Image taken from https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9475768/forest-rivals

Designers: Prof. Ryan Cooke, Steven L. Smith
Publisher: Button Shy
Artist: Manon Mergnat

Before delving into this, remember this is a preview copy so components and rules are subject to change.

Forest Rivals is a quick and simple two player card laying game where one player is the bears, the other is the bees, and they’re vying over honey. Alternating turns, each player draws one card from the top of their deck and places it in the shared play area. Each card can be placed in one of two ways: adjacent to an existing card (as long as one of the symbols matches one on the existing card) or stacked. When stacking cards, only one to three symbols can be covered, and beehives can only be covered with other beehives.

The game ends once both players have played all their cards. The first player gets one point every game to compensate for the lack of strategy and options when playing the very first card. Other than that, there are two ways to score points based on the symbols and cards in the play area. First, the players count the largest group of adjacent animal symbols for their critter. Then, those values are compared (as in the number of bears vs. number of bees). If one player has one to four more total than the other player, they score one point. If one player has five or more than the other player, they score three points. The other way players score points is by controlling beehives. A beehive is considered controlled if all eight spaces around it are covered by a symbol. Evaluating each controlled beehive, a player scores one point if their animal covers the majority of the spaces around the beehive. If there’s a tie, neither player scores it. After that, the player with the most points wins!

In terms of gameplay, this one is very light, family friendly, and exceptionally snappy. The game plays in five to ten minutes and requires about thirty seconds of rules explanation. While this is a positive, it’s a little too light for our tastes. It’s fun and there are interesting decisions to make, but it’s not different or unique enough in comparison to other card/tile laying games to make us want to keep coming back. It does what it sets out to do well, but there’s nothing new or creative that makes us really interested in it. However, this could be a great introductory game for non- gamers and/or younger children. The theme and artwork are adorable though.

This one is being released with their new solo game The Cursed Cat (you can check the blog or BGG page for the review), and I definitely prefer The Cursed Cat to Forest Rivals. I typically enjoy solo games more anyway, but Forest Rivals lacks originality and depth that we look for in our two player games. It’s still pretty fun, though, and there is some solid tension and interesting decisions when considering scoring your own points while blocking your opponent. Overall, it’s just okay; not bad by any stretch but not one I’m dying to play again soon.