Each player takes the role of a Kodama, reaching maturity and receiving a tree of their own to watch over. Your task is to make sure your tree stays healthy and grows strong, in order to become a perfect home for all sorts of critters and flowers!
2-4 players
Playing time: 30 minutes
Designers: Daryl Andrews & Erica Bouyouris
Artwork: Kwanchai Moriya
Publisher: Indie Boards & Cards
http://indieboardsandcards.com/
At the start of the game, each player receives two meeples who represent their Kodama, taking care of their tree and walking around in the field of branches.
During their turn, players move one of those two meeples in a straight line to another unoccupied stack of branches, collecting the top tile and adding it into an available slot of their trunk.
Before moving their Kodama, players need to plan ahead what branch they want to add next to their tree, as each branch shows a certain color of Kodama, and also a feature such as a caterpillar, firefly, flower or mushroom. Depending on the configuration of these colors or features players score points based on the goal cards they acquired during the game -> each time both the feature and the Kodama on the newly placed branch don’t match to the ones on the part of your tree you connected it to, you’re allowed to draw an extra goal card.
When everyone has added 10 branch tiles to their tree the game ends, players tally their points earned by meeting the requirements listed on their goal cards, and the player with the highest score wins the game!
Kodama 3D is an excellent gateway game: The game looks very appealing, gameplay is straightforward and the 3D aspect makes this a fun puzzle to solve. Players are challenged to find a right balance between gaining new goal cards, and maximizing the ones they already have in hand.
It’s very nice to see the trees grow over the course of the game, and at the end you’ll have a beautiful 3D tree in front of you.
The simplicity of the rules make it a very accessible game, although the box says 14+, I would definitely recommend this for ages 8 and up. If you’re looking for a fast and fun game to play with the family, make sure to check Kodama 3D!
Tabletopping 