Leaves are falling and nature is calling! Whether you need chestnuts for stew, blackberries for juice, or mushrooms for a risotto (maybe even all 3) you’ll need to search the woodland to find all the food you can! Gather the greatness before those pesky mice can eat it all up! Let’s get foraging!

What Is It?

A solo tile-laying/pattern building game. The player will place one card per turn, making sure to overlap at least one area of a previous card with the same type of area.

Doing this allows dice to come on to the board, or tick up their pips if an area is covered again that already has a die on it.

Placing the wrong type of area on top of one already place will remove food dice and add mice to the board, which are worth negative points.

At the end of the game, the player can compare their score to a chart to see how they did.

Who Is It For?

  • Solo Players – You can only play with more if you have 1 copy of the game per player
    • Good for traveling solo players who want a game on the go
  • Ages 10 & Up – Pretty simple tile placement rules, but definitely some puzzling to do each turn to maximize scoring
  • Fans of Grove, as this is similar/in the same series
  • Fans of puzzley games with quick gameplay

Variants

Recipe Challenge – Use the recipe sides of 2 cards which will give you a target score to hit in order to win, and some type of scoring conditions for bonus points, or scoring modifiers.

I really like the recipe challenge and would probably choose to play with it almost every time. I like the target score more than comparing to a chart, and I think the various scoring conditions/modifiers are fun to change things up/add some challenge.

Multiplayer – Each player must have a copy. One person calls out the starting card and starting hand, and then calls out the newly drawn card each round. Players have access to the same 9 cards in the same order, but choose what to play, when, and how.

I did not get to play this way because I only have 1 copy of the game, but I think it sounds neat to see how players utilize the same cards differently to see who can score the best, and I would definitely give it a try if I knew someone else who had a copy.

PROS

  • Aesthetics – Very nice art, nice color scheme, areas are all clear from one another
  • Components – Love the custom dice and the cute little mouse token!
  • Rules – Short and sweet and very clear
  • Small/Portable – It’s a small box, and the game doesn’t take up a ton of space to play, so you can bring it lots of places
  • Easy set up and clean up
  • I like that you are allowed to play mismatched areas on top of each other, but you’ll be punished for it with mice/negative points; it just opens up your options a bit
  • The split areas are neat, again, as a way of opening up your options

CONS

  • Negative points never feel great, in my opinion
  • The game does feel kind of “same-y” play to play (not a lot changes), but the recipe challenge definitely helps with that

Final Thoughts

I thought this was another cute game in the series! It felt very similar to Grove in gameplay, especially with the added recipe challenge, but the small changes it had (split areas, allowing mismatched areas at the cost of negative points) definitely helped it stand out.

If you’re a solo gamer who likes quick little puzzles and some tile-laying/overlapping to maximize points, check this one out!

Additional Information:
My Final Rating: 7/10

Designer – Mark Tuck
Artist – Mark Tuck
Publisher – Side Room Games
MSRP – $15
Kickstarter
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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