Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor is a standalone game in the Forest Shuffle family, with the same core mechanism but a different set of cards. You collect cards from a common area. You play cards into your own tableau to score points. In the process you often need to pay with other cards, and they go to the common area, thus making them available to other players. The game is about collecting and playing cards which combo well and give you many points. 

 

 

One new element in Dartmoor is the bogs. In addition to trees, you can play bogs as habitats. Animals and plants can be attached to them, similar to trees. However they are played sideways, and other cards can only be attached to top or bottom (two each) and not to the two sides. 

 

 

If you have played Forest Shuffle, you will feel right at home. It will be a familiar experience but there is some variation. I find that the game is mostly about deciding on the combo or combos you want to make and then focusing on them. You do want to watch what your opponents are doing and try not to give them cards which help them a lot. However it is more important that you build your own super combo. 

 

 

One small variation in Dartmoor is your cave cards have special powers. You get to draft your own cave card during game setup. 

 

 

I went with a bog strategy. I had some cards which rewarded me if I had the most bogs, so I focused hard on making sure I stayed in the lead. Han also had many bogs. Thankfully I drew many cards which supported a bog strategy, e.g. those which let you play a card as a bog for free. That helped me secure my leading position in bogs. I had many cards which scored points based on the number of bogs I had. I ignored everything and just worked on bog related cards. I only occasionally looked at others’ tableaus to see whether I needed to deny them any specific lucrative cards by playing them as my bogs.