Now that Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mountains has been available as a beta release on Board Game Arena for a week or so, here are my initial thoughts on strategy. This is based on ~30 plays (of which I’ve won ~20). This only applies to two-player games.
Main strategies
I think Rivers + Fish is the main strategy here. Birds are also strong.
I can see how Paws might work, but I haven’t seen that so far, and when I’ve tried it, it has failed. So far I don’t like that strategy.
Plants are not a strategy, they’re terrible. Amphibians aren’t great. Insects can be ok side strategy in right circumstances (four copies of Greenside Darter, for example).
30-point cards
The big 10/30 point cards are of course the main attraction here. For starters, I don’t think they’re a problem. Yes, they can cause big swings and if you’re lucky to draw many copies of ones that you have already completed, that’s great. However, you rarely go without any, and I’ve managed to win with just one. I’m sure there will be games that come down to good or bad luck with these, but right now I don’t think these are any worse than, say, Exmoor Ponies – those will crush you much worse if your opponent gets three or four.
Here are the big guns, in order of the ones I like the best.
Bald Eagle – I think this is the best one. Getting five fish isn’t hard, and when you have five fish, getting more Eagles is simply good.
Elk – You almost always want more trees. Sometimes you collect the same trees and the Elk won’t be convenient, but most of the time this is great.
Bobcat – Birds are good, this scores from birds and lets you play an expensive bird for free. Five cards in hand, pay three to play a Bobcat AND a Bald Eagle, for 60 points? Well why not!
Black Bear – Getting two fish in one tree is not tricky, so the Bear scores easy – but here scoring one Bear doesn’t necessarily help you score another Bear. That makes the Bear slightly harder to use. But in general you always want to keep a tree with two fish open, just in case.
Coyote – I’ve only played this once, and most of the time get rid of these quick. I don’t even worry about discarding these to the clearing, as I’ve yet to see a Paw strategy really crush.
Cards I like
I’m not going to go through all the cards, but here are some cards I think are solid, in alphabetical order.
Brook Trout – I had a game with a great fish engine and tons of rivers, but couldn’t find any fish apart from the Bullhead I started with. Then I got one, and fortunately it was a Brook Trout, as it was worth 38 points from the fish bonuses and all the fishless rivers I had.
Caddisfly – Playing expensive fish (like Brook Trouts) for free, no problems with that.
Creek – Useful tool in fish strategy, play with the bonus.
Eastern Hellbender – The amphibians aren’t great in general, but if you’re heavy on rivers, this can be worth 20+ points and a draw for one card. Ridiculous value at best!
Great Blue Heron – An excellent bird for the bird + fish + rivers combo. Use the bonus or play for free.
Greenside Darter – This looks like a simple 0-cost fish, but the three points per insect can really pile up, especially if you have several Darters.
Peregrine Falcon – Good for playing Bald Eagles, Tufted Titmouses or Wood Thrushes for free.
Pileated Woodpecker – A solid B-level player in the bird strategy.
Raccoon – I haven’t used this a ton, but just wanted to say that’s it’s great the Raccoon now costs 0.
River Bend – Smoky Mountains isn’t a game of draw engines like Dartmoor is, but getting free draws for cards you want to play is always good.
Thermometer Cricket – The insects aren’t great, but if you have good support from Greenside Darters, having a bunch of Crickets (with some Caddisflies, Weevils and maybe a Firefly or two) can be very profitable.
Tufted Titmouse – Free card draws. One of my favourite birds to play for free.
Virgin’s Bower – A bit expensive, but if you have the space, are going for the birds, this will score you a bunch of points and gives you a free bird play, so why not. But it’s not great without the bonus (unless you get it for free).
Water-Starwort – When you have the river + fish thing going, this can be worth 10–15 points.
Waterfall – A good combo with Brook Trouts, you get more fishless rivers when you can stuff all your fish in Waterfalls. But don’t forget that you can’t play birds here!
Wood Thrush – Same as Tufted Titmouse, nice support player and a great candidate for free bird plays.
Yellow Bullhead – Did I mention I like free draws? This is my favourite fish opening.
Discuss
I also posted this on BoardGameGeek, so while comments are welcome here, you’re likely to find some actual discussion in the BoardGameGeek thread.