Indie Boards and Cards | Kodama 2nd Edition | Card Game | Ages 14+ | 2-5 Players | 30 Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

Every few rounds you’ll have to pick one to score, which means you are constantly thinking about how to optimise and planning for the entire game.

Featuring the undeniably quaint theme of growing a tree, Kodama astonishes with its ability to induce in you a zen like calm, even while fighting tooth and nail for the best cards. Oliver is also the co-host of the Tabletop Inquisition podcast, which releases a new episode every three to four weeks and tackles different issues facing board games, the people who play them and maybe their industry. Kodama: The Tree Spirits may sound like the latest album from a post rock band but this is actually a game from board gaming’s own new age artists. I suppose Kodama: The Tree Spirits speaks very much to the gardener in me, but I think many of us feel a lot of satisfaction and a level of creativity, maybe even an element of being in control, when we adjust each branch card to create the perfect picture.There are also simpler, little Kodama cards that kids can play with to make this title fun and accessible for the whole family. At the start of the round a card is drawn randomly from that Season’s deck, which will alter gameplay somehow, either by altering how many points are awarded for certain icons on cards, or altering game rules slightly. Sometimes your set of Kodama combo together exceedingly well, at other times they are tugging you in opposite directions and that just means you won’t be able to score as many points off them.

I would like to have seen a track around the edges of the board with chit that would be gained if the marker went all the way around the track. Each Kodak has a different head but they all have three black dots on their faces to symbolize their eyes and mouth. Second, the game plays in about 30 to 40 minutes with a full complement of players, so as a 2 player game this makes for a quick game for a couple to share together. A player’s turn consists of selecting one of the three branch cards that are face-up in the middle of the table to add to their Kodama. A kodama's outer appearance is very much like an ordinary tree, but if one attempts to cut it down, one would become cursed, etc.Some branch cards may not score you many points initially, but could help a great deal at the end of the round depending on which of a players’ Kodama Card they choose. We also thought that some Kodama cards were better than others, but it balanced out in the end because the scores were rather close. In Kodama: The Tree Spirits, you are growing your own tree – Kodama – out from it’s trunk in such a way that it scores you an increasing amount of points, whilst also allowing for future growth and expansion.

You can immediately see that this game is friendly and enjoyable, and as you start to play it, your expectations are met. This often appeared cluttered and could be a little difficult to manage with first edition (if playing with 4-5 players). He is the undisputed founder of Zen Buddhism, and is credited with the Ch'an Buddhism introduced to China during his travels to the Middle Kingdom. In a world where every tree is inhabited by its own gentle and benign spirit, it is your important task to ensure that every sapling grows strong and big, and offers a home for as many small creatures and plants as possible, thereby creating harmony and balance in the forest. There is also very little player interaction, even though it is competitive and everyone draws branch cards from a central pool of cards.When you add a card to your tree you score points for features that are shared along the cards on that branch.

Looking at the above pictures, the Kodama card show will score 18 points, since there are 6 cards that can be traced back to the trunk.

From the start of the game, players have long term strategies to use to score points using Kodama cards, but are also faced with some immediate opportunities to score points by placing branch cards to score contiguous feature icons and/or trying to score points from Decree cards. You can amass a respectable score by going through the motions somewhat, but to score well, you will have to make bold decisions about which cards to choose on any given turn and plan a few moves ahead. The former is a re-imagining, taking a few of the mechanics, but tweaking gameplay slightly, as well as player interaction and how the game scores. You have caterpillars (to eat), flowers (to pretty the place up), stars (to wish upon), clouds (to see shapes in), fireflies (to chase), and mushrooms (to get high off).