The game is a race. If the second winter card is out and you are ahead, try to increase your lead than prepare for a big turn you might not get to play.
Keep cards your opponent wants away from them. Be aware of what your opponents need. To do this, you can discard those cards when the clearing or their hand is full.
Waiting a turn to gain the right colors so you can use a card's bonus is worth it.
Moles can overturn games with huge turns. To set it up, make sure you have trees with room and a full hand.
"Take an extra turn" cards can help you clear a full hand before picking up something an opponent discarded.
The most points come from deer and wolves. You do not need to play a "deer & wolf" strategy to win, but you will lose if you let your opponent have them all.
Other powerful card combinations:
- Beech Martins - play them while filling all 4 sides of trees
- Tree Ferns + Toads/Salamanders
- Goshawks + Other Birds
- Oaks + Strawberries - Play them while getting all 8 species of tree
- European Hares + Red Foxes: Less powerful than deer+wolves, but still good points. Combine with a Silver Fir for more. Use a mole to play the hares quickly.
- Horse Chestnuts + Roe Deer - the more you play, the more points you get, especially if you can get an orange Roe deer.
- Sycamores + Red Deer - Play a lot of trees with these
- Mushrooms - The right ones can help boost any of these strategies.
Secondary strategies include:
- Butterflies + Hedgehogs
- Bats + Dormice
- Lynxes
- Mosses
Easy-to-Forget Rules
- The “Play an X creature for free” bonus does not trigger additional bonuses or effects.
- The "Draw card" effect only draws from the deck, not the clearing.
- Every time a tree or sapling is played, a card is added to the clearing.
- There are 8 types of tree (in the base game):
- Sycamore
- Birch
- Beech
- Douglas Fir
- Oak
- Horse Chestnut
- Linden
- Silver Fir
Alpine Expansion
This expansion includes 2 additional tree types
- European Larch
- Swiss Pine
Using this expansion also makes makes strategies involving butterflies or birds more viable, since there is more variety. But the tree colors of European Larch and Swiss Pine are more rare and can be confused with base game colors.
