Autumn is coming to an end in Savernake Forest and the animals are rushing to harvest and store the last of their food to get them through the winter until spring. Foxes, hedgehogs, beavers, owls, rabbits, woodpeckers, wildcats - up to 23 different types of animals coexist in this lush forest, tinged with quintessential brownish reds, bright oranges, and golden yellows. But the paths can twist into a maze and it’s not always easy to find the right supplies. It's your turn to give the animals a hand, or a paw!
Savernake Forest is a game for 2 to 4 players who forge paths in their own section of the forest where animals and food can appear. To get the highest score, players have to make sure the animals can gather their favorite food on each path. The game ends when all players have completed their forests with a total of 16 cards.
Designed by Rodrigo Rego and illustrated by Núria Aparicio, this game takes about 30 minutes and is for players 10 years old and up. With dreamlike artwork, Savernake Forest is the perfect balance between fun and strategy, which makes it ideal for any type of board game collection or game night. Family and friends will have a great time helping the woodland creatures, all while trying to make the most of their paths to get the highest score. Walk through Savernake in autumn and let yourself be carried away by the charm of its wildlife!
The Components
The Savernake Forest box includes 64 forest cards. These are divided into two decks of square cards, one showing animals, and the other with paths where there may be one or more types of food: berries, worms, eggs and nuts. Illustrated by the skilled hand of Núria Aparicio, the cards are the main element of the game, as they form the forest section for each player.
In the box there is also a double-sided board, which, on one side, shows 4 animals that will help us throughout the game, and on the other side the score marker. Lastly, there are 34 beautifully crafted wooden tokens: 15 burrow tokens, 15 water tokens, and 4 score indicators.
Gameplay
To prepare the game, three path cards and one animal card are placed under the central board for all players to see. A game of Savernake Forest is played in several rounds. In each round, players have a turn to choose one of the visible cards and add it to their forest. The game is over when all players have completed their forest section with 16 cards.
Each player, in their turn, will choose one of the cards and add it to their forest, always following three rules: there can never be two animals in the same path; the cards must be adjacent and cards cannot be placed outside a 4x4 grid.
Throughout the game, players will get help from some animals, depending on the card they choose from the central market. The rooster will help you to get up early, so that you can be the first to choose a card in the next turn. The armadillo teaches you to dig better shelters to store more food, so you can take a burrow token, which you can add to one of your animal cards increasing the storage capacity of that animal by 1. The goat teaches you to hydrate better, offering a water drop token that can be applied to a food and which increases its value by 1. Additionally, the rabbit helps you attract new animals to your forest.
Each animal shows how much food it can store and its preferences. For example, the fox loves eggs, but not berries or nuts. To get the best score, you should make sure that each animal can collect its favorite foods.
Each animal allows you to earn points by following the path that starts from their cards. The animals store the food they find along their path, until they reach their maximum storage capacity, regardless of how many points they get for each type of food. So you have to plan the paths well to try to give each animal what it likes the most.
For players looking for more advanced challenges, the rules include a two-player variant with some modifications that increase the difficulty - a real boost if you have already mastered the basic rules.