How to Play Arboretum

Arboretum, when it comes down to it, is a set collection game, but one that has more going on in it. The mechanics of what you do on a turn are pretty simple, you take two cards from the combination of discard piles and the draw pile. You play one and discard one to your own discard pile.

As you play down cards you put them in rows and columns to create groups of trees in ascending order. The only thing that matters with that, is at the end of the game you can create paths that start and end with the same tree. In the middle it doesn’t matter. But if you can make it all of the same type of tree, you score more points.

The twist comes with how it is determined who scores a tree type. You need a card of that tree type in your hand, but not only that, you need the highest combined value of those tree types. So you can block someone from scoring well, or you might need to keep a lot for yourself. At the end, the player who scores the most points wins.

What Doesn’t Work?

The teaching of this game can be a big tricky. You need to know a few things before you get going. And I think with the first game, it is always going to be a bit of a challenge. The whole concept of ascending isn’t difficult, but the strategy of what cards to keep to score, that is trickier. I think some gamers will get it quickly, but I am not sure that most players would.

And while this isn’t a problem for me, I can see some people not liking that this game can be mean. If you build out a nice row of trees, say five of the same type starting with 1 and ending with 8, you might be in line to score a lot of points (13), but if I keep just enough points in that tree to keep you from scoring it, your hard work of building that run of trees is wasted. So, know it can be mean going into the game.

What Works?

I think that the balance of how many of a tree you play down versus you keep in your hand works well. You want to build that really big row of trees to score those 13 points, like in the last example, but also is it better to score fewer and make sure you score? The game is a very good push and pull of what you want to do. And what cards do you leave in your hand that an opponent might want?

I also like that you don’t need only one type of tree to score. I could go from an oak to a spruce to a maple and end on an oak. You score fewer points doing that, but it is still points. It can make sense to diversify and score in a number of trees versus a lot in a few. And that variety of strategy works well for me.

Then there is a game length and decision space. Not long ago I wrote about quick vs fast in board games. Read that here. The idea is the game turns don’t take too long and the game always keeps you engaged. This is a quick and fast game. Game play doesn’t take too long, and I need to know what you are doing.

Who Is This For?

I think this is a great game for people getting into the world of hobby board games. A lot of board games that you play growing up, chess or Stratego for example, give you an abstract game to figure out and a way to go up against an opponent. Arboretum isn’t as confrontational, but it feels in the same realm, just more of a gamers game.

But with that, it is not a game that is too easy for gamers. The decision space is well made for the game. And it feels like there can be different strategies. Plus, with different players, that will change up how you want to play the game as you go.

Arboretum Final Thoughts

This is a very good game. And one that I think is small enough that for a lot of gamers, it probably should be in their collection. Mainly because you can pull it off the shelf and play it with anyone. And I don’t see this being a game that can be solved. Which I think is important for these games that feel like a bit of a puzzle. There is just enough interaction that happens to keep it fresh.

And for me, the speed that the game plays at really sells it. I like being engaged. I like that I make meaningful decisions. And I like that this is a game I can play with basically anyone. I can see this becoming a staple filler type game for me. And it isn’t a mindless filler which is very important.

My Grade: B+
Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: B

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The Board Game Terms

Fast or Short

This is a game that doesn’t take too much time to play. So something that’s probably 30 minutes or less in terms of how long the game actually takes.

Quick

Quick is more about how engaged and involved you are in turns. And how long those turns take.

Long

Long is going to be the length of the game. So we’re probably talking about 90 minutes or more.

Slow

Slow talks about games that are going to encourage longer turns. Less engagement when it isn’t your turn and if there are a lot of people that the whole game could scale up considerably based off of player count.

Quick vs Fast

So, this is the one that I want to focus on more so, because I think that long and slow fall into an area that makes sense once we look at these other two. And I think that quick is really the highlight of what we are looking at and what I want in a game.

The Issue

Often times with board games, and let’s step back and talk about the issue, a board game might get a bad rap because it is a long game. Or people will be less apt to play it because it becomes more of an event. And on the flip side, some people look at little fillers as bad because they are too short to make a meaningful decision.

Let’s just say, in my opinion, both of these opinions are wrong. You can make meaningful decisions in a short game. And in a long game, it doesn’t mean that it’s not optimized for what it should be. But people are judging the game based off of how long or short, fast, the game is.

The Importance of Being Quick

For me, though, a game is more about whether it is quick or slow. Because that determines, more so, your engagement in the game. If a game has quick and punchy turns, then the players at the table are less apt to get distracted. And this is true even in a longer game. It doesn’t matter that the game takes longer, it matters if you are engaged in a game.

And the reason why I thought about this with Aldarra is that Aldrarra is not a short game. Now, almost three hours for three players, definitely longer than a normal game would be. Probably if people know the game, two hours for three players or slightly less, and that’s a pretty long game. But because of how tight the board is and how close you are to your enemies, you stay engaged. And the turns are pretty quick, even combat generally went quickly.

And that was with a three hour game. Now, on the flip side, you can play games that are short in how long the game takes. But you aren’t engaged in what is going on. A lot of classic games might fall into that category. Something like Yahtzee or Skip-Bo, it doesn’t matter what you do, really, for it to affect my turn. Not the best examples, but Skip-Bo works decently since you might have a long turn. Yes, the game won’t take longer because of that turn, but it does make a turn and game feel longer for everyone else.

Decision Making Space

So, I also don’t want to say that games need light decision making space. I think that’s some of the reason people shy away from smaller games, they think it’ll be too light. But there is a difference between simple decision making and engaging decision making. If I care what you’re doing on your turn, then it doesn’t matter if it takes a while.

It is more that I need to care in that case. In the case of Aldarra, I care about what you’re doing, even if you aren’t attacking me. Why, because it changes the board state a lot, it might open up new opportunities for me to move in, or it might squeeze into a smaller area. But what you do matters to me in that case and affects my strategy. Or you might be attacking me, and then I really care.

So What Is My Preferred?

Let’s wrap this up talking about what I look for. And honestly, the big thing for me is that I look for quick games. Now, this can mean a few different things, though I’ve mainly talked about it in terms of how long turns take. But again, that doesn’t matter so much, it’s more, how quickly do I move from decision to decision.

Decision to Decision Quickly

A bigger game might give me an option to follow your action on a turn if I have resources or something like that. I know that Scythe is a game that uses that mechanic. Well, your turn might take a while, but I can follow what you do, and do my own things, I’m interested. Or Ganz Schon Clever (or any of the Clever trilogy), you roll and I care about the dice that you leave behind. So even though I don’t have a full turn, I care of what you are doing.

And I think that moving from decision to decision makes the game feel faster. Area control is good for that, I care what you do because I don’t want you to attack me. And I do want you to weaken your armies and the other players. But a lot of other games make that work as well.

All At Once

There is another type of game as well, everyone go at once that works as well. This falls into the category of real time games, something I don’t love, but more so roll and write games. Metro X, Cartographers, and Welcome To… just off the top of my head, those are easy ones to play because everyone fills in things at the same time. There isn’t the pressure of a speed element instead it’s a smaller decision space and everyone acting at once, and that works well.

Story

And one final way that works for me, is if your turn has story to it. A lot of the time this means literally there is story that is being read out. But it can also mean that the game has a whole narrative flow. Pandemic Legacy Season 1 or 2 would be an example of this. And being cooperative helps, but you decide what you want to do on your turn, and that creates the story of what is happening. Especially in Season 2 with the discovery aspect, the game tells a great story.

Final Quick vs Fast Board Game Thoughts

Do you find that you have a preference, maybe based on length a board game takes? And is it really the length of the game that makes a difference?

I do feel that game length does matter, but I think for a lot of gamers that perception of game length often is tied to the decision making space. And for me, that is more about the quickness of a game versus how long a game might take. And how meaningful and interesting the decision that I can make are. Do you find something similar to that as you think about games?

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