Board game review of Forests of Pangaia: Abstract Beauty

A Kickstarter success "Made in Germany" is Forests of Pangaia (or Forests of Pangea). The game by Thomas Franken addressed over 2021 people with its crowdfunding campaign in 7.500, who together contributed more than €400.000 to the realization of the game. After some corona-related delays, which were communicated in an exemplary manner throughout, the game was now delivered in spring. The game has recently also been available in the shop at Skellig Games. We have the deluxe edition of the game and can tell you about our experience.

It's not easy to find a game that offers area control elements, looks nice and still works with a small number of people. Forests of Pangaia offers exactly that.

Behind the fantastically beautiful artwork and material that is great to touch, there is a quite abstract game that manages to convince with all group sizes despite its quite formative area control element.

All players are young nature spirits commissioned by Gaia to bring first life into the world. Pangea was the last contiguous landmass that existed about 250 million years ago. Over the millions of years and thanks to the movements of the tectonic plates, the face of the earth has evolved into what we know today.

The nature spirits must become active before the continent breaks up. In a common area made up of four different terrain types, they grow and decay trees in order to use rituals to win the favor of Gaia, the goddess of the earth.

Naturally beautiful

If you hold the box, which is a work of art in itself, for the first time and unpack the game, one thing is immediately positive: no plastic. The well thought-out inlay is made of sturdy cardboard, the wooden materials are safely stowed away in small fabric bags and the die-cut sheets are not additionally welded in, as is often done unnecessarily. Many publishers and producers can learn something here.

Once you're done marveling at the beautiful wooden game material and the great illustrations on the cards, you can start reading the rules, which are also beautifully designed.
On twelve pages you can find out everything you need to know for a game. If you want to play solo directly, you have to read four additional pages.

growing and decaying

The individual moves are divided into three phases. At the beginning you can let all your seeds sprout. A seed grows into a level one tree. "Level" means the height of a tree. For each treetop you put on, the tree goes up one level. Trees may grow as high as you have treetops available.

For each tree grown from sprouting, you receive a resource of the type of terrain (rain, snow, sun, or wind) the tree grew on. If there are seeds from several people on a field, you must have the majority in order to sprout your seeds in your own turn. If there is a tie here, the adjacent fields and the trees and spirit figures standing on them are included.

After sprouting you can perform one of three possible forest spirit actions.
When planting you place your own forest spirit on a lake space and may place any number of available seeds on an adjacent space.

When resting, you place the forest spirit in the appropriate place on your own board and receive a resource of your own type (there is a forest spirit for each area type) for each empty treetop space on your own board. Treetops can be bought in the third step of the turn.

Rituals for Gaia

The most important action for victory points among the three forest spirit actions is praying. With this you fulfill one of the three face-up ritual cards or the private ritual card.

There are three different types of rituals: path, star, and pinnacle. The rituals of the path dictate two types of terrain. There must be a separate tree on each field of this type of terrain. Between these own trees there must be a continuous connection with trees, which, however, do not all have to belong to oneself. One point is awarded for each level one tree you own and each opponent's tree. If there are opposing trees of level two or higher in the shortest path, the person who owns the tree receives a resource of the corresponding terrain type.

The ritual of the star is very similar in terms of scoring. In this case, one of your own trees must be on a field of the terrain indicated on the ritual card. All directly adjacent trees are included in the scoring according to the same rules as in a path ritual.

After both a Ritual of the Path and a Ritual of the Star, all of your participating trees decay by one level. Level 1 trees despawn and may drop a seed.

Something else works the ritual of the summit. Here you must have a tree on the specified terrain type that is higher than all adjacent trees. You get points equal to the reached level of the tree +1. The tree then decays completely and can leave a number of seeds corresponding to its height on the formerly occupied and all adjacent fields.

All good things come in threes

To complete your turn, you may now buy any number of tree tops. The cost is between one and four different resources. Any number of resources can be replaced by points. If you unlock seeds in this way, you can use them throughout the rest of the game. Tree crowns have to be bought again and again in rituals after they have decayed.

When the last ritual card is taken from the display, the final scoring follows. In addition to the points collected in the course of the game, the points that you receive for unlocking individual tree tops are added here. In addition, everyone can now fulfill their private ritual card without causing trees to fall.

This is important in order to then be able to score the optional module of success cards. These success cards specify victory point conditions and whoever fulfills them best receives three points. There are two of these success cards in play.
If we play in pairs, we prefer to use a third one, so that both don't fulfill one and the added value of this module would be limited.

The second optional module is the boon cards. They offer unique special abilities that can be used at any time in your own turn. You receive a blessing card for the first ritual you perform and can draw three blessing cards and choose one of them at any time for two of the same resources.

The solo mode: "Spirit Forest"

The excellent solo mode offers a whole new playing experience. Again, the rituals are the key to victory, but it's not so much about getting the best scores for yourself as it is about preventing a corrupted forest spirit from taking over and robbing the land of all its power.

The corrupted forest spirit starts with all game materials next to his tableau. The goal in solo mode is to stop this forest spirit and seal all six treetops and three seeds on its game board.

To do this, the corrupted trees must be part of one's rituals. Unlike in the multiplayer game, these "foreign" trees also decay when performing rituals. Analogous to unlocking treetops in the third step of your turn, these decayed corrupted treetops can be bound on the Corrupted Forest Spirit's board.

The corresponding resource costs must be paid for this. Seeds can be bound on the tableau by occupying the adjacent treetop spaces with bound treetops. The boon cards are always part of the solo game. You get them by binding tree tops on the fields that would actually give you victory points.

The actions of the corrupted forest spirit are determined by a 9-piece action deck. Four different actions are possible. The sprout of seeds and the growth of corrupted trees are already familiar from multiplayer games.
It becomes really difficult when the corrupted forest spirit influences the healthy trees. He can cause them to decay by one level or place his own treetop on a healthy tree. That tree then counts as corrupted regardless of what is under the corrupted treetop.

In solo mode, the land itself has energy, represented by resource tokens. If the corrupted spirit has robbed at least four terrain tiles of their energy and also placed a corruption marker on them, you lose the game. You also lose if there are no more rituals available.

A terrain tile loses its energy or gains a corruption token if the corrupted spirit has not moved or if the Thunderstorm card has been drawn, which also causes the action deck to be reshuffled. The prerequisite is that the corrupted spirit has the majority on the terrain tile.

For 3 or 6 points, the sane mind can restore energy to the land or remove a corruption marker.

Despite the noticeably different feel (or maybe because of it), the solo mode offers a great challenge, which is almost reminiscent of Spirit Island in terms of the process. In the beginning you will always be hit hard by the actions of the corrupted spirit and have the feeling of being hopelessly inferior. Putting a corrupted treetop on a healthy tree can have a major impact on your own plans. At some point, however, you manage to "put down roots" and fight with your own healthy trees to carry out the right rituals to save the country.

Summary

"Good things take time." Rarely could a saying be more appropriate than with this game. This has been extensively tested and adjusted in order to end up with a game that comes with simple rules but offers great depth of play. Despite all the corona-related delays, the communication throughout the entire period up to delivery (and beyond) was always absolutely exemplary. Campaigns should be managed in the same way.

Hopefully the pictures speak for themselves visually and overall there is practically nothing to criticize about the game material. Fantastic illustrations on sturdy cards, tree parts that fit together and stand without wobbling even at level seven, cardboard tokens and terrain tiles that are rock solid, cloth bags to hold everything, and a cardboard inlay to store everything safely and neatly.

Just to repeat myself, the ruleset also offers beautiful visuals. But the content also becomes easily clear when reading. Everything is provided with clear examples. Only the rituals (particularly that of the summit) may have to be performed once to really see the strengths of the individual ritual types, but this does not result in a break in the flow of the game, even in the first game.

Keyword game flow: This is also very good. The duration of the individual trains is manageable, so that even with three or four people there is no tiring downtime. Just towards the end of the game, however, the T beginsact around the last rituals and perhaps crucial points, which can make the moves a bit longer. Maybe you are already fulfilling your private ritual in order to turn the last open ritual into a new private one and thus deprive a player of valuable points.

Since the playing field adapts to the number of people and is reassembled each time, there are always new challenges here as well. You can avoid each other, but especially with the successes there are always places that everyone wants to go. This results in great duels, even for two, which are rarely known from games with such a defining area control element. With more people, the space is larger, but getting in the way of tight spots and fulfilling the open rituals is quicker, making the game a fierce (and, for some, frustrating) competition.

In essence, despite all the praise for the optics and the components, it remains a rather abstract game. Like so many things, this is certainly a matter of taste. For us, however, the point of the "cycle" of growth and decay stands out as surprisingly thematic, which was implemented really well in the game.

The above adjustment for two also makes the module with the achievement cards a great expansion overall. We just don't get warm with just the blessing cards. They're valuable helpers in solo play, but they tend to slow you down in multiplayer, especially when you're picking one card out of three. This doesn't really want to fit in with the otherwise openly viewable game.

Most of the time, the first moves of a game are very similar for everyone. Only as the game progresses does each game become something "own" with individual dynamics. Apart from the first two/three moves, which are somewhat monotonous in the long run, the replay appeal is very good.

There are enough variables that make every setup a new challenge. The game is set up and dismantled quickly and the playing time is well under an hour, which is absolutely acceptable given the depth of the game.

Forests of Pagea is a game that is simply a success all round. Great material meets accessible rules that still allow for a lot of depth and tactics. If you like abstract games, you really can't avoid this title.

Preview	Product	Rating	Price
	Asmodee | ZMan | The Lord of Dreams | Basic game |... *	Currently no reviews	66,99 EUR	Buy

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