March 20, 2024 Twenty Sided

Spotlight April 2024 | Leaf

This month, for our Parks & Rec theme, we chose the gorgeous new tile placement game Leaf. The “tiles” in this case are beautifully colored leaves representing the seasonal cycle of trees. The way that you place the different types of leaves together grants you resources like mushrooms, sunshine and animals to hibernate in your winter den; all of which can be exchanged for the most coveted resource: acorns. The goal of the game is to gather more acorns than your opponents before winter comes.

“Puzzling the leaves to their perfect spot was incredibly enjoyable.” -Alex

Lauren, Alex, Morgan and Mickey play Leaf

Leaf is a game for two to four players, but playing with four players definitely felt like the most competitive version of the game. Everyone was placing leaves on a central board, so the spaces you could take on your turn became highly coveted and your strategy had to adapt to each new leaf placed.

“Reminds me a bit of Hive in that the board (of leaves) is going to build out very differently each game.” -Luis

Mickey started the game off by placing leaves that blocked off options and once we realized the only places we could put our leaves were where he had planted mushrooms (which give the player who planted them more resources), everyone started to find creative ways to build out in other directions.

"I really liked the "Ahas!" of figuring out the different leaf shapes and how our plays would help/hurt our opponents." -Mickey

Alex and Morgan look on as Mickey places yet another mushroom

We all ended up having very different strategies during play – Mickey had tons of mushrooms, Morgan had great leaf placement and Alex got his squirrel the highest in the tree, but Team Luis and Lauren won by advancing the seasons and successfully hibernating a pack of four foxes and four hedgehogs (arguably the most adorable of the animal cards- look at that face!) before the coming of winter.

“Definitely recommended for people who (like me) love Photosynthesis and maybe want a quicker game.” -Morgan

Leaf is easy to learn, plays quick, and has a ton of strategic options for a unique game play experience each time. All that paired with gorgeous art, adorable animal cards and teeny tiny mushroom tokens makes this game perfect for our Spotlight celebration of all things nature!