now one that allows you to search for a kind of card in the clearing and if it's not there, reveal a certain number of cards until you get it. So, that's a new symbol. Universal water playing from your hand versus playing from the clearing. There are some additional symbols that I do think takes that complexity just up like half a notch. It's not
right. I don't think it changes the scope of the game necessarily, but it does nudge it up a little bit.
And I like that decision space, too, because one of the hardest things to figure out in for shuffle is do I ditch these cards and just give up on them? But then you have an extra decision. Do I also ditch this one for a river card? I like that. You know, that's really that's a really cool decision. Well, it feels like the game's pace is tuned up a little bit. You know what I mean? You are
cranking through cards.
Yes. Right. Well, there's a couple of things that do it. Playing a tree often times might cost you one more card as you tuck one under and make it a river card. And then that symbol you were talking about of the the push your luck symbol, the sort of flip until you hit a thing. You flip three or five cards.
That's burning through that deck. So, the game feels about 10 15 minutes shorter than previous editions of it.
I think that's pretty good.
Yeah. I also like the way that I feel like the clearing has almost become its own
kind of push your luck element to the game as well. It almost has its own little game you're playing. Um, so they have replaced the bear. Well, there is a bear in this one, but there with the beaver where you take any when you play the beaver, any trees that are in the clearing get to go into your cave.
The old bear used to just take the entire clearing,
right? And so I think that that one brings some balance to that, but also again has that like, okay, do I want to discard a bunch of trees? and you hold on to that. It's really about nailing that timing. And it just speaks to [clears throat] how well this version, I think, interacts with different elements of the game. There's a lot more cards that are going to score based off of different species. So, it does feel more like you are building an ecosystem more so than you're building a
sanctuary. I don't know. You know, like like you need everything working together.
And that theme comes through like with the beavers pull the trees. First of all, your durability is very high, you know, and it makes you knowing those beavers could be out there.
Before I used to just ditch trees. If I have the trees I want, ditch them. But now you don't. You're like, I don't want to put six trees out there, right?
You know, so I Yeah, I love that.
Well, or like are they fireflies? You know, they score off each other and so cuz they're synchronous fireflies, you know, so they want to have lots of fireflies so they're in sync, right? And so there's just those little thematic moments.
Anything else before we get to final thoughts here, guys?
No. Um, I will mention that this version still has that same sort of very um I'll say bumpy again. Uh, scoring.
Yeah,
you know, the scoring in this game is always tricky. Score the top card, score the trees, the top cards, the bottom cards, right and left.
And there's a lot of there's just a lot of scoring. The game play is fairly engaging mentally, but fairly quick
and then you get to score and it's like, okay, let's bring out the calculators, bring out the the notepads, let's figure this out. There's a lot of that still. Scores are going to be high. You know, you play with three, four players, you're looking at 100 plus, two players, 200 plus, you know.
Um,
so that's something to be aware of. That's always been for me specifically a little bit of a sticking point with this series of games. This one's not any different. And I don't I don't see how they could do that. But, you know,
and we often get flack, if you will, you know, for not recognizing that there is an app out there that you can take a picture and will do the scoring for you. But a couple things on that. I don't know if for shuffle is part of that app yet.
This one for shuffle Smoky Mountain.
Smoky Mountains. Yes, correct. I don't know if that's part of it. Um, but also that's not official and in the box here. You know, we are we are reviewing this product. So, we do take that into consideration as is the scoring. Um, all right. So, Joey, what do you think?
Well, I'm coming in at a nine. I like this game a lot. I re I love force shuffle. Here's the the odd thing. I will say this to me does not replace force shuffle. If I am introducing new people, I will go to force shuffle, you know, I will go to that. It seems simpler to grasp at the beginning, you know, and they're like, "All right, got it." But once they play a couple times, then I'm like, "All right, you got to try this." Because again, has that's it's adorable. And you just throw in the rivers. So, I think this is a great second step that should exist. I It's really I really enjoy this. So, again, these two will be great in my collection. Yeah.
Okay. So, you think there's room for both?
I 100%.
Great.
I think I agree with you. Uh, I'm going to come down at an 8.5 on this one. That's fantastic. I
I feel like for me personally, Smoky Mountains here makes Dart more the the the sort of redheaded stepchild. It pushes Dart more out for me cuz the first one has the expansions if you want them and is simpler out of the box if you don't want to use that stuff. This is the next step one. Great theme, great look, a little bit more gameplay. Dardmore is the one that has not a great look in my opinion. A lot of more rules than the original. It just sort of gets it gets shoved out of the way, I think, between the original and this one. Um
that's obviously my own ranking. But for me,
I think it's this the first one then Dartmore if I was going to like, you know, and I could see myself keeping
both
three then one, two, then Dartmore being the second one that came out. Sort of. Not not really.
Okay. I'd rather just play one or the other, you know what I mean, of these two. So, yeah. 8.5.
All right. For me, this one is a 10. I love this version of it. I I think that this is the forest shuffle game that I've wanted all the time. I will agree that I do think um base forest shuffle I think looks better than Dartmore, but ultimately I liked Dartmore more.
You like the little more complexity, I guess.
Correct. I did. And I I liked like in forest shuffle. I think it gets really good when you have all the expansions, but then you are looking at multiple rule books for how many cards do I take out for this number of players. Um you know what does this symbol mean? Which expansion did it come from? So I liked the just all in one package of Dartmore. So I did think that was the better version, but it never replaced for a shuffle for me.
This replaces for a shuffle for me. I do agree that it does bump that complexity up a little bit. Uh, but I already didn't consider this a wel welcoming game. And I don't think the bump in complexity puts this out of a gamer's game. Sure. Um, you know, it doesn't even take it into that like doesn't take it into heavy weight or anything. So, I don't think it takes it outside of the range of people that I would be introducing for a shuffle to anyway.
Yeah, it is a good point. You don't see as a welcoming game. I guess I see that because turn-wise it's easy, but again, scoring, like you said, that's where I think it removes it from that category.
And it can also get overwhelming card. somebody to to be thrown into this from like who know you're insane.
Well, it can also get overwhelming if you have all 10 cards and you see all these different synergies knowing which one to pick and how and then like you know new cards come out so it's a very tactical game and I feel to be able to play well tactically you have to be familiar with modern games and hobby gaming and so this new one while it does up that complexity it doesn't change the audience for it that I would be introducing it to. Um but I think that this one the like I said before it feels like you're building an ecosystem. It feels like you're building a forest now and I think it's absolutely gorgeous. I love the way the animals are interacting with the trees, with the nature. Uh it just feels it feels very alive and I love that. So for me, this one is a 10 and it does replace all the other forest shuffles for me. [snorts] So that is Forest Shuffle Smoky Mountains. That is a seal of excellence across the board here, you know. So fantastic game. Be sure to check it out. If you're interested, let us know in the comments down below what you think. Until then,
which one's your favorite?
Which one? I'm curious. Yeah. All right. I'm Camila.
I'm Zy. I'm Joey.
See you guys. Bye.
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