Renegade Game Studio | Arboretum | Card Game | Ages 8+ | 2-4 Players | 30 Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

I need to give a shout-out to Renegade Games for creating the most garish and ugly deluxe edition I’ve come across. When you play a card, it goes in front of you and has to be adjacent to another card you’ve already played.

Even if you do manage to play cards in your tableau and keep the highest value card possible in your hand (which would be an eight), you could still be thwarted!Depending on the player count, you take out a number of tree cards for your game, and it's fun at the beginning choosing which set of trees you like the look of most and which to leave out. This depends on the game, as heavier games take a lot more plays before I'm comfortable enough to say I've seen all their nooks and crannies.

It's filled to the brim with tough choices, and I was engaged from start to finish with puzzling out what I needed to keep, what I could safely get rid of, and what position would provide maximum comfort on the couch tonight. Join the community and come discuss games like Codenames, Wingspan, Brass, and all your other favorite games!David Norris on Air Land and Sea expands its battle lines with Spies, Lies and Supplies – Review Great to hear, I'm a big fan as well.

The strategy in this game is not obvious so during that 1st game, new players wouldn't know how to play the game and achieve the goal. Having to build a high scoring path while also keeping enough points in hand to actually be able to count your path’s score is innovative and adds another level of thought to what appears to be a simple game. This is an out of the room-in a taxi-can’t even see the house-let alone the table anymore level void between what you thought you would achieve and what you have in fact earned. It’s essentially 80 cards, which could probably fit in a Coloretto-style box, but it’s in a box that’s closer to 3 – 4x that size.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. As I mentioned, I only played this at two because I just … didn’t want to play it at four, but I enjoyed how quickly it played. Then, apart from the starting player, everyone else has one card placed face-up to represent their discard pile.

It’s part of why I like games like Railroad Ink and Avenue so much, as well — it gives you a nice sense of accomplishment at the end of the game. Actually, a better way of thinking of this is that each card that is casually thrown onto the composting pile is a leaf falling from a tree. But you also have to hold the right cards in your hand to stop your opponent from making their path – and therein lies the difficulty. You need to be mindful of these pairings because (especially for large chains) you can’t afford to lose. As much as I enjoyed these crunchy decisions, it's a game I'd rather play at a convention, or online, where I can dehumanize the opponent and allow myself to be mean.For others, though, this is a fantastic game that’s well worth getting out at the end or beginning of a game night, or on a work lunch break. So I only played this at two kind of intentionally; it’s got a reputation for being an incredibly mean (but fun) game, and that kind of intensity at higher player counts isn’t really for me. In cases where no one has cards of a color in their hand, all players get to score a path of that color (as they are all tied for the lead with zero points). Especially towards the middle and later stages of the game, where you’ll already have a great hand for the end of the game.