Five new level 2 and five new level 3 Guardian cards have also been added. The level 2 guardians allow you to perform the same basic action twice, while the level 3 allow you to perform a basic action shown on the card in addition to your normal two actions. The cost of these guardians isn’t cheap – level 2 range from 6-10 and the level 3 from 11-15 – but the extra actions could be the difference between just falling short or sneaking over the magic 13 (or 15.) In Living Forest, players play as one of the four Spirits of Nature, trying to become the Grand Protector of the Forest. The Four Spirits of Nature – Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn – have been called to rescue the Sacred Tree of the Forest facing the devastating flames of Onibi… You are a Nature Spirit and you have been appointed to save the forest and its Sacred Tree from the flames of Onibi.You are not alone in this mission, the Guardian Animals have gathered around the Spirit Circle where you are progressing, and are providing you with valuable help.

Kodama symbols can net you a (2Water/2Sun/2Tree) or (1Wind/1Flower) tile. Each of these tiles can only count as one of the listed element bonuses. Absolument magnifique, le jeu nous embarque dans son univers original au cours de parties plutôt rapides pour un tel jeu. J'avoue que j'étais un peu réticent, je ne serai vous dire pourquoi, il y a des jeux comme ça... Mais heureusement, j'ai eu la chance de le tester.

The fact that I’m still thinking about how to best play the game and I’m looking for pieces to help the standees work better tells me that I’m planning to keep the game. And, in many ways, that is perhaps a great indication of what I think about it. Action : The Spirits of Nature play in turn. If your Help Line shows strictly less than three solitary symbols (not canceled by gregarious symbols), you can then perform 2 different Actions. If your Help Line shows three solitary symbols (not canceled by gregarious symbols), you can then perform only 1 Action. The strength of an Action is determined by the number of corresponding Elements visible on the Guardian Animal cards on your Help Line and on your Forest individual board (seen on the tiles). Sum up the total in each of the 5 elements. If you add up the value of your sapling symbols, you can buy one single Protective Tree Tile from the dispensers. This sum equates to the cost equal to (or less than) that of a Tree tile you can claim. The first tree you place has to sit adjacent to your initial Protective Tree tile, in the middle of your Forest Board. Every tree after that has to sit adjacent to any tree on your board. Put out a fire – Use any water drops collected you can extinguish fire tiles that are on the circular spirit board. When done, these tiles go face down next to your board and contribute towards your target of 12. Plant a protective tree – if your Guardian Animals awarded you any plant points i.e. visible in your Help Line, you can buy a tree tile and place it on your board. The placement must be adjacent to a previously planted one. Every tree gives you permanent elements and/or a bonus action. Plus, filling rows, columns get you added permanent rewards (with corners offering an immediate one-off boon!).

You can only ever take one Tree per action. Across the game you can take two identical Trees if you want (if you want to double up on certain Tree’s element bonuses). Note that you need 12 different Protective Trees to trigger a victory condition. (Not 12 Trees total.) The game stops at the end of a complete Action phase when one of the players has managed to complete one of these. If several players complete one of the three victory conditions at the end of a turn, then they add up the values of all three victory conditions. The player with the highest total wins. Water can be used to battle fire – which collects in the Circle of Spirits at the end of each turn. A player can take however many water symbols they have and remove fire tokens (which may show values of two, three and four) they can afford to pay, receiving no change if they cannot make a perfect match. Bearing in mind that one way to end the game is to collect twelve fire tokens, low cost fire tokens are in high demand – these tokens regenerate based on how many cards a player takes from the guardian animal rows, so by taking better cards, you actually make fire tokens available for the player (or possibly players) who follow. In case you don’t have enough symbols to spend, you can always consider the ‘Take 1x Fragment Tile’ action. This is always available. Not the most exciting… But if the timing is right, it could create a mega Help Line for you! Woah-oah! Livin’ On A Flare To me, this shows that there are multiple ways to win, and it’s just a matter of playing the group maybe more than the game. In general, if you are the only person going down a path, you’ll have less competition – though in a 4p game, you’re guaranteed to have some sort of fight as there are only 3 paths. Otherwise, you have to do what you can to limit the ability of the other players to do things. Maybe it’s camping out on the tree space on the circle so someone else can’t use it. Maybe it’s not buying cards on the turn prior to the fire collector going first – so that they don’t get the best run at the fire tokens. Maybe it’s just playing your own game, collecting cards and fragment tokens and making a huge one-time dash at the 12 lotus flowers.

There’s one other action though, which is to move your piece on the circular forest board where all the player standees are. Doing so nets you a bonus depending on where you land, either a free action of one of the other types, or a useful fragment, which you can spend during your draw to discard a solitary card. In a clever twist, if you can leap-frog another player piece, you get to steal a victory tile from them, which reduces their progress toward one of the win conditions while increasing yours. However, you also set yourself up to be leap-frogged in turn if that player has enough movement action total and chooses to take it. Each turn has 3 phases and up to 2 actions to perform. Your main task is to choose the winning way! Phase 1: Guardian Animals