Our top-10 favourite nature-themed board games
For those of you that follow us on our Instagram page - you’ll know we often post about the board games we play in our stories - and unsurprisingly - a lot of our favourite board games are nature-themed! So, especially as we’re now well into the winter months when indoor activities are on the cards more often - we thought - why not make a list of our top ten favourite nature themed board games!
#10 - Zoo-ography
Zoo-ography is about creating a zoo and filling it with animals. Sounds like a game for children, right? Nope nope nope. Behind the gorgeous aesthetics is a pretty tough little game! The game scores according to certain criteria (which vary from game to game), for example - two complete enclosures, no more than two of the same animal; X many large animals, etc etc. So a large part of the game is puzzling out these criteria as you draft tiles and animals to place in your zoo. Animals can only be drafted in ‘groups’ (fairly random groups at that, depending on the order they come out) - AND - you can only draft a group of animals if you actually have a room for them. Like a real zoo, some animals can’t be kept in the same enclosure as others, and the capacity of the enclosures is limited by the number of water sources. So it gets hard, quick! While it is challenging - it’s a slightly addictive puzzle, and it is fun to watch your zoo expand and (hopefully) fill with animals!
Want to get it? Keep your eye on Kickstarter - sometimes these games get re-released!
#9 - Savannah Park
Savannah Park is a real puzzle of a game. It looks deceptively simple - it is essentially a ‘tile layer’ - and each tile has different types of animals on it. You are trying to group animals of the same type together as you place tiles on the board. If those animals are connected to waterholes - even better. Easy - right? No. Each turn, a player will call out what tile to place down (in a bingo-esque way) - and you need to find a empty space on the board to put it. And there are not many empty spaces…. so you want to create empty spaces in the right places by moving tiles out the way. But once a tile has been moved - you ‘flip’ it - and you cannot move it again! Hence - the puzzle! For what looks like a simple game - it is deceptively ‘thinky’ - but a lot of fun puzzling out where your animals will go!
Want to get it? Try here!
#8 - Planet
This is a very cool game. Planet is based around the idea of creating a planet that is suitable for as many animals as possible. Your planet is a three dimensional ‘globe’ with magnetic sides, that magnetic habitat tiles stick on to! Each tile contains varying amounts of different habitats - and each turn you choose a tile to stick on your planet. You are competing for animals each round, and each animal is worth points; the planet that best satisfies the animals habitat requires ‘wins’ the animal! And like most other games, the person who has the most points wins! This game is so much fun - and so tactile as you spin your planet around to figure out where to put your next tile to 'win’ animals!
#7 - Parks
You’ll see a re-occurring theme among our top ten games - and that is that they usually feature beautiful artwork. Parks is definitely one of those games! Parks is based on the artwork created for the ‘59 Park Series’ - celebrating National Parks in the USA. This beautiful artwork was turned into a card game about going hiking! Each pair of hikers is collecting resources (sunshine, water, mountains and forest) which are used to ‘visit’ the parks - each are worth points. On top of this, you also have private goals based on the features of the parks you are visiting which gain you points. And you can take photographs too - again, gaining you points. This is a really relaxing game; the beautiful artwork and relaxed pace of the game will have you dreaming of visiting some of these beautiful places!
#6 - Wingspan
This game is pretty popular - so it is the one game in our collection you might have heard of! In Wingspan, you are trying to fill your different habitats with birds - but - birds don’t come for free; they need certain types of food & habitat - and in return, each bird gives you a special power that gets activated when you take particular actions (what’s known as an ‘engine builder’). Each bird is worth points which add to your end score; but you are also trying to achieve goals each round based on the types of birds you have - which also score points. The thing we love the most about this game is the birds are real species - and their ‘special powers’ are based around their biology! Each unique bird has a ‘fun fact’ as well so you can learn a bit about each species as you play the game! We have the base game as well as two expansions - with the Oceania expansion being our favourite at the moment; it has some of our favourite iconic NZ (and Aussie) birds in it! A really fun game with beautiful artwork!
#5 - Aqua Garden
This is undoubtedly a beautiful game - and while that definitely has something to do with it’s appeal - it’s a lot of fun as well. In Aqua Garden - you are creating aquaria full of fish (and the odd turtle…). But just like real life - some fish don’t want to be in the same aquarium (especially sharks for obvious reasons…) - so you need to be thoughtful about the fish types you put together! Each fish/fish combination scores you points, but you are also trying to get particular sets of fish together in an aquarium to get bonuses before your opponent does. Aquaria don’t run on thin air either - and you need to generate income in order to get certain fish - so getting fish that will attract visitors plays into this as well. It is so satisfying putting these beautiful fish in tanks, and being a nice quick play - this is one that’s easy to get to the table, and satisfying (usually) to see the end result!
Want to get it? Keep an eye on Kickstarter - sometimes these games get re-released.
#4 - Cascadia
Cascadia is a tile laying game that involves placing hexagonal tiles in a way that connects up habitats of the same kind, while also playing animals on those tiles. Players chose tile-animal pairs, and are trying to place their animals in particular configurations (e.g. groups, lines or not adjacent to other animals of the same kind) to score points. But each animal can only be placed on particular tiles - so it is a matter of arranging the tiles in a way that allows you to achieve these configurations. Points are also scored for the size of the largest connected habitat, so there is a balance between placing animals and connecting habitat. As your expand your habitat, it is fun to see how the matrix of habitat types grows - and a challenge to get all your animals lined up the way you want! It is a pretty game, and a relatively quick play - so this is a good one to pull out if we want just a quick game to play.
Want to get it? This one is a little hard to find - you could try here or here.
#3 - Wild Serengeti
Wild Serengeti is a relatively new game to our collection - but when we saw it on Kickstarter - we knew it was a no brainer! In this game, you are a nature documentary film maker - and trying to get particular scenes with combinations of animals, either adjacent to each other, in a straight line, and/or in particular habitats. So your task is to get the animals lined up in the required way to get your shot - and score the scene accordingly. But - your opponent is also trying to do the same thing - and so you might have your elephant, leopard and rhino almost perfectly aligned for your scene requirements - and along comes your opponent who moves the rhino, and messes it all up for you!! It is a really fun, beautiful game - and we try to get it to the table regularly!
Want to get it? Keep an eye on Kickstarter - sometimes these games get re-released.
#2 - Meadow
Meadow is another relatively new game to our collection - and we absolutely love it. This card-based game involves creating ecosystems, where each card (representing an animal or plant) has requirements which need to be fulfilled by the card beneath it. For example, in order to play a particular bird into your ecosystem - you would need to have a beetle and/or berries in your ‘ecosystem’. Thus, through collecting and playing cards (and each card is worth points - which contribute to your score at the end of the game), you create this complex web of ecological interactions. The artwork on the cards is gorgeous, and each card is based on a real species (and you can even look up the species in the rule book!). It’s fun, gorgeous and nature-filled, and is our regular Sunday-night go-to game at the moment!
#1 - Habitats
Without a doubt or debate - Habitats is our favourite game of all time, and it’s nature-themed too (which probably has something to do with it being our favourite…)! This game involves satisfying animals by providing their required habitat via adjacent tiles. It becomes a puzzle as you try to find the way to make the most animals ‘happy’ in your park! Combined with this are goals to achieve each round, in how your park ‘looks’, or the types of things within it. Whoever gains the most points from the animals they’ve made happy & acheiving goals, etc - wins! This one gets a real workout in our home (it’s our regular Friday night game!) - and we’re excited to be getting a new version of it towards the end of 2022!
Want to get it? You may be able to sneak in a late pledge here for the new beautiful edition!
So many nature-themed games! And that’s not all - some honourable mentions in our collection include Honey Buzz, La Isla, Barenpark and Photosynthesis! So, if you’re after something new to try on those rainy winter days - check out one of these board games!
