| Recommended Age: | 6+ |
| Players: | 2-6 |
| Cost: | $24.99 |
| Play Time: | 20 Minutes |
| Skills: | Memory and Strategy |
| Company Site: | www.ravensburger.com |
| Objective: | Be the first to identify the location of three treasures and win the game. |
| Official Site: | enchanted-forest-01148/index.html |
| Contents: | 1 playing board, 13 treasure cards 13 object cards, 13 trees 6 playing pieces, 2 dice |
I believe I have mentioned that I love games that take a classic game idea and make it fresh, better and more fun. Enchanted Forest is a Memory based game with an evil twist. Instead of just cards and matching you play a board game. Playing a board game version of Memory is harder and more interesting all at the same time.
Ravensburger has created some awesome games that are great for adventures. Enchanted Forest is no exception. This game is like cutthroat Memory with an evil rule that makes the game take a lot longer than it should. Don’t get me wrong the game is fun but I can only handle so many rounds of it per day. It is a certain mind set kind of a game for the kids.
I will explain the game and then how I adjusted it for my 3 year old. My 5 year old son caught on pretty quickly so if you have a child who has a head start on playing games they can probably play this one even with the extra rules. With him we played the normal way with the Magic rules and the evil rule of sending someone back to the start. Yeah…there is a rule for that.
The box is more sturdy than your standard game boxes which means it doesn’t rip when you open it even after you have opened it a dozen or so times. I hate when I go to get a game out and the box rips and then I have to tape it until you can’t see what game it is anymore because of the tape so you have write it on the tape…yeah…I hate that.
The Player pieces are little roundish wooden guys with little hats. They are adorable and not plastic. Bonus! The cards are even made of tougher stuff which is awesome because paperish cards always get bent or torn. These aren’t really at risk for either and I love that. The little trees are made of plastic but it is a hard plastic that you can’t bend. The little wooden circles with the items on it are more bendable or rippable but you put them inside the trees so that actually won’t happen. Brilliant!
So…let’s start with the setup which is pretty easy even if it is really tempting to cheat while setting up. I like to peek in Memory and Solitaire…don’t judge me. I am going to assume you have popped out all the pieces and put the little circles in the trees already.
Setup:
First take everything out of the box…except the insert part of the box. Ok seriously lay the board out so everyone can reach. Take all the trees and without peeking (that was hard) put one on each of the blue circle tree spots. NOT the blue circles on the path but on the Tree circles just off of the path.
Shuffle the cards and place them in the castle face down and set the dice where everyone can reach them. Flip the top card face up so everyone knows what the King is asking for first. Each player then selects their color and places their wooden guy in the Village and then roll to see who gets to go first.
Objective:
Be the first to find 3 treasures for the King.
Play:
Now for the tricky part. Gameplay is fairly easy but there is the confusing bit about having to land on a Blue circle or the Key circle using the EXACT number that you rolled. I’ll explain in a second but that part is tricky and hard and a huge pain in my butt.
On your turn you will roll both dice, move your spaces and either peek under a tree, send someone back to the village or make a guess on where the King’s treasure is. Now when you roll the dice say you roll a 3 and a 5. You can move your guy 8 spaces in one direction OR you can move your guy 3 spaces in one direction and 5 spaces in another. This means that you can move forward 3 spaces (or 5) and then go backwards the 5 spaces (or 3)!!
This comes in handy since you have to land exactly on the Blue spaces to peek under the trees or the Key space to make a guess. That is the biggest pain about the game is the landing exactly on the spaces. It is a LOT harder than you would think. We spent about 20 minutes playing and NO ONE had a card yet. I admit I wasn’t prepared for that. Either this game is too hard or we had the worst luck EVER. I’m willing to believe the latter on this one.
The other hardest part is remembering where each item is. I peeked under about 6 trees and only remembered 2 items…I’m not very good at Memory. My son on the other hand seemed to remember each item and he looked at about 8 trees! His memory scares me sometimes…
Once you miraculously land on the Key space you have to make a guess as the whereabouts of the treasure on the top card in the pile. Now if you have been peeking you MIGHT remember where it is and would guess correctly. If you do that you get the card and only need 2 more to win. If you fail you go back to the Village.
There are a couple extra rules you can leave out or use. One is Magic or rolling doubles. If you roll doubles then you get to do 1 of 3 things for your turn.
- Move your guy to any unoccupied Blue Tree space.
- Move your guy one space to the left or right of the Castle Entrance or the Horse Shoe space.
- Remove the top card in the pile and flip the next one over.
My son and I both used the exchange the Treasure Card one a lot as it seemed the most useful by the time we actually started rolling doubles. The other extra rule is that if you land on your opponents space (or head) either with the total of both dice OR just the total of ONE of the dice that player goes back to the Village. I got to know that Village very well thanks to that rule and a ruthless 5 year old.
Playing with the rules as they are is fun although frustrating at times. My son picked up on all the rules pretty well but needed reminding on the not telling me if the Tree he peeked under was it or not. He was reverse cheating…is that a thing? Figuring out spaces takes awhile sometimes when you are trying to land on a Blue space or the Key space but once you get the hang of it you simply have to count it out before you move.
He didn’t struggle with that nearly as much as I thought he would but he has had a head start in games. If this is your child’s first or one of their first games you may remove that landing on it exactly bit OR the move in any direction bit until they get the hang of it.
The Diva also wanted to play (of course) so I had to adjust the rules for her since she is only 3. She can count but she likes to KEEP counting and hasn’t quite gotten used to going where she is supposed to yet so there was a lot of reminding. Here is how I adjusted it for her.
Setup:
Set up the game the same way. Lay out the board, shuffle and set up the Trees, pick a guy, shuffle cards and flip the top one over. Only use 1 Die though for young kids. Less counting and less frustration for them.
Objective:
Be the first to find 3 treasures for the King.
Play:
This is where it gets very different…or mostly different. Each player will roll 1 Die and move that many spaces in any direction. You can stop on a Blue space or the Key Space without needing to do it exactly. In fact you can stop on any space you want to as long as it doesn’t go OVER the number you rolled.
If you roll a 4 you can either move 1, 2, 3 or 4 spaces but no more than 4. Little kids will be able to play this way and it less frustrating for everyone. They won’t be able to keep track of the counting 1 die one way and 1 another or landing exactly on a space so this will help them.
Another change I made is instead of HAVING to go to the Key space all you have to do if find the correct Treasure by picking a Tree and peeking. If it is correct you get the card and flip the next one but if it isn’t then you have to put it back. Now if your child is prepared to add any negative elements you can have them move back to the Village or go to the Horseshoe space if they guess incorrectly. Otherwise there is no penalty.
I would leave out the part about moving back to the Village if another player lands on your head…er space. If kids play this together this could end up causing problems or fights. Once a player has found 3 Treasures they have to go to the Key space to win. It is kind of like finding them and turning them into the King.
So I changed it slightly but the rule change is easier and can be readjusted later as they get used to playing with the very basic rules. After your child masters certain versions of the game simply add a part that you feel they would be able to learn and play with. The next step for us is going to the Key space for each Tree instead of after all 3.
The game is a lot of fun but I wouldn’t recommend kids under 6 play unless you modify the rules a bit. The counting out each Dice and landing on things exactly is tricky for almost anyone. Ok not tricky really but tedious after awhile. Once you get the hang of it though it becomes a bit easier but still can take awhile to get even one card.
Both of my kids enjoyed playing this game and when I altered the rules for my daughter my son was nice enough to play along. He kept telling me that he knew he was supposed to do this another way, or land on this or roll both dice but he was helping his sister. Isn’t he sweet…when he wants to be.
If your kids like Memory this is a great game. It is a new twist on it and has elements for older kids too. Just be careful when playing with any kid…they have seriously scary memories.
