Photosynthesis

The colors! The shades! The trees! Just looking at it makes one want to find out what is hiding beneath the artwork of Sabrina Miramon. Even more in these Autumn days, they too dressed in light and shadows, dyed with a broad palette of colours, both in the sky and in the falling leaves. Welcome to the world of Photosynthesis, a creation of Hjalmar Hach!

The principles governing this world, dependent on the Sun, are very easy to understand.

Tree leaves receive energy from the Sun. Larger trees have more leaves and, therefore, capture more energy. The trees cast a shadow, according to the Sun position. Larger trees cast larger shadows. Shadowed trees do not receive energy. Important detail: the position of the king star changes every turn, circling around the grove, so that light direction and, therefore, that of the shadows, are constantly changing. This is the first phase of each player’s turn: energy storage, counted in energy points.

The board game represents the land where vegetation grows. A seed is released into the ground. From the seed a small tree is born. The tree grows. Then, it grows even more. During the whole process it may release new seeds, and the higher the tree the farther away the seeds can travel. Finally, the tall tree is chopped down. Each one of these steps spends energy points.

This is very much the game: each player develops and chops downs trees of the same family, represented by a color. In order to do so one has to carefully choose where to sow, which trees to grow and when, the right moment to chop them down and how to manage your tree nursery and seed bed. All this taking into account the movement of the Sun, the light and the shadows!

After three full Sun revolutions the game comes to an end and the player with more victory points wins. These are obtained only when the larger trees are chopped down. Bear in mind that the wood land is not uniform: there are areas of richer soil, providing more victory points than others.

This is a game for 2 to 4 players, which you can start playing in 15 minutes, time required to assemble the trees included.

The rule booklet includes two advanced rules: have the Sun do another revolution, extending the game; and preclude the planting of a seed or the growth of a tree when in a shadow. Stuff to try out!

Only have played some 2 and 3 player games. Yet to test the 4 player game, which will lead to a much denser grove, adding to the struggle for light and to increased shadow effects.

I really love the aesthetics; the simple and carefully designed game engine; the nice and up to the point rule booklet; the player boards, containing all the information needed for a fluid game play; the box, large enough to store the trees without disassembling, and thus reducing the wear of parts; and not using plastic.

To play more!

Game: Hach, Hjalmar. Photosynthesis. Pont-à-Mousson, França: Blue Orange, 2017.