There is a certain aesthetic that comes with games based in nature and natural themes. I love a good board game that focuses on animals, environment and anything outdoors and really brings it to life on the table. Today we are going to look at one of the newest games to feature those great aspects!
Leaf is published by Weird City Games and designed by Time Eisner. The artists are Angela Rizza and Angie Knowles. It plays 1-4 players in approximately 30-45 mins.
Overview:
In Leaf players take on the role of the spirit of the wind and guide leaves into the forest to connect to other leaves and grow aspect of nature like mushrooms, trees, animals and gain sunlight. Winter comes around and causes animals to hibernate and mushrooms to grow. Players with the most acorns will win!
Gameplay:
Players take a player board and set up the animal mat and leaf mat leaving a clear area to place leaves and connect them as they are played out into the game. Set up all of the resources and give each player their starting hand of cards and mushrooms.
On your turn, players take a leaf card and play it, taking the matching leaf and adding it to the existing connected leaves on the table. The connections that your leaf makes with other leaves will determine the actions you take. Players with the largest mushrooms gain a sun token as well. Leaf actions may be taken in any order. Actions include drawing more leaf cards, gaining a sun token that can be spent to advance the season track at the end of your turn, moving your squirrel on the great tree to gain benefits, gaining animals and growing one of your mushrooms. These actions are taken based on the color of the leaf the only you placed touches.
At the end of a turn players may advance the season if they 3 sun tokens to spend, and then they move to the next player. When the season advances over a frost line or into winter, players will take a group of same animal cards they have and hibernate one of them. The winter is the end of the game, signaling a final frost and finishing after everyone gets one more turn. At the end of the game all points are totaled and the player with the most points wins!
Impressions:
Leaf brings two of my favorite things into a board game: clean, gorgeous design and unique gameplay. I love the leaves in this game and they create a fun puzzle where they all somehow despite being odd shapes match up in cool and fun ways! The leaves are a lot of fun and we have really enjoyed the way you can just get some to fit well and others give less connection points but maybe the actions you want instead.
In regards to the design, the game looks great on the table and has a clean and fun theme with the leaves, giant tree, animals, and overall nature presence that really gives you the feel for the design. The game as a whole even steps it up a notch by giving you an eco-friendly design with no plastic bags and really fun and easy to organize boxes for the components. From top to bottom this game is designed and displayed and stored in a top-notch way.
The game is strategic but not in an overwhelming way. It plays to the strengths of strategies and advanced planning but doesn’t require you to have to math out every last point and step to get a win. It’s as friendly to experienced players as it is to those who have experience in gaming-you are bound to find a place for anyone who loves games at this table.
Overall this sits as a high recommendation and one of my favorite games of 2023! If you love the nature theme and want a strategic game that brings a lot of choice and fun to the table then Leaf is your game!
Be the first to comment