Autumn Falls to Winter (Indian Summer)

With autumn close to ending, the forest comes together to bask in the last days before winter.  The squirrels gather their nuts, the birds begin their flight, and the children run through the leaves, stumbling upon secrets and treasures.  This day is exceptionally warm, the day before the chill.  It is Indian Summer, the warmest day in fall, and full of life and wonder.

BACKGROUND:  Indian Summer is a board game for 1-4 players.  It was created in 2017 by Uwe Rosenberg, with art by Andrea Boekhoff, and published by Edition Spielwiese.  It is the sequel to Cottage Garden.  Each player attempts to be the first to cover their board with leaves and squirrels, while finding treasures.

GAMEPLAY:  During their turn, a player may either take a leaf tile from their supply, or a 1 space squirrel from the supply and place it appropriately on the board (no overlapping other leaf or animal tiles, and completely in the board).  Some leaf tiles have holes which can be used to collect treasure tokens by placing the holes over the appropriate spaces, with any other tile not giving the player a treasure.  Whenever a player runs out of leaf tiles, they refill from the Common Path surrounding the game board.

TREASURE:  Treasures are collected when the area (3x4 grid) is fully covered, giving the player every treasure token they have placed holes on.  They may also be collected by placing an animal tile over a unbroken matching pattern of holes. Treasures can be spent in addition to the players action, to do effects such as refilling the players leaf supply, to taking leaves from other players, to playing a squirrel or another leaf tile.  Treasures may be exchanged according to their value.

WINNING:  The game is finished once a player has filled their entire board with leaves and squirrels.  Each player exchanges all treasures for nuts according to the rules, and attempts to finish up their board in their last turn.  If more than 1 player finished filling up their board, the player with the most nuts wins.

CONCLUSION:  Ah, Uwe Rosenberg.  Only you can take the idea of autumn and gamify it in such a way as to not be focused on gathering things, but rather the falling of the leaves.  This is such a simple concept on a simple game that boils down to something akin to a turn based version of Ubongo.  The idea of the leaves falling lends itself to a tetris-like pattern centric game that feels fun and cohesive rather quickly.  It's a puzzle game that is two fold, to gather items to break ties and be the first to fill up the board.  There's very little to dislike about this game, but no game is perfect for every player.  Obviously, this is a slower game, even though its faster than most slow games.  The treasusures can also feel one-sided if a player lucks out and spams through them quickly enough.  The most frustrating thing to find is the tiles.  Man, does it hurt to have the wrong pieces, and having to use up squirrels just to finish an area and lose out on a good strategy.  Still, these are minor nitpicks and the game is quite delightful if you can take the time to slow down and enjoy puzzles like this.  This is one delightful walk in the woods.