Our group likes this game. Besides the tense Ethnos-type ending, it has a bit of Fantasy Realms (card combos) in it too. It’s not expensive, very portable for trips, and cards are beautiful. It’s probably in my top 5 for the year.
Hate drafting or let cards get put in discard pile is really a point for this game. Some cards are really needed to get big points. So watch out what your opponents do for strategy. One tip i think is to make sure you can take cards from the row. The feeling that there is a good card for you there but you already have a full hand is ugggh.
I love games that open up to you when your beaten by a “broken combo”. It opens your eyes to the game and its other broken combos. The game forces you to get better in order to compete. Why is it called hate drafting? I call it strategic planning and execution of strategy. This is a card game, no doubt about it, but it cuts two ways on each side of the card. It can be breezy and light, or it can be cunning and predatory. That’s life in the Forest Shuffle. Either way it’s gonna hit my table.
I enjoy this on BGA, but it has two downsides for me: IRL, it is a PITA to score. I don't enjoy spending this much time figuring out the score. This is why I like it on BGA. The other downside is just a part of all deck-based games like this: teaching it to a new player is hard because the person who wins will always be the person most familiar with what is in the deck.
I don't think there is a broken strategy (sure some are easier to do), main thing is also watch out what your opponents need to score big points. And sometimes you have just bad luck. That you don't get the cards you need.
My wife wasn’t paying attention enough to what I was taking/what she was putting into the clearing so our scores ended up 252 to 89. She’s a good sport though!
