Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor is a fresh addition to the Forest Shuffle family. It works as a standalone game, meaning you don’t need the original to play. The game keeps the same basic rules but introduces a new set of cards. The goal is simple: collect cards from the shared area and play them on your own board to earn points. When you play cards, you often have to pay with others. Those paid cards go back to the shared area, making them available for your opponents to grab. The heart of the game is finding card combinations that work well together to score big.
One major change in this version is the introduction of bogs. In the original game, you only had trees to build on. Now, you can also use bogs as places to live for animals and plants. You play bogs sideways on the table. Other cards can attach to the top and bottom of a bog, just like trees. However, you cannot attach cards to the sides of a bog. This adds a new layer of strategy to how you arrange your cards.
If you have played the original Forest Shuffle, you will feel right at home with Dartmoor. The experience is very familiar, though there are some nice variations. The game is mostly about choosing the right card combos. Once you decide on a strategy, you need to focus on it. It is smart to watch what your opponents are doing. You should try not to give them cards that help their plans. However, building your own powerful combo is usually more important than blocking others.
Another small but interesting variation in Dartmoor is the cave cards. These cards have special powers that can help you during the game. At the start of the game, each player gets to draft their own unique cave card. This gives everyone a special ability right from the beginning.
In a recent game, I decided to use a bog strategy. I had some cards that gave me rewards if I had the most bogs on the table. Because of this, I worked hard to make sure I stayed in the lead. My opponent, Han, also had many bogs. Luckily, I drew cards that supported my bog strategy very well. For example, some cards let me play other cards as bogs for free. This helped me secure my leading position.
I collected many cards that scored points based on how many bogs I had. I mostly ignored other strategies and focused only on bog-related cards. I only looked at my opponents’ boards occasionally. I checked to see if I needed to deny them specific valuable cards by playing those cards as my own bogs. This kept my score high and my lead secure.
Similar to the original Forest Shuffle, Dartmoor was not the most exciting game for me personally. It is nice to see the many different animals and plants illustrated on the cards. I can understand why people enjoy collecting cards that create strong combos. It is easy to see why the Forest Shuffle series has become popular with many players.
