
PLAYlist 24: Photosynthesis
When a week is bookended by Earth Day and International Tabletop Day, there’s nary a better game we could spotlight than Blue Orange Games' gorgeous, award-winning Photosynthesis – especially when you look at the calendar and realize that it’s Arbor Day, as well. Join us, won’t you, as we celebrate trees, mother nature, and board games with the most tree-licious, mother natur-al board game out there: Photosynthesis, from designer Hjalmar Hach and artist Sabrina Miramon.
Now, I hate to be shallow. I usually reserve my thoughts on a game’s surface aesthetics until near the end of a review, but Photosynthesis is a game with serious curbside appeal. It’s a game that people will spot from across a room and feel compelled to come in for a closer inspection. I mean, just look at it!
Photosynthesis is beautiful. Once the game gets going, the board becomes a constantly-changing woodland area, with trees of four different colors popping up, growing tall, and being felled each and every turn. Photos don’t do justice to how good this game looks on the table.
In Photosynthesis, you and your opponents will be growing a forest. You’ll earn points by growing the tallest trees and harvesting them. Where you place your trees – and how tall you grow them – will determine how many “light” tokens your opponents will have to spend growing their own trees and planting new ones. (Trees cast shadows, meaning that if there’s a taller tree between yours and the sun, it won’t get any sunlight. Makes sense, right?) Beneath Photosynthesis’ pretty, sylvan exterior lies a deceptively deep and strategic game. Don’t let the game’s good looks fool you into thinking it’s fluff; in a competitive group, it can be downright cutthroat.
At the start of the game, players will place their initial saplings around the border of the play field. Rounds run in two phases. In the first – the “photosynthesis” phase – the sun, represented by a large, crescent-shaped piece that slides right onto the edge your hexagonal board, will move into its next position and cast its solar rays across the board. Any trees with direct exposure – not blocked by another tree – will collect “light” points for its owner, in accordance with its size. Larger trees will collect more light points and cast larger shadows behind them, blocking more trees from sunlight. (Small trees block one space, medium two, and the largest three.)
In the second phase of a round – the “life cycle” phase – players can spend those light points to buy new seeds, plant them around their existing trees, or grow those trees to larger sizes. If they have a fully-grown tree, they can harvest it to draw a token worth more points the closer that tree was to the center of the board. (“Harvest” isn’t exactly the right word, as you’re not chopping the tree down or anything so eco-unfriendly, so much as it’s just falling down after having lived a long, happy life. That’s a much more zen thought, isn’t it?) When that’s all done, you’ll repeat the whole cycle over again until the sun has passed around the board three times. Or, four times, if you’re playing the rulebook’s advanced variant.
And with that, I’ve explained most of the game in only two paragraphs. It’s simple enough to learn and grasp, but in practice it’s almost chess-like. Photosynthesis rewards players who can think several turns ahead, working out mentally where the sun will be in future rounds and where their trees will be casting the most strategic shadows.
Perhaps the most brilliant aspect of Photosynthesis is how impeccably its theme ties into the gameplay. This game could have been released with a much more abstract theme – something generic like, say, trying to build taller Egyptian obelisks than your opponents. (Ewwwww.) Instead, the designer found a theme that fits the mechanics as well as any game we’ve ever encountered. Everything you do in Photosynthesis makes sense if you’ve got a gradeschool understanding of how plants work. Sun = growth. Shadows = no sun. Seeds become trees which become bigger trees. Even the way the sun circles the board echoes the seasons. This is super sleek, and incredibly cool – plus, it makes the game very easy to teach, as the rules make so much sense.
Blue Orange Games’ Photosynthesis has a more-than-reasonable MSRP of $44.99. It’s for two-to-four players and takes under an hour, even amongst players who tend to overthink their moves. The box recommends it for ages eight and up, which feels about right – though, we wouldn’t rule out playing it as a family with slightly younger children. (My two-year-old loves lining up the trees according to size; we’ll give her the extra set to sit at the table and play with as the adults are going about a two- or three-player game.)
There's one more noteworthy element worth commending, and it’s that Photosynthesis is manufactured from recycled materials. If you’re like me, you probably wonder how many acres of rainforest went into your board game collection each time you’re punching out a sheet of cardboard chips. (I cringe to think that my Carcassonne meeples were likely at one time a stately, 100-year-old oak tree.) Given the game’s earth-friendly theme, it’s a nice touch and one that we’d love to see more publishers adopting.
For this column’s playlist, we’ve stuck close to today’s arboraceous theme and collected an hour’s worth of songs about trees. (Cherry trees, sycamore trees, fake plastic trees – all kinds of trees!) May these tracks serve you well when you plant your next tree right in your opponent’s path of sunlight.
Happy Arbor Day, one and all!
***
Previous PLAYlist columns: Ice Cool, Food Truck Champion, Ars Alchimia & Lemuria, A Game of Thrones Catan, Troyes, Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition, Flip Ships, NMBR 9, Unearth, Escape from 100 Million B.C., Orleans (plus Trade & Intrigue), Whistle Stop, Caverna: Cave vs Cave, Twilight Struggle, Honshu, Bärenpark, Notre Dame & In the Year of the Dragon, Yokohama, Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure, Villages of Valeria, New York Slice, Watson & Holmes, Hanamikoji.
Most Recent
- Weekly Playlist: Current Rotation #47 (News) —
- Premiere: Lushlife Debuts Video For “Hessdalen Lights” ft. Felicia Douglass of Dirty Projectors (News) — Lushlife, Felicia Douglass
- serpentwithfeet Announces New Album, Shares Video for New Song “Fellowship” (News) — serpentwithfeet
- Premiere: The Black Creatures Debut New Video For “Elements” (News) — The Black Creatures
- Watch Future Islands Perform Four Songs in a Tiny Desk (Home) Concert (News) — Future Islands
Comments
Submit your comment
May 11th 2018
7:10am
I Have Never read this type effective And Unique content! Keep Undated….
Amal for Love Marriage
May 15th 2018
11:28pm
here is complete information about the when does ups stop delivering and ps form 4056
August 19th 2018
5:32am
You have written excellent article and I really like it the way you express the data
August 29th 2018
2:39am
Do You want to Win a big Prize worth up to $ 5000 by just answering few easy and simple questions??? Then, here is a good news for you.
September 10th 2018
4:41am
Welcome to our official site. KFC is World’s most popular fast-food chain. It serves numbers of delicious, tasty, and spicy item’s to millions of customers throughout the world. It is world famous for serving spicy chicken dishes, french fries, and coke to the foodies.
September 13th 2018
4:12am
hi…please visit my website ....
September 13th 2018
4:15am
hi….. please visit my website….
MyCfa Visit Survey
September 27th 2018
12:54am
My Survey Guide
September 28th 2018
4:32am
Welcome to official site: https://pradhanmantriyojana.net/
October 19th 2018
3:29am
Learn more from the official site: https://www.christmasimages2018.com/.
October 19th 2018
3:33am
Learn more from the official site: https://www.diwali2018images.com/
October 19th 2018
3:33am
Learn more from the official site: https://www-happynewyear2019.com/
October 19th 2018
3:34am
Learn more from the official site: https://www.happynewyear2019gifs.com/
October 19th 2018
3:34am
Learn more from the official site: https://www.happynewyear2019images.org.in
November 14th 2018
12:21am
https://www.telldunkin.guru/
November 20th 2018
8:32pm
TellMarco’s Pizza Survey – Free Marco’s Coupon Code. Who loves Italian-food at Marco’s Pizza Restaurant? I think everyone. https://surveyguides.info/
November 20th 2018
8:34pm
TellMarco’s Pizza Survey – Free Marco’s Coupon Code. Who loves Italian-food at Marco’s Pizza Restaurant? I think everyone.
January 11th 2019
1:57am
Tellsubway Customer Survey- http://takesurvey.info/subway-survey-at-www-tellsubway-com/
January 31st 2019
4:35pm
Looking post thx post https://tempatservicehpdibandarlampung.blogspot.com
February 4th 2019
5:25am
Thanks for sharing such a piece of great information with us. Your Post is very unique and all information is reliable for new readers. Keep it up in future, thanks for sharing such a useful post.
February 20th 2019
10:12pm
https://walmartgiftcardbalance.info/
February 21st 2019
3:56am
https://httpcardactivation.com/
March 3rd 2019
8:39pm
Hey guys !! If you want to get perfect information about whatever you need or like your survey site so, just please click here ..we are providing you very much clear and perfect information about it..so please click here https://surveyguides.info/
March 12th 2019
9:16am
.... https://youtube.com/channel/UCAVjAItYQ1iUZ0iRiCngCPw
...
April 11th 2019
8:33pm
Photosynthesis is always beautiful. Thanks for sharing such a beautiful information with us. Also, if you are looking for the entertainment, then, you can go with the GHD Sports android app.
April 13th 2019
4:35am
Enjoy 350+ live TV channels on JioTV app at your fingertips, including 30+ HD channels. Learn more about JioTV app here.
May 5th 2019
2:45am
Google
May 9th 2019
4:27am
Thanks for sharing such great information with us. Your Post is very unique and all information is reliable for new readers. Keep it up in future, thanks for sharing such a useful post.
https://homesecuritydevices.us/calendario-julio-2019-para-imprimir/
May 15th 2019
5:19am
Thanks for sharing such great information with us. Your Post is very unique and all information is reliable for new readers. Keep it up in future, thanks for sharing such a useful post.
https://homesecuritydevices.us/calendario-junio-2019/