Indie Boards and Cards Kodama Forest , Blue

We play a lot of board games, and some are super competitive. This is a nice one, even for young kids. You can easily tweak the rules for a "kid friendly" version where the math is less of a concern.We've played this and the kodama card game, and they both have their positives, but I do like the imagery of the tiles in this game a lot.

Pretty but boring. Would only okay again with people who aren’t into board gaming but who would play a very simple game like this. Own the other Kodama games and this one is the worst.

Spring has arrived!! You have found yourself in the Kodama Forest and will need to plant beautiful landscapes. You will be planting bamboo fields, flowers, and/or ponds. Make the right patterns and your little piece of forest will be graced by pandas, butterflies, and frogs!!In the newest game in the Kodama Universe, you will be working with the players to your left and right to created the most beautiful landscape.ArtThe art is whimsical and cheerful. The sleeping pandas have such a welcoming and gracious expression, you can’t help but smile when you look at them. Even my partner, who usually doesn’t comment on the cuteness of games, mentioned how adorable the sleeping pandas were.ComponentsThey tiles are thick and feel very sturdy. However, the actual player boards are somewhat thin. You get a standard cloth bag to use during the game. It also includes some borders that are slightly bigger than the player boards. At first it seem kind of silly but after putting them together, they didn’t really bother us.GameplayKodama Forest is a joyous tile laying game. The box states the player count is 3 to 6 players. However, there is a competitive and a co-op two player variants. We favored the competitive variant more. The two different 2 player variants almost felt like two different games for us.In the co-op two player variant, the player share 2 board. They work together to build their landscape. Then they play to beat their last score.In the competitive two player variant, each player has their own 2 boards they are responsible for completing.Each board is made up of a grid filled with dirt space. Some of the dirt spaces are blank, some spaces are labeled with 5s and 10s, and then some spaces are filled with the adorable Kodamas! The aim of the game, is to end up covering the most dirt spaces. The more uncovered dirt spaces at the end of the game the higher the score. Wait, I know that you are thinking that a high score is a good thing. However, that is not the case Kodama Forest. You see, this game is just like golf, the lower the score the better. The lowest score wins. Blank unnumbered dirt spaces earn you 1 point, the dirt spaces with 5s and 10s will earn you the number displayed.You start the game with 3 tiles and you will be placing one tile on each of your boards. Here is where you have to be strategic. Certain tiles have half a bamboo field, pond, and/or flower. If you connect 2 halves and complete one of them. You will earn a special tile to place on that particular board.Complete a bamboo field ⇒earn a pandaComplete a pond ⇒ earn a frogComplete a flower ⇒ earn a butterflyThis will help you covered up the board more efficiently. At the end of the round, you refill your hand back up to 3 tiles.My partner likes heavier and crunchier games, however in it’s simplicity Kodama Forest hit a spot that other like Patchwork missed.We weren’t crazy about the 2 player co-op variant. The beating your own score somehow didn’t feel too engaging for us. However, I can see this appealing to many 2 player gamers.This is definitely a keeper for us, we like having a game that isn’t limiting on the spectrum of player count. This pandemic has put hinder our high player. So it was very nice having a game that we can play with our friends whenever that time comes and that we can still enjoy when it is just the two of us.In our household we are giving this a 7.0/10

I was very excited to play this game however the bag that is in the game was covered in mold. At first I thought it was just a speckled bag but they are mold spores. Getting a replacement and hoping that one is better

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