SPELA Canopy

Canopy was a huge hit on Kickstarter in January 2022. It looked great, was easy to learn how to play, and was priced fairly, so it was a great choice for crowd funding. Now that it has more than 5,000 backers, the game is on its second retail print run, has gotten great reviews, and has thousands of fans all over the world. But what's so great about this little box of cards? Let's talk about it and find out.

Set Up

It's very easy to get this fun game on the table. Put the season cards down in the order shown below to make the "board." Mix up the whole deck of cards, pick out 10 at random, and then divide them into three piles of about the same size. Place each pile of cards in the right place for the season. For the first season, take six cards from the deck and lay one face down under the room for growth pile one. Then do the same thing with the second pile of two cards and the third pile of three cards. You should put the seed deck next to this and give each person a reference sheet and a tree card to start with. You are now ready to play. Put the points and animal pieces in the middle. So green so far. However...

How To Play

The last player has to water a plant first, but not too much because that's just as bad as leaving it dry! Now, each player will take cards from the stack in the middle and add them to the canopy display in front of them. It's done in a very cool way. You will start by looking at the card(s) in the first growing pile. You can just take them and add them to your collection if you like them. They can be put back face down with one more card from the deck added to them if you don't. This makes the pile a little more interesting for the next person. Then look at the card(s) in the second growing pile. Again, if you don't like these, add one more card to this pile and look at growth pile three. It's up to you to pick a single card from the top of the deck if this last one still doesn't sound good. Take a card or cards from either growing pile and put one from the deck in the empty space. So, no matter what, you will add at least one card to your collection and take at least one card out of the deck.

This will be how the game goes until the deck runs out, which will end season one. Some cards will be scored, taken away, and used, but we'll talk more about that soon (in the next line, please). Take it easy). After that, season two will start with the same steps and end with the same scores. The game has three seasons before it's over and all the points are counted.

There are six different kinds of cards. Animals, Plants, Seeds, Weather, and Threats. There are different ways to earn points for each card, either at the end of the season or, in the case of the animal cards, at the end of the game. Plants mostly work in the traditional way of a set collection. Gather a certain number of the same card to earn a certain number of points. Get more or less points and one more or less. One smart and interesting thing about this game is that it gives you extra ways to get more or fewer cards to help you score. For every seed card you have, you can draw one of three cards from the seeds deck at the end of the season. If you have at least two fire cards, you can get rid of one card. You can change your chances of winning in a smart way by changing the parameters of each card. Before the end of the season, you need to get to the sweet spot where you can score the most points.

There are two ways that the game works. There are two of each animal. You can get points from one card and a power from the other. But if you get both, you'll have a mating pair, and your points will go through the roof. Not as easy to get a set of because there are only two of each in the deck. Don't worry, though; you won't have to throw away your animal cards every season. You keep these cards in your arrangement with the tree cards. You have more time to find the other card. Remember that everyone will see the deck, except for the ten card you took out at the beginning of the game. That means your chances are good. It might take a while.

When you make a threat, either an animal card (for sickness) or a plant card (for fire) is taken away. It gets worse as you get more cards. This is good sometimes. Getting you to the set that works best and gets the highest score. At other times, this is an annoying way to lose points. If you get three or more fire cards, the other players at the table will start losing cards too. You could begin to gather more to attack other people's scene. I have never seen this myself, though.

Weather works quite simply, in a little set of its own. Rain is useless on its own. The Sun working solo wont help you at all. But get both, and harmony is restored. Points are awarded.

There are two kinds of tree cards. As the cover or as a trunk card. You must put the canopy card over an open trunk when you take a canopy card, making the tree whole. You can build up your tree, though, if you draw more trunk cards. This will make it taller, increase your chances of getting "tallest tree" that season, and give you more points.

Is it Fun?

Canopy is a great game to play. In a weird way, it makes me think of Furnace. The games are not at all the same. But Furnace takes the mechanic of building engines to its most basic level and builds a game around it in a simple but clever way. It works the same way for set collection in Canopy. Because of this, I think you will really enjoy this if you like collecting sets in other games.
The canopy looks beautiful. The art is beautiful and brings the idea to life. Take a look at the tree card art below. By building them up to make the largest trees, you can get more points and make something really beautiful. This makes me feel good.

It will be hard not to stop and enjoy what you are making as the game goes on and more cards are dealt. It all looks so pretty! I don't just say this because the art is nice and this is a review of a card game. The reason I say this is because I think having good art, art that really attracts, makes a set collection game a lot more fun. You don't just want to get a certain card because it gives you more points or completes a set you've been making all game. Besides the fact that it looks beautiful! Though this may seem like a small thing, I believe it helps explain why this game is so popular.
If you make this a simple game where you collect shapes or numbers, it won't sell even a tenth of this amount. If you took out the art and put in shots, I don't think this would do half as well. The art makes not only the game but also the process of collecting sets look better.

At the end of the season, you will get points for each tree you finish. Then, you'll put one of the animal tokens below into it to mark it as finished. This way, you won't forget and score it again by chance the next season. This is a nice touch, but it's really just there to make the experience better and look better. Making the table look more colorful and interesting. You could just pick up the cards in the tree and turn them over. No, though. This game wants you to be happy to leave all of your trees out all game long, making them look beautiful. And adding to your general tableau.

Now of course, there are the below points available for the tallest tree each round, and then the most trees finished at the end of the game. So, there is a mechanical reason to keep them all out as well. But I think the visual benefit is the dominant force here. And I am all for that!

Like everything in the game, the art, components, and simple ruleset draw me into this world. I am instantly immersed in the game. I find that when I play Canopy, I am lost in the game almost immediately, right until the last card is drawn and final scoring begins. It is a wonderful world to visit and get absorbed in, and I am drawn back to its charm, simplicity, and addictive gameplay.

This game can be played with three or four people, but I think it's best with just two. Also, the season cards below can be moved around, which makes each game feel different. But I don't think they are really needed. Maybe after 20 games, you'll start to like them. I've played 10 games so far and I'm still happy with the basic game. There's something clean about this game. When a creator has boiled down a mechanic to a set of simple but useful rules, I can see why they might want to add some nice extras, especially through Kickstarter add-ons. They don't always make the game better, though, and they often take away from what made the game fun in the first place. And they're nice to have, and they're there when you need them.

I would suggest this game to anyone who has liked collecting sets in any other game and wants a comfortable but fun two-player experience. Canopy does a great job with this, and I can see this becoming a very popular game in my house. Accessible, easy, and fun all at the same time. I always make sure that the game is a good mix of fun and easy because I play it a lot with kids. I can see this being a filler game that people play on game night, though. I don't like how fast it's over. I don't think a longer game would be better, though. That would mean more cards, which would make it harder to collect sets. The way things are now, the mix is just right. The only problem is that I always want more when it's over. That's okay, just rack them up and go again!