What they will score is a orthogonal path of cards in their arboretum which begins and ends with the target color. For each colour, the player with the highest value of cards in hand of that colour scores for a path of trees in her arboretum that begins and ends with that colour; a path is a orthogonally adjacent chain of cards with increasing values. Meiner Meinung nach hat es auch je nach Spieleranzahl einen etwas anderen Charakter, was ich auch nett finde. Three, only the person with the highest value of a single tree in their hand at the end of the game scores that particular type of tree. However, the wonderful balance of the game lies in the fact that players can only score those points, which they have worked so hard for, if they have the highest total value of that tree species in their hand at the end of the game.

In the example above, you might hold the 1 back for a few rounds to see if the 8 comes out - any holding to an 8 can reduce your options. Player turns are simple, but each decision holds a wealth of strategy: 1) Draw two cards, either from the face-down pile or the accumulating face-up discard piles from each player. When you’re drawing your cards, you’re trying to get cards that will help you, but also cards that might deny your opponents what they need. You need to be mindful of these pairings because (especially for large chains) you can’t afford to lose. For each card in a path that scores, the player earns one point; if the path consists solely of trees of the color being scored, the player scores two points per card.Arboretum is a card counting, set collection game with a bit of take-that thrown in for good measure. If a player doesn’t have the most value for a color, she scores zero points for a path that begins and ends with that color. Once you’ve gathered up the cards you’re using, shuffle them up and deal out 7 cards to each player.

If Dave's mrs had a run of 1-5 in her hand of 7 cards, yeah, it would beat out Dave's 8, and she would get to score that suit - only, she then probably wouldn't have any of that suit on the table to actually score. Even if you don’t have any Blue Spruce in your arboretum, if you win the right to score it that means the other players…well, don’t. I appreciate not everybody is affected by that second one, but when you deal with people that have their own fiefdoms and don't like sharing, this mechanic becomes really tedious really quickly. I'm happy to trumpet Everdell, in all its charm and glory, as the insurmountable favorite of my collection.

That’s where my brain usually goes into lock-up; I’m looking at the board, screaming internally for a way in which I can fix the mess my careless hands have wrought, and there’s nothing.