♪♪ Intro music plays ♪♪
A handful of small trees stand at the edge
of a clearing. The wind blows gently as
the sun starts to rise in the east.
You can almost see the trees reaching for the light as the slowly convert the sunshine into sugars,
which is used to grow and produce seeds.
Each species will have different survival strategy,
but all trees have a natural urge to disperse their seeds towards the middle of the clearing,
where there's less competition and more fertile ground.
However, it won't be long until the many saplings
have filled the available space
and the fight for sunshine will
become more and more intense.
In the meantime, some trees will have grown old and will die
freeing a precious ground for seeds
to settle and hopefully germinate.
It is for you and up to three of your friends
to look after your rootstock in
Photosynthesis by Blue Orange Games.
First off, the game looks absolutely stunning on the table.
The cardboard trees of different sizes, colours
and shapes are beautifully illustrated.
During the game, the trees create the look of a real
mini woodland, and they're very tactile.
While the game board looks rather bare at the beginning, it soon fills up with trees which grow, spread seeds
and die each turn.
The scenery is in constant change and everything goes at a lovely slow pace
closely mimicking the time it takes real trees to grow from seed into majestic specimen.
It all feels very organic and natural.
In particular because everything is made from cardboard, which is very fitting for a game about trees.
In fact, everything is beautifully illustrated
with lots of detail.
Every tree is slightly different, not just from player to player, but within the trees of the same player.
There might be a bird hiding in one tree
and another might have a squirrel in it.
The same is true for the player mats, while the game board is kept relatively simple to make gameplay easier.
But even it has lots of detail around the outside.
So as I said,tThe table presence is amazing and really invites you to play.
At the same time learning the game
is very straightforward.
The rules are really simple and the rulebook consists of four pages,
one of which is for the contents,
another half page for the setup.
During gameplay, the player mats incorporate
a little player aid telling you how much
different actions cost, all done in a very
visual manner, making it easy to see what
you can do and what you need to pay.
Even the track that counts the light points,
which is the currency in the game,
has a little track to the side of it, which tells you how they translate into endgame victory points.
It's really all there in front of you.
However, there are two things that we make photosynthesis stand out for me.
First of all, there is the sunshine which moves around the outside of the little woodland clearing
and which decides which trees receive light.
It forces you to think at least two turns ahead
to decide where you want new trees to germinate
and which trees you want to grow taller.
It's a very simple mechanism which
adds a whole level of planning
while at the same time feeling
very thematic and intuitive.
The other thing is that very simple rules create
a very strategic or at least tactical game.
I've very quickly compared Photosynthesis
to chess during our plays
but while chess is very difficult to learn
Photosynthesis gets you playing very quickly
and it is a matter of playing several games to see
what different approaches you can take
to get the most points at the end.
It is the emergent level of gameplay that only becomes apparent when you start playing
that makes this game feel so wonderful for me.
However, the need to plan ahead is
also frustrating sometimes.
After all, a lot can happen in two or three turns,
as other players' trees fill the clearing
and all you can do is change your tactics, hoping to resume your original plan later in the game.
At the same time, you can't just
play this game from turn to turn
because it takes you at least two turns to plant
a seed and make it grow into a sapling
at which point the sun will have
moved around the board as well.
If you don't think at least two turns ahead
chances are that the trees will sit in the shade
and you might not be able to take any or at least
only very few actions on your next turn.
Also, you'll probably find that players will go for specific starting spots for their trees every time
creating a very similar starting setup, therefore reducing some of the variability that you might expect.
However, just like there's a limited number 
of well-known openings in chess,
each game of chess will be different as it progresses
and the same is true for Photosynthesis.
So for me Photosynthesis is a game that I enjoy playing,
especially because it can be played within an hour
but it's not a game that I'm itching to
get out again as soon as possible.
I do want to try it with two and four players,
as I've only played it with three so far
and I expect it will play differently
but even so it's not enough to make this game a real favourite for me.
I will keep it in my collection though. It is one of those games that is easy to teach and quick to play.
Thank you for listening to this
Tabletop Games Blog review.
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Thanks for listening and bye.
This podcast was made possible by my Patreon supporters
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and Richard Simpson of We're Not Wizards.
