The Grimm Forest Review: Straw, Wood or Brick?
Intent: Inspire you to try playing The Grimm Forest.
Constructing your ideal house? Made of wood, straw and brick? You get to choose! The Grimm Forest a set collection, hidden movement and house building game published by Druid City Games, designed by Tim Eisner with the art done by Mr. Cuddington (Lina Cossette and David Forest.) This game plays 2-4 players and takes about 45-60 minutes to play. Avoiding wolves and various monsters and using the help of fairy tale characters such as Aladdin, Snow White and The Gingerbread Man you will compete to be the first to build three houses. Will you claim the title of the Royal Builder?
Overview
You are the descendent of the Three Little Pigs competing for the contract to develop many housing units in the Grimm Forest for King Reginald the Greedy. The aim of Grimm Forest is to be the first little piggy to build three houses. Once you have done that, you win and claim the title of Royal Builder.
Each round has three phases: Gather, Build and Clean up. In the Gather phase, simultaneously you will play one of your gather cards selecting which resources (straw, wood or brick) you want to go for, now once revealed you will go to either the Fields, Forest, Brickyard or Market (for 4 players). If you’re there alone, you get all the resources; if you’re there with fellow opponents, you share the resources. Each round these get refilled, meaning resources pile up so there is a possibility of scoring a large amount of one of the three. You’re also able to play Fable Cards prior to revealing your gather cards, which makes the game super interesting as you may send monsters to various locations, or move individuals and create various fun conditions to optimize your resource gathering.
After you gather the resources, the second phase is Build. You will be able to choose two actions of the the following: draw a fable card, gain one resource, build or a special action if you have one available. Drawing fable cards allows you to be sneaky and take advantage of the gather phase. Building is the most important part here, you’ll be able to build your houses using resources you gathered. You’ll have to build the floor, walls and finally put the roof on. You may build the same type of houses but you have to make sure to finish one before moving on to the same type of house. As you build you’ll obtain various bonuses for being the first to finish the a type of a house or friend cards by building walls, which help you out in various ways throughout the game.
The clean up phase is essentially a reset for the round, resources will be added to locations, monsters and fables that are used will be discarded and the game continues until one little piggy has completed three houses! Will you be the Royal Builder of your troop or will your house get knocked down by the Big Bad Wolf?
First Game Impression
We were enamored by the components and the quality of this game when we first opened the box. It was truly a fairy tale feeling, everything had it’s place and nostalgia began to grasp our hearts as we saw familiar characters such as Aladdin, the Genie, Robin Hood and more.
The goal of the game seemed simple and we were eager to dive in. The dice for the two player variant was a neat and thoughtful addition. We were eager to be victorious and because of that did not prioritize Fable Cards, rather going all in on construction, believing we can do it all on our own. We managed to build our houses at the same time, but as mine were sturdier, which meant I took the victory.
We felt as something was missing, and it was, we used a limited amount of Fable Cards and that was a mistake on us for sure. We were eager to dive in and play more and explore the various elements of the game.
Thoughts After Five Games
What an exciting and immersive adventure. As we played with more players and utilized the fable cards, we began to see the magic in this game. It was super fun to create narratives on why certain fairy tale characters may be helping you and there were definitely moments of chaotic energy as wolves and other various monsters traversed the lands.
We found the game significantly more enjoyable with more players compared to our two player experience, it was almost a game of tug and pull as there were moments we saw a player getting ahead and teamed up to prevent their victory so that we too could have a chance to compete for the title.
The production and quality in this game certainly impresses me each and every time we’ve played it; the colours, illustrations and the playful nature truly draws you in. Certainly keen to play it more and more.
MERIT Report Card
Overall Letter Grade: B+
Strengths: Easy to explain, friendly to new board gamers, nostalgic with a strong theme, dynamic and highly engaging. The Grimm Forest is a beautifully designed and a bundle of joy of a game.
Areas of Improvement: There is a big dependence on Friend and Fable Cards, the cards will definitely determine the game for you, so adding a mechanism to potentially cycle through more of them to create a more strategic element to the game than luck would be more beneficial.
Memorability: B
How often do I think about the game? The nostalgia and characters in this game are honestly so special. I think about this game a decent amount as the magic has yet to leave my heart.
How often is the game brought up by the individuals I play with? We’ve only been able to introduce it to one friend, but she absolutely loved the quality and artwork of the game and ended up winning as well, it was a memorable experience for her. Super thrilled to introduce this to more individuals.
How many memories can be built from this game?
Many! This game is certainly suited for those big moments of laughter and a slight bit of chaotic energy. As fables are played, characters are moved and resources are split in precarious ways. You’ll be so excited to get the fifteen wheat when all of the sudden you’re moved to a location with a monster and end up losing a portion of your house!? Lots of laughs to be had for sure!
Education: A-
This game is deceitfully educational, in a way that you don’t really notice all the elements but are educated quite a significant amount. Now, lets get the obvious out the way: simple math. You’ll obviously have to figure out the best way to collect your resources in order to build your houses the fastest.
Now for the more fun educational elements:
Putting yourself in other’s shoes. This is a core piece of this game, you’ll want to build your houses not only first but sturdy ones as well as if anyone ties with you and has better, stronger houses you have a chance of losing. Before playing your fable and gather cards you’ll really have to put yourself in other players shoes and begin to wonder how they may execute their strategy. You’ll have to be not one but two or more steps ahead in order to be successful. This element carries over and helps you build empathy with those around you, understanding how others may perceive situations or aspire for certain goals in a personal or professional setting. Normalizing putting yourself in others shoes is a fantastic element of many games.
Bluffing and being sneaky. This game certainly has a deduction element to it, you’ll see nine brick and look across to your opponents. Will they go there? Is it a trap? Maybe going there is the smart choice as it’s so obvious no one in their right mind would take the risk? You’ll be able to practice some sneaky strategies and observe and learn about how others react as well.
Adapting. This one is the most important and one you can learn most from in my eyes. You’ll initially set a strategy to build specific houses, but all of the sudden you’ve acquired more wood than you expected, do you continue building one of each three or do you shift to wood houses? You’ll consistently be presented with circumstances where you will have to make decisions on how you wish to adapt. Great skill set to practice as life is essentially adapting to circumstances all around, really pushes you out of your comfort zone as well if you’re a planner.
Timing your opportunities. This one is fun, as you obtain various fable cards you will have to get the timing right. Sure you could use the Big Bad Wolf now and knock down some walls but maybe you should wait for a better opportunity? It’s easy to get excited and these flashy cards to get ahead but sometimes waiting is key. This also can be attributed to many life situations where you play your big cards right away and don’t have anything up your sleeve to save you in the end.
Replayability: B
The game does a great job at being replayable as the heart of replayability really lies in the fable and friend cards and as you have the ability to draw different ones each time it really creates a dynamic experience.
The nostalgia and theme of this game certainly keeps me coming back for more, who doesn’t want Cinderella or Goldilocks to help with a construction project?
At the end of the day though, you’re building three houses and after the novelty of the shock factor of your resources being crushed by a monster is gone the magic slightly fades. It’s certainly a game I will continue to play but it just isn’t the same as the first few play throughs.
Imagination: A
Absolutely stunning game, the fairy tale characters, the theme and the whole experience is a magical venture you simply don’t want to leave.
What this game does incredibly well is create an immersive experience, you’re afraid of the monsters as you really don’t want you resources stolen. You’re intimidated by the friends your opponents make and enthralled by your own friends who push you to be better and victorious.
The only reason this category isn’t an A+ is there’s not a bigger push for players to really embrace the story. When we played we integrated the story element of it, and loving theme in games, we do this often. I can see players just playing cards and going for the resources ignoring the thematic and nostalgic beauty of the entire experience.
Target: A-
We LOVE games that we can introduce to those who don’t necessary play board games. The reason this one is so great in that category is mostly everyone is familiar with at least a couple of these fairy tale characters and have knowledge and often memories with them. The goal of the game is incredibly easy, you can essentially dive right in and right off the bat laugh as all of you decided to go to the forest to gather wood.
I can see new and experienced players enjoying this game, it’s simply a bundle of joy. It goes by fairly quickly and leaves a strong impression. Heavier and euro gamers may not be intrigued as there are various elements of luck but as the target is generally broad and the production of this game is such high quality this game certainly does not disappoint.
Tylor’s Stars ⭐⭐⭐
Grimm Forest was fun to learn and extremely nostalgic! The characters, the story and the theme remind me of the good ol’ days as a care-free five year old. As for a game, I would have to say it’s not bad. I enjoy the race to finish mechanic and every time we have played, it was very close and usually came down to one round where everyone was able to finish their third house.
Since you do not know where each player plans on going to increase their stock, the fable cards felt like something I was always looking to use but, at times ended up being more beneficial for someone else. Personally, the randomness of letting someone get ahead typically outweighed the value of playing a fable card and deterred me from using the positive effect ones.
From my perspective, there are other games I would prefer to play on our shelf. Regardless, it was a fun game to play and I think it will be even more fun to introduce to more people.
Final Thoughts: This is a game I can bring to various groups of friends and enjoy thoroughly as we make up fables of how our little pigs became friends with Puss in Boots and Snow White to build the sturdy houses and claim the Royal Builder title. It’s easy to learn and teach and highly immersive, nostalgic and thematic. There’s a fair amount of replayability but I will say this game certainly plays better at higher player count and if luck isn’t your cup of tea in games maybe this one may not be for you.
MERIT Report Card Letter Grade: B+
Note: A copy of this game was provided to us by the publisher.