Sequoia (2020)
Designed by: Chad DeShon
Art by: Anca Gavril
Produced by: BoardGameTables.com
Players: 1-5
Age: 14 (though I'd say 8+)
Play Time: 10 - 20 min
Overview:
In Sequoia, you and up to 4 other players are trying to grow the tallest trees in various forests. The player with the tallest tree in each forest wins points for that forest, and the player with the most points wins.
Main Mechanics:
Dice Rolling
Dice Allocation
Simultaneous Selection
Components Review:
Sequoia packs a lot into a small box, but the components are fairly straight forward. The box includes 11 forest cards, some point markers, and 5 dice and 20 tree pieces for each of the 5 possible players. The forest cards are fine. I wish they were thicker, but they aren't moved during the game so it doesn't matter much. They are however well designed. The point markers are also pretty standard to what you'd expect. The dice are nice, coming in five different colors, that match the tree parts, but they too are pretty straight forward. The unique pieces in this game are the tree pieces. They come in unique and varying shapes, making for a beautiful game, especially at higher player counts. My one critique here, is that I wish the tree pieces were thicker, to make the game pop that much more.
Gameplay Review:
Gameplay for Sequoia is also very straight forward. It takes about a minute to learn and 10-20 minutes to play. In Sequoia, players are trying to grow the tallest trees in different forests. Each round players roll dice their five dice and make two pairs from them. The sum of each pair corresponds to one of the 11 forests on the table. Players then place one of their forest pieces in each of the corresponding forests. This happens 10 times, and at the end of the tenth round, the game is scored, based on who had the 1st and 2nd tallest tree in each forest.
Sequoia is a light filler game, that works well on a chill evening or as a background game (games that you can play while doing other things: talking, drinking, hanging out, etc). My wife and I played a few two player games which did seem a bit empty. We added a 2-player variant from BGG which added an AI player and did made the game more interesting.
Final Thoughts:
Sequoia is a fun, little, dice game that's easy to learn and plays quick. With it's portable size, I can definitely see my wife and I bringing it to a brewery.
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