Forestry

Forestry is a medium-weight Euro game in which we’ll be managing the condition of a forest. Throughout the game, we’ll be cutting down trees, planting new saplings, operating a harvester, and improving infrastructure all to fulfill contracts. The question is, will we be able to maintain balance in this forest ecosystem?

Why was it worth going out to Forestry?

First and foremost, the game is very thematic. All the actions really make me feel like a forester who has to ensure the forest’s proper development. Additionally, the rulebook includes many interesting facts about wood, which got me even more hooked on exploring this topic.

Another thing I liked was the relationship between the positions of our harvester and the manager. We have to keep them constantly moving to efficiently carry out all our actions. This is especially important when playing with a larger group, because then it’s easier to block someone’s spaces and make sure other players get smaller travel bonuses. I also like how, once we’ve developed our sawmills, we’ll earn cash bonuses more often when someone uses them. Though it would be nice if other players mentioned this fact.

I like it when a game is tight and leaves me feeling slightly unsatisfied after the game, as if I didn’t manage to accomplish everything. That’s exactly what Foresters is like. During the game, I have to plan my actions so as to squeeze as much as possible out of them. Practically every move is worth its weight in gold, and even the slightest mistake can cost us the win. It’s a true paradise for move optimizers. Additionally, the game gives me immense satisfaction when I manage to quickly unlock additional actions that allow me to do more in the following turns.

After playing the basic version for a while, we decided to add asymmetrical abilities for the foresters. Each character specializes in something different. The ecologist builds her own tree with a difficult name, the logistics expert gains bonuses for unlocking warehouses and logging, the wood merchant trades in wood, and the specialist collects drones from the ground. It’s nice that these characters slightly change our strategies and add a bit of variety to the constant logging.

The game’s production quality is also a huge plus. Because aside from the fact that the components fit the theme, I really like the look of this harvester traveling across the map. I’d love to see an insert here, though, because without it I have to keep all the pieces in not-so-eco-friendly plastic bags.

Another interesting fact is that one of the contracts we can complete is Pink Trubadour’s previous game, Galileo Galilei.

We’ve had the praise now it’s time for a few splinters. Though they’re more neutral than negative.

The first one concerns the main action system. It works like this: we play as long as we have enough action points during our turn. We can also buy action points with coins, and if we develop everything well, our turn can take a while. This led to significant downtime in 4-player games. You also have to keep an eye on the other players, considering that it happened that someone would go overboard with the number of available actions. That’s why it’s always worth moving the counter so we can be sure how many actions we had available.

I’ve seen a few times where someone confused the light green with the slightly darker green. We could use a different color, but it probably wouldn’t be as fitting for the theme.

Forestry have a bit of a limited variety, considering that we’ll just be fulfilling contracts the whole time. The sawmills will always be in the same place, and so will the trees. After five games, I can say I’ve already seen everything in this forest, though if someone suggests another trip, I won’t say no.

Summary

Let me start by saying that Forestry didn’t knock me off my seedling. It’s just another mid-weight Euro game that leaves me with little time to achieve all the game’s objectives. However, I really enjoy playing it because I like having to figure out how to plan my turns effectively. Games with such tight mechanics really draw me in, and that was the case with Forestry. On top of that, we have a thematic gameplay that let me get a feel for the life of a real lumberjack. Something I’d only dreamed about at night, while my wife suffered every time I cut down a tree.

Final verdict: Forestry may be a wooden game, but the Euro branch burned pretty well.

Pros
Wooden theme
Where’s your harvester, boss?
Tight as Mick Jagger’s jeans
You have to plan it all out
Asymmetrical Lumberjacks

Cons
How many actions points?
I’m feeling green
Alright, cut it down. We’ve done this a few times already

[Game provided by Galakta]