Designed by Kirsty Buley and Phil Fox, with art by Kate Davies, Forest Folk is an attractively produced filler-length puzzle optimisation game from Ludus Vulpes where the 2-4 players are each playing cards to build their own tableau (Copse) while contributing to a common shared central tableau (Forest). Players have individual objective cards that will determine how they will score, so this game is all about optimising the number of card connections that meet their objectives. There's an element of deduction too because if you can work out what objective an opponent is trying to achieve, you can sabotage it in the shared Forest tableau.
The cards all have symbols at each corner and in the middle of each edge. It's these that are counted when determining connections: connected edges form 'paths' and connected corners form 'glades'. Some objective cards score for specific matching path or glade symbols but there are some objectives that score for paths with non-matching symbols. The glade objective cards can be especially tricksy: some score for all matching symbols, some only for glades for four different symbols, and there are cards that score for glades with a matching pair but which score nothing if there is more than a pair in the grouping...
Players start with a hand of four cards. On your turn you draw a card, either drafting it from a four-card face-up display or taking the top card from the face-down draw deck. You play a card to the Forest tableau and you have the option of triggering that card's power (mostly manipulating cards in the Forest or in your hand). You then play a card to your individual Copse, so you end your turn with one card less than you started with; so this is a game played over just four snappy rounds.
You'll probably need to refer to one of supplied player aids to remind you of the powers of the eight different card designs but otherwise Forest Folk is a game that's easy to learn and quick to play. You can't modify or in any direct way affect other players' Copse tableaus but keeping a close eye on your opponents' Copses is your best way of deducing the objectives for which they will score. And if you work out what an opponent is going for you can use card powers to switch cards in the Forest to screw with their plans, or at least to try to avoid them benefiting from other players' fortuitous placements. That said, Forest Folk isn't primarily a 'take that' game. Objectives score double in the Copse rather than the Forest, so it can be a winning strategy to focus on maximising your Copse score and just hope for the best in picking up a few points from the Forest.
The game works at all player counts and if your experience is anything like ours at Board's Eye View you'll discover that Forest Folk is one of those games where the players want to immediately play it again. Could there be a better recommendation?
Ludus Vulpes are bringing Forest Folk to Kickstarter on 6 February. Click here to find out more.