Game Overview

Game Name: Arborea
Publication Year: 2023
Designer: Dani Garcia
Artists: Javier González Cava & Nicolas Gendron
Publisher: Alley Cat Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game

Villagers travel along different tracks to walk down paths with various bonuses. Resources are picked up, but there is a neat mechanic to use them or leave them as a shared option. Ecosystems take shape, animals make their homes, and journeys take place in these colorful lands!

Colorful and Lovely

My birthday party theme this year revolved around sprinkles, rainbows, bubbles, and sequins… So this was about the most perfect table presence I could find!

Seriously, this is stunning. I’ll get to the mechanics shortly, yet I have to stop to admire the art each time!

As large as it might look, I managed to bring the board right in front of me and I didn’t have to do much stretching, even to reach the very top areas. Excellent!

The bright colors might not be for everyone, yet this sets the stage for rebuilding the world for animals to live in.

Convoluted Rules

Aside from that initial amazing impression, I got knocked down a few pegs with the rulebook. This isn’t one of the worst examples, but I was utterly confused many times.

Concepts aren’t all that clear at first, and it all seems like an extremely complex series of mechanics. Yet when I started to play, it was so much easier than I imagined!

Another knock against it is the inclusion of expansion rules… Even for those who don’t have the special edition.

I apparently missed out on expansion modules and nicer components, not all of which are available to purchase.

Down the Many Trails

The central element of gameplay is placing villagers on 4 tracks that all advance. Each track is connected to a pair of trails, and when to enter a trail is a key decision point!

Early trails don’t offer as many bonuses, but waiting to reach the final trails takes a lot of time. There is a really neat balancing act of doing and waiting, which is clever.

I didn’t get tripped up by the iconography, as it’s all quite intuitive with a few helpful references in the rulebook.

And don’t forget seasonal bonuses and the special resource decisions! Lots going on here, but it works well.

Solo Opponent Cards

As simple as this card might appear, it took me a little bit to figure out what parts of the board or components each section referred to. The rules fell a little short again.

However, this is an easy sort of system! The solo opponent follows a modified version of a standard turn. Not too much changes, and I found it all intuitive very quickly.

I enjoyed the resource sharing mechanic, too, because I held off on traveling down trails if I would share too much.

Yet building up victory points from sharing resources was too much to resist at times, and I struck a nice balance!

A Neat Board Detail

Each track is made up of 2 cardboard pieces that slide, then reset back around. I was surprised that when I moved them, they went in a straight line nearly every time.

This is not a dual-layered board, but as I was cleaning up, I happened to run my fingers over the track regions.

Surprisingly, there is a very slightly raised edge around the perimeter! It’s a small detail that isn’t really visible at any angle, yet it helps keep everything orderly.

I haven’t played Bitoku solo yet, which this one is often compared to, but its dual-layered board is extra heavy.

Offering Gifts

Gameplay is mainly about timing the movement of tracks and the journeys down trails for specific bonuses.

Part of the complexity comes from figuring out how to offer gifts to the spirits to make each trail even better.

There are a total of 8 spirits tied to specific trails, so it isn’t just a case of randomly sharing gifts. Such whimsical and unique artwork, too! I loved this mechanic.

Despite there being a lot of moving parts, I felt like I knew most of the general concepts about halfway through my first play. I just didn’t expect to score well, of course!

Managing Spirit Levels

Besides resources, another element to track is spirit. This is often spent to perform extra actions, or to travel underwater to generate the rare water resource.

At the end, victory points are awarded based on the final placement. So it might make sense to dip into the negative realm during play if it can be overcome by the end.

I was thrilled with my focus on it! This seemed like an easy source of victory points, though… But I took it!

There was a nice flow that happened after I finally had the rules down, and a summary of the sequence helped a lot.

Building New Homes

Although tracks and trails make up the biggest part of gameplay, ecosystems and animals are also present!

Ecosystem cards have specific resource requirements directly tied to the types of habitats they produce. They create a little overlapping puzzle of potential homes.

And who might live here? Whimsical animals! They must first be attracted back to the world, then welcomed.

I had a little trouble placing them at first, as they may not be orthogonally adjacent. But I think I pulled off a nice ecosystem here with some very cute inhabitants!

Seasonal Bonuses

Ready for more? Ha! There are also random scoring objectives tied to 4 seasons. Increasing these multipliers and the base values is integral to scoring well.

In this case, I lost out on a few points simply by not reaching the first multiplier for the red season… Which I think indicates autumn? I’m going to say that’s accurate.

Some lore is included with animal names, but spirits, seasons, and trails are left up to the imagination.

I had a lot to think about as I played and tried to find the best trails to walk down, but it was a very fun puzzle!

Animals Galore

The one mechanic that might be a little confusing is the way animals arrive. They must first be attracted, usually by traveling down a specific trail to locate one of them.

This action provides a bonus that steadily decreases for adding more and more of the same type of animal.

Later on, a different icon welcomes a creature. When there are many of the same type, there is a better reward.

Finally, animals may be added to an ecosystem, or might wait in captivity. Ideally, they will find a wild home by the end of the game to avoid losing any victory points!

Session Overview

Play Number: 1 & 2
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Difficulty Levels 3 & 4
Outcome: 154-130, 166-139 (2 Wins)

Such a fun time! The difficulty levels range from 2 to 7, so it wasn’t like I suddenly had all the answers. Barely made it into the mid-tier! The scoring track shows that scores of 300+ are possible, so I have a long way to go in figuring out the best options. Yet I was surprised by how enjoyable this one turned out to be, particularly since I was expecting it to be far more complex. It’s a lovely game!

Affordability

Price & Value

8

Functionality

Challenges & Mechanics

9

Originality

Design & Theme

7

Quality

Components & Rules

6