Photo above is property of Weird City Games
Company: Weird City Games
Game: Canopy
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬
Genre: Nature, Strategy
Date Played: March 1, 2022
Difficulty (based on 2 players): 5/10
Size of Team: 1-4 Players
Time: ~30 Mins. (Replayable)
Price: $29.95
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"Canopy" is a tabletop card game, so the “stories” here are more the understory and canopy layers of your rainforest! Your goal is to create the most productive forest.
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This is a beautiful, high-quality game. We loved the artwork! Each card in the main deck shows some aspect of the forest, whether they are plants, animals, or a “threat” like drought. The pieces to keep track of points are high-quality cardboard and come in cute leaf and tree shapes. There are also a variety of animal pieces (used to mark scored trees) that also add to the charm of your forest. They intentionally chose to have the entire game paper-based for sustainability reasons, so they even included little paper bags for the bits, rather than plastic ones. There is also a nice organizer in the box to help hold all of the cards and the small animal pieces. The whole box is quite compact, with a gorgeous rainforest scene on the cover, making it a rather portable game.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
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In "Canopy", your goal is to have the most points at the end of three seasons (or two for the 3-4 player version). Points can be earned in four ways. First, you can complete trees each season, meaning having one or more trunk segments with a canopy on top. You earn bonus points for having the tallest tree completed in each season or the most completed trees at the end of the game. Second, you can have plants in your forest that are scored at the end of each season and then removed. Each type of plant is slightly different, but the number of points you get will vary with how many of the set you have. For instance, for ferns, you earn two points per fern if you have an odd number, but none if you have an even number. Third, you get 5 points for each sun-rain pair that you have accumulated in a season. Finally, there are animals, which are only scored at the very end of the game. There are two of each type of animal, one of which gives you a special “ability” to use once each season and the other that provides bonus points if you get a mated pair (having both of the same type of animal).
In addition, there are various types of threats, including drought, fire, and disease in the basic game. However, these cards are not necessarily bad; they can be neutral or even beneficial at times. In some ways, the card mechanisms mimic the natural phenomena they represent in cool ways. Fire, for instance, has some positive effects on seeds (which allow you to get some extra cards at the end of a season). Fire also has no impact when it’s very small (one card), starts killing plants in your forest in a medium size (two cards), and spreads to also impact other players’ forests when it is large (three cards). Other aspects may not be quite as aligned with the natural world. For instance, when you have two fire cards, you lose two cards from your forest. When you have three fire cards, you only lose one card and another player loses one card; whereas, in real life, your forest would likely be at least as badly damaged by a bigger fire (so you might expect to still lose two cards while your opponent loses one as well). Drought cards can also be used to get rid of fire, for example, which is rather counterintuitive. These mechanisms, while not entirely biologically realistic, do add some extra dimensions to the strategy and gameplay.
The main deck is divided into three piles - one for each season. There are also three “New Growth” piles, ordered from one to three. On your turn, you start by looking at the first pile and deciding whether to take it. If you do, you immediately play all of the cards in your forest; if not, you add a card to it from that season’s draw pile and move on to look at the second pile. Again, you either take it or add a card and move on to the third pile. If you reject the third pile, you again add a card and take one card off of the draw pile for your forest. Then the turn passes to the next player. This continues until all of the cards for that season have been played. You score plants and trees at the end of each season, then begin the next one. At the end of the last season, you also tally your wildlife points and bonus points for the person with the most completed trees. Whoever has the most points wins!
The game also comes with a lot of ways to mix things up! The standard rules for Canopy are for two players, where all three new growth piles are shared by both players. In the 3-4 player variant, you share one pile with the player to your right, one with the player to your left, and the third pile with all players. In the solo variant, you play against the “Forest Spirit,” which has specific rules that determine how it will play, such as which pile it will pick and how it will complete trees. In addition, there are two additional sets of cards to add challenge and variation. There are “Advanced” cards that add more diversity to the forest, with new plants, animals, and threats. There are four different ways in which this set can be combined with the base deck, giving you lots of options! Finally, there are “Shifting Seasons” cards that add unique rules for each season of the game (in the 2-4 player versions). For instance, the “Season of Cleansing” allows you to draw an extra card every time you take a pile with a Threat card.
Photos above are property of Weird City Games
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This is not a puzzle game. However, the challenges of trying to figure out the odds of getting certain cards, the best overall strategy, and whether another player will take a pile if you pass on it all scratch a bit of that puzzly itch.
Photos above are property of Weird City Games
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We really enjoyed playing "Canopy" at both 2 and 4 players! I love that it comes with multiple variants of player counts and more “advanced” renditions, and we are definitely looking forward to trying more of those out. The base game is quite easy to teach and learn, so you could certainly play with kids (8+), but it has enough strategy and interest to keep adults engaged. While there is a competitive component and the ability to influence another player’s cards, it did not feel aggressive or overly personal. I actually found it very soothing to play, as you are building such lovely tableaus and imagining being out in a peaceful rainforest. It’s also a really nice length. With most tabletop escape games being an hour or more, "Canopy" is perfect for nights when we don’t have quite that much time but want to play something. As an ecologist, while there are a few mechanisms that might not be entirely biologically accurate, I also really appreciate the theme and incorporation of different aspects of the ecosystem, including the threats! Overall, "Canopy" is a joy to play, and we recommend it if you are looking to mix things up with a relatively light, quick, beautiful and affordable card game!
(If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank Weird City Games for providing us with samples of the game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.