Fox in the Forest Review

 There is such a type of card game - on a bribe. It seems to me that many with this definition imagine a 36-card deck with queens and kings of four suits. At least for me, the bribery game is associated with exactly that. And today we will talk about one of these modernized tables.

 I got Fox in the Forest by accident - I saw a wonderful fox on the cover of the announced game on bgg, I was interested in the pictures on the cards, and in one of the orders "from there", when it was delivered, the box was somehow thrown in for delivery in the parcel. At that time, I did not expect anything special from it, I just liked the illustrations, it turned out later that the toy is not bad and is praised in various ways by foreign table-toppers. When it got to us, I didn't manage to try it for a long time, because I didn't feel a great desire, then I evaluated it after a couple of batches and threw it away again. But already in autumn and winter he recorded several sessions to his heart's content.

WHAT IS THE GAME ABOUT?

 In euros, you can safely score on the plot almost always, what can we say about fillers? But Fox in the Forest even has a flavor, can you imagine? Well, as a flavor, this is a short story by Alana Jolie Abbott and it has nothing to do with the maps and game mechanics, only the characters and the general environment are borrowed. But generally funny.

WHAT'S IN THE BOX

 A deck of cards, 33 pieces, of three suits: Bells, Keys and Moon. From one to eleven. Odd cards are text-ability cards, even numbers are just numbers.

 The second component of the game is the scoring tokens.

 Lots of rules and attractions. For a classic filler, the filling is quite normal, but by modern standards of stuffing boxes with any good - could the fairy tale be included in a separate mini-book, don't you think? And then I had to search on the publisher's website, and if it weren't for the Internet, I wouldn't have known that there was a plot here.

HOW TO PLAY?

 Fox in the Forest is designed for two. 13 cards are dealt to each person, the rest of the deck is placed face up on top of one card that is turned face up – as in The Fool, a deck with the trump card at the bottom.

 After that, the active player enters with one card from his hand, and the second player responds with his own, and it must be of the same suit as the first one. If the right suit is not on the hand, you can discard anything. Whoever has a larger denomination is a bribe. Trumps beat the rest of the suits. In general, such a classic bribery game that there would be no rule to describe the meaning, if not for two buts. But these are the features of the tabletop that fans of this genre have come to love.

 The first is that all odd cards have some feature that works when drawn, and thanks to which you can trick and turn the tide of the game in your favor. The face and suit of most of the cards in the opponent's hands can be guessed, but there are always 6 unknown cards in the deck that add randomness and surprise throughout each hand.

 Second, in the game it doesn't matter if your hand is full of powerful nines and tens, because points are given here not only for collected bribes, but also for "undertaken". In order to better understand what we are talking about, here is a simple table of rules from which everything becomes clear.

 That is, there is a strategy in Fox in the Forest - depending on what comes to your hand in the game, you can plan and estimate the approximate schedule for the game, whether you should chop for each card, or play for a scarcity. Taking into account the fact that a full-fledged game in "Lysitsa" is considered several hands, after which the winner is declared who has reached a certain threshold of points, the long-term strategy is also respected here. Well, as far as this concept is applicable to the filler.

IMPRESSION

 Fox in the Forest is a smart box with gameplay that you wouldn't expect from such a simple content. Personal impressions of "Lysytsia" only become more positive with each game. As I said above, at the beginning of last year, I didn't even expect anything from the box, except for good art, but I got more than I expected.

 The problem with the perception of the board is that the basis of the game is banal bribes, from which by definition you expect something... well, what I described in the introduction, some ancient nonsense. Personally, I was helped to discard my superstitions not only by personal experience and recording parties, but also by constant positive reviews from abroad (perhaps, in part, they were the ones who inclined me to spend a few dollars on an order). The game was especially appreciated by fans of trick-taking mechanics. It is supplemented with such cool things as the special capabilities of some cards and the system of counting points, which turn this little toy into something much more interesting. But its relative "difficulty weight" according to the version of bgg is absolutely true (1.59 out of 5) and at first it seemed too primitive to me, for example. However, with the acquired experience and pumping of skills in the use of mechanics, you delve deeper into the nuances, you gain an understanding of subtle moments, awareness of the possibilities of using the powers of different cards.

 The tension of the parties is a plus, since every map played is important. At the beginning of the next hand, you don't know how strong your hand is and how it should be played (because the exact cards of the opponent are unknown) - whether you should take bribes or give away (play a little). At first, the course of the game will seem almost random, but it is worth gaining experience (at least 10+ games) and you will get into tricks and tricks that can be rolled with a "losing" hand, realize how to roll and output a winning sequence of moves using abilities cards that are crucial in Fox in the Forest.

 Extracting information from the opponent with a "king" (denomination "eleven"), collecting points individually with the help of cards-"treasures"-sevens, the same "foxes"-threes that fundamentally break the course of the game during the game - you change the trump card, turning everything from upside down, and you can use this tool so subtly that the difference between a master in "Fox" and an inexperienced player can be noticed just by the ability to use the fox. This is not chess, of course, but. In fact, it is the whites of the cards that can be considered the main feature of the game, on which the base works - bribes.

 Being a classic filler for two, Fox in the Forest is not like its counterparts and gives some new experience, which I will explain now. For example, Jaipur or Lost Cities are just right for comparison (in the latter, by the way, 35 batches have already been laid out this year). In all these games, we compete with an opponent, grab/lay out cards at a fast pace, calculating a little in advance the simplest actions. "Fox" works differently - you also see approximately the correct moves, but the choice is influenced by an additional layer in the gameplay, namely the abilities of the cards. It is necessary, as always, not only to mathematically analyze what and how to do, but also to calculate and, most importantly, invent tricks with the abilities of cards. This cardinal difference gives a slightly different impression - later the game seems more complex and deeper, or something. More than one approach is needed in order to get used to the opportunities provided to the player in this filler.

 I will not say that it is better and more interesting, it is simply a fact that is a distinctive feature of the game from the two taken as an example. They are chosen because the feel of the parties are very similar to Fox in the Forest, so if you are a fan/hater of them, Fox will also fit/no need to worry.

 Once again, don't take the game as a consolation, no. This is just another filler whose popularity is justified by its really good gameplay, the quality of which was able to reach the heights of the top recognized boxes, such as Jaipur and Lost Cities, given as an example of exactly what are excellent games. So don't get hyped if you're a die-hard genre hater. If you are not unfamiliar with simple dueling tabletop joys, then "Fox" is at least worth a try, it may well be placed on the shelf among a number of good fillers.

USEFUL LINKS

Fox in the Forest on the BGG portal

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/221965/fox-forest

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