Floresta

• Designer: Nuno Santos, Przemek Wojtkowiak
• Publisher: mebo games / Arcane Wonders
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 12+
• Time: 60-90 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4fzESut

Welcome to Floresta, a competitive board game set in central Portugal. Immerse yourself in the captivating realm of forest management, where players strive to achieve the best use of the Mediterranean forest while battling recurring wildfires. Plant trees, score points in different locations, promote tourism, nurture local trees, harvest wood, and bring the lynx back to its habitat. Construct watchtowers to control fires, strategically planting trees near them. With every decision shaping the fate of the forest, will you rise above the competition and emerge as the ultimate guardian of this precious ecosystem?

Floresta is played on several game boards, each depicting mountains, forests, or paths through nature. Each turn, players choose a card from their hand and apply its effect by placing a tree on one of the boards. They must strategically plant trees to create a sustainable ecosystem, while also taking steps to prevent and fight forest fires.

Construct the board by placing 5 Forest location boards in a cross shape and then placing four Tower boards in the corners to create a 3×3 grid.  All of the boards are double sided and you can choose/randomize which side you want to use.  Separate out the Action cards which have Fire on them. With the non-Fire cards, shuffle them and deal each player 3 cards for their starting hand. Additionally, place N+1 cards face up on the table in a display.  Now shuffle the Action+Fire cards back in to form the Action deck.   Each player takes 12 Trees, 3 Watch Tower pieces and 1 Fire truck in their color. Each also gets a player aid token, an Axe chit and a Lynx piece.

The game is played in a number of rounds with each player getting a turn and then the round ends with a Fire Phase.  On a turn, the player will play a card from their hand to either place a tree, place a watch tower, or discard the card and discard a tree.  Action cards have a die value (either red or tan in color) in the upper left.  The associated action can only be performed on a Location which has an unoccupied space matching this die value/color.  You can spend an Axe token to modify the number on a card by +/- 1, also allowing rollover from 1 to 6 and 6 to 1. There may be special actions shown as icons at the bottom of the card; you must perform these immediately or they are lost. Then, a new Action card is selected from the face up display to bring their hand back to 3.

If you choose to play a tree, this must be done in one of the Forest location boards, and as always the board space must have matching color/number to the die on the upper left of your card. 

If you build a Watch Tower piece, as always the board space must have matching color/number to the die on the upper left of your card. You may only claim one of the four Watch Tower boards each game – and once you claim one, you are the only player to be able to build on it.  Each Watch Tower location has a unique ability.  As long as you have at least one Watch Tower piece on a board, you can use its special ability.  Additionally, as soon as you place your first Watch Tower piece, you get the use of your Firetruck.  At the end of the game, you will score points based on the size of your Watch Tower.

At the end of your turn, see if you qualify to place a bonus tree – you can claim each of these bonuses once:

• If you have 20+ VP
• If you have all the values from 1 to 6 on action cards you have played
• If you have a tree in all five of the Forest boards

After all players have taken a turn, there is a Fire Phase. Again in player order, players can take a Fire Truck action. You first may move your firetruck one orthogonal movement to a Forest Board for each level built in your Watch Tower. Then the player must remove 1 or 2 fire markers on connected paths if possible.  You get 1VP token for each fire put out.  After all players have done their Fire Truck Action, each player loses 1VP for each Tree of their color that is connected to a path with a Fire Marker.  Finally, fire spreads in all locations that have Fire Markers and NO fire trucks. Add a Fire Marker to all adjacent connected paths to a current fire that do not have a Fire Marker or a Fire Break token on them. 

Finally, replenish the Action display back to N+1 face up cards.  Check each card in the display to see if it triggers new fires, and in which Forest boards. For each new fire, roll the Fire Die and then add fires to all unoccupied spaces on that board with the same number. If you did not place any fire markers, add one to the number and then check again.  Sixes roll over to ones for this purpose.  Now, pass the Starting Player marker clockwise. 

The game ends at the end of a round when at least one player has no trees remaining in their supply.  Players now calculate their final scores. 

• Players have VP tokens earned during the game
• Each Forest board has its own scoring rubric; take VP tokens based on how you do
• Each Watch Tower location grants points based on the number of pieces you have built
• Gain 1VP for each axe and camping token left over

The player with the most points wins. Ties broken in favor of the player who scored the most points from their Watch Tower.

My thoughts on the game

Floresta is a game that looks overwhelming when you first read the rules and set the game up – but then once you get about half way through your first game, you realize that it’s actually quite straightforward and easy to grok.

There is a huge amount of variability in the setup with each tile being double sided and each side having different ability rules and scoring criteria.  Essentially, during set up of each game, I’d make sure to go over the rules for all the boards to get everyone on the same page.  It’s a huge part of the game with 35% of the rulebook dedicated to explaining all of these different rules.

Once the game gets started, it’s simple enough to choose between playing a tree to the board versus trying to start or expand your Watch tower.   You have a hand of three cards – and with your axe tokens and your Watch Tower special abilities, you should have plenty of options on where to play on your turn.

Each of the five forest boards (and each side on each of those boards) has their own character, and as I mentioned above, you’ll likely want to have some sort of strategy mapped out at the start of the game.  Some boards allow you to play freely on their spaces while others have a fixed direction of play; so timing could also be quite important to get on the particular spaces you desire.

Though it’s not mandatory, I like to keep my trees closer to my chosen Watch Tower corner – so that I can send my fire truck out to put out fires near my trees.  While the penalty of one point per threatened tree doesn’t sound like a lot; all of the games that I’ve played so far have been quite competitive in scoring and every point counts.  Of course, if you manage to have all three parts of your Watch Tower built, you can then freely move amongst all the boards, but it will take you awhile to do that.  The biggest challenge for me with the Watch Towers is finding the right times to spend an entire turn to build a Watch Tower portion.  (And, of course, having the card with the right color/number combination  on it).

There is a constant pressure from the fires on the boards.  If the fire spawning cards come clumped together, you could end up with a BUNCH of different conflagrations – causing you to triage your fire truck efforts.  You might be interested in maximizing your points scored for putting out fires, or maybe you want your truck on a particular board to prevent fire from spreading.  Here again, timing can be important – as players have to commit their trucks in turn order – one of your opponents might unwittingly help you out based on the map board they choose to move their truck to.

Though the game looks complicated, it actually moves along at a really quick pace.  I try to make sure that all players understand that the game will likely last between 12 and 15 turns – (12 trees can be planted, but three of them could go on as bonus trees PLUS three turns max to play a Watch Tower turn).   I would suspect that experienced players will get this game done in 45-60 minutes.  Even when you’re new to the game, the detailed player aid keeps everyone focused on what needs to be done on each phase of the turn.

Floresta gives players a nice challenge of fighting for the best places to plant their trees coupled with the constant battle against the forest fires.  Each game presents a different puzzle as you have to work out how the different forest boards work with or against the Watch Tower powers.  And, of course, good old fashioned luck will come into play with the cards you are able to choose from and the locations of fires spawning.  Mebo Games often takes our game group on a trip to Portugal, and this year’s game is no exception.  Obrigado!

Amazon Affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4fzESut

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. John P, Dale Y
• Neutral.
• Not for me…