Canopy Evergreen: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Drafting, Push Your Luck, Set Collection, Engine Building
Player Age: 8+ Player Count: 1 - 4 PlayersTime to Play: 45 - 60 Minutes
Game Designer: Tim EisnerGame Artist: Vincent DutraitPublisher: Weird City GamesYear Published: 2024BGG Weight: 2.29Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Player Age: 8+
Game Designer: Tim Eisner
Introduction:
Canopy Evergreen is the board game iteration of the fast-drafting card game Canopy. There are many elements that make this edition different, however, two things that haven't changed is the fast gameplay and the interesting drafting/push-your-luck mechanism. This review assumes some knowledge of the original Canopy. For a full review of that game you can click here.
Game Anatomy:
Board and Ecosystem Tokens:
The board contains trackers for both points and food. Food is a new resource that will be used to purchase animals throughout the game. The board also contains numerous vacant tree spots and ecosystem tokens between those spots.
Ecosystem tokens are gained if the token is surrounded by two completed trees, with at least one tree being three high (including the canopy, root, and a branch).
These ecosystem tokens are a new engine-building mechanism. They will count for the symbol they represent as long as they can be added to a group of at least one card of that type.
Two advanced tokens have been added to this game. One will make an animal reusable this season, and the other will award one food or refresh the animal market.
Wildlife:
Each animal will have three cards in the unique animal deck. One will be purely focused on points, one will be an end-of-season scoring ability, and the last will be a once-per-season ability. When used, the animal token will flip to the greyed out side. At the end of the game, if a player has two of the same type of animal, they score a bonus of two points. If you have all three, that is a bonus of five points.
Each animal also contributes to a wildlife chain. In the bottom left and right corner of every card there is a symbol. The animals must connect via the same symbol on opposite sides of the animal cards to create a chain. For 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 animals in the chain, a player will score 0/1/3/5/8/12/17 points. If the player has a successful wildlife chain, they will have a thriving ecosystem.
Forest Cards:
Like the original Canopy, there are various plant cards in the forest deck with different set collection scores and methods of gaining food.
Additionally there are weaknesses such as fire, which will cause players to lose plants. In this Canopy game, the disease cards are only used in a four-player game.
The sun and rain cards work differently. Each card now has various sun and rain symbols where each pair scores one point at the end of the season. The player with the most pairs will score a bonus of five points.
The trees will be built on each player's board, starting with a root and adding branches until a player chooses to close off the tree with a canopy. Once the tree closes, the player will immediately score either 1 or 2 points per level of the tree, including the root and canopy. Canopy cards must be used when drafted so if the player can't or won't complete their tree, the card will instead be discarded.
Pine cone cards activate at the end of a season and give the players a chance to draw two cards (+1 per fire card) from the seed deck and keep one per pine cone. The seed deck is not initially a separate deck but is instead created from the main deck at the start of each season (four cards per player).
Shifting Season Cards:
The shifting season cards are an advanced way to play that creates a new effect for each season.
Setup:
Game Setup:
- Setup the forest deck and growth cone piles as explained below in the season setup.
- Place the wildlife board in the middle of the table, shuffle the animal deck and deal three wild animals face-up.
- Place all other tokens within reach of all players.
- Remove any forest cards that have a number at the bottom fo the card which exceeds player count.
Growth Cone Setup:
This will be different per player count but at 1-2 players it is the same as the original canopy. At 3-4 players there will be one growth cone in the centre and one between each player.
Player Setup:
- Place the trackers on the highlighted location on the food and point tracks.
- Everyone places 11 ecosystems on the circled locations on their forest map.
- Each player is allowed to play one tree root anywhere on their forest map.
- Find the starred animals in the animal deck and deal each player one of these starting animals along with their marker. The rest will be shuffled back into the deck.
Season Setup:
- Collect and reshuffle the forest cards.
- Create a seed deck by dealing four cards per player and place to the side of the game.
- Deal cards to the growth cones based on the player count.
- For 1-2 players; 1 card to the first pile, 2 cards to the second pile, and 3 to the third.
- For 3-4 players; 2 cards in the centre and 1 dealt to every other pile.
- All animal tokens and ecosystem tokens will reflip to their active side.
How to Play:
On a turn players will attract wildlife, draft from a growth pile, and play cards. This will occur until all cards are drafted. The season will then end and be scored. The player with the most points after three seasons is the winner and has the most thriving forest.
Attract Wildlife:
At the start of each phase players can spend any amount of food required to attract animals to their forest. When purchasing an animal, the board will instantly replenish any cards as needed and players will gain any tokens that match an animal with a once-per-season ability. These once-per-season abilities can be activated anytime on a turn by flipping the token over or placing it on any growth pile as detailed on the card.
Draft Cards:
One pile at a time, starting with the first pile, the active player will decide if they keep all the cards or add one card to the pile and move on to the next. If no pile is suitable the player will take one card from the top of the deck and choose whether to keep it or not. If a pile is taken, one card from the deck will replace the pile unless it is the third pile in a 2-player game, which is replaced by two cards. In a 2-player game, everyone starts with the left pile closest to the season deck and proceeds to the right.
In a 3-4 player game, the active player will start with the shared pile to the left of themselves, followed by the centre pile, and conclude with the shared pile to the right.
Play Cards:
Players must play all cards drafted. The majority of these cards will be scored/resolved at the end of the season.
End of Season:
Once all the cards are drafted:
- All forest cards will score and be reshuffled back into the next season deck.
- End of Season animals will score.
- Whichever player has the largest tree will remove their canopy for the largest tree token instead and score 3/4/5 points based on the season.
- Season setup will now occur.
After the third season, the animals score, for their points on them, collection scoring and the wildlife chain. Whichever player has the most points is the winner.
Final Thoughts:
- Fast gameplay while still at 20 minutes per player.
- Larger board puzzle placing trees to unlock ecosystem tokens.
- Interesting push your luck drafting mechanism from the original canopy.
It is hard to talk about Canopy Evergreen without talking about the original Canopy as they are very similar games. The main difference between the two is that Canopy is a quick playing drafting game, while Canopy Evergreen expands on these fundamentals and adds a personal board presence, and separates the animals from the rest of the forest. If I had to determine which I prefer more, I would say Canopy Evergreen to be my preferred choice. This is largely due to the core gameplay still being in a good mid-weight spot, but the decision landscape opens a lot more with the changes to the animals and the engine building that comes from the ecosystem tokens. The animals now have a third type in each set that has a scoring condition per season, as well as a new chain scoring condition for animals that creates a new set collection opportunity for the players. The other element to the animals I enjoy is that they are now removed from the forest deck, creating a new economy to purchase them as well as actively determining which animals players are going for. Additionally, as players complete their trees they will unlock new ways to improve their engine by aiming for certain ecosystem tokens. This is a great game with many elements going for it, including push your luck, engine building, and drafting, all without any being too overwhelming. I can easily recommend Canopy Evergreen and award it a Go-To Golden Seal.
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