A trip to one of my FLGs today: we picked up Kodama: The Tree Spirits and had chance to play it this evening.
This game oozes class. The mechanics are simple. The scoring is fast. The artwork is gorgeous. The game is nice and short.
At the start of the game, each player randomly selected a tree trunk and you take turn to select cards which depict branches of a tree; having selected a branch you must place it on your tree so: no card overlaps more than one card & cards don't overlap features and cards don't go under the base of your trunk. The cards have features on them: mushrooms, caterpillars, stars, flowers, fireflies and clouds - you score one point for each feature that appears on the card and all the way down to the trunk of your tree following a contiguous path. There are some additional rules such as: not being allowed to score more than 10 points - so you don't make a huge line, etc.
The game is broken into 3 seasons of 4 turns, with a kodama scoring phase at the end of each season. Kodama are japanese tree spirits, whose job is to look after the forest. They are powerful scoring cards that give you big bonuses for achieving their goals. The player is given 4 at the start of the game and uses 3 of them during the game; which gives flexibility to any tactics, being followed.
At the start of each season a decree is drawn, which applies a short term affect to the season - adding extra variety.
This game really appeals to the builder in me. That part of the psyche that makes you want to finish your Carcassonne cities vs playing the best move. The game is very light and there's very little opportunity to 'hate-draft' or ways disrupt the other players' trees. For some this may be the only negative part of the game - it's not very aggressive. If you can accept that you're in for a light-hearted treat.
Every detail of this game is classy - The 1st player kodama-meeple & the 3 Kodama the winner is given to place on their tree to celebrate their victory are awesome touches.
Here's my winning tree:
That Caterpillar branched scored me a lot of points in the last round - 4 points for every card that touches it that has a caterpillar on it.
My wife's tree (was somewhat wonky - but the branches were above ground at least):
Here you can see one of the Kodama cards too - which earned 20 points in the final around!
Here's a quick shot of the table too:
You can see the lovely score track, decree cards and the available branch-cards at the end of the game.
As a final note, there are some 'sprout' Kodama cards which are much easier to score - these were aimed at children - we took them out of our game, but are a very nice addition for a family game. I would strongly recommend this variant for anyone with children beyond 'Kids of Carcassonne' but not quite ready for full 'Carcassonne'.
This is top of the list of games I really, really, really wished I backed during the kickstarter campaign!
Edit: I forgot to add:
I can see this game receiving some great expansions or variants in the future too. Perhaps, a 4th season for longer games. Games where you swap trees between seasons. Additional Kodama or scoring opportunities all spring to mind!
Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2757.0