Tips & Strategy

How to teach Forestry, first-game advice, action-point efficiency, contracts versus forest care, scoring river tokens, player counts and solo — advice, not rules.

Advice only: where anything here differs from the rules pages, the rulebook wins.

How to teach

• Harvester, then manager. Meeple University and Capstone Games teach the round and action points first, then the six harvester actions in the forest, then the four sawmill manager actions, then free actions and scoring. Ludex’s Teach the Game follows that order.
• Show a contract first. Before You Play opens with a contract card: once players see that it wants a certain wood with certain treatments, the sawmills make sense.
• Or scoring first. Board Games with Rob teaches the end-game scoring up front — river token multipliers, categories, task cards — so that every action has a visible purpose.

Host game

Before the first forest turn, have each player count the costs of their planned actions.

Rehearse the forest costs

Before the first turn, trace one harvester move: 1 action point for up to 2 spaces, plus 1 coin for each river crossing. You may pass through another harvester’s space, but must finish on an unoccupied space. Finish the movement before taking another action; you cannot move one space, harvest, and use the movement’s second space afterwards.

Then point to a dark harvest token and read its reforestation cost. It costs the printed 1 or 2 action points and 1 or 2 seedlings; seedlings are spent, not gained. Put the spent seedlings into the matching region’s column on your reforestation table, collect the indicated stars and flip the harvest token to its colourful side. Check both costs before planning a move-and-reforest turn.

First game

• Play the tutorial table (Tutorial version) and side A of the player boards.
• Rush the development track. Three action points feel tight. Gaming Rules! and Before You Play push for the first lap of the star circle and an early technology; the first development step is a technology, not an action point.
• Small contracts first. Board Games with Rob warns against waiting on big double contracts: quick simple ones bring coins and stars and free your storage.
• Remember the forester tokens. Before You Play forgot to refill them at the start of a turn — check for three every turn.

Action points

• Buying an action point for 4 coins is often worth it when it completes a lap of the star circle or a contract (Gaming Rules!).
• Chain actions: reforesting gives stars from the token and from the table; a lap mid-turn can add an action point you use at once.
• Rivers tax every crossing. A reservoir with bridge makes a crossing free for everyone and wins you a river token — build it where you will cross often (Board Games with Rob).
• Plan your manager: several buildings in one complex cost no extra moves.

Contracts and forest care

• Harvesting leaves the forest owing you a reforestation; reforesting pays stars and fills table rows (a technology, a water step, 6 VP).
• Seedlings planted are the first tie-breaker.
• Adjustments are permanent: treat a wood only for the contract you mean to fill.
• Hold a few contracts across categories: categories feed river tokens and task cards.

River tokens and task cards

• The water multiplier is the big late score: fill row 2 of both tables, open your last storage space and place a fifth building — each lifts the multiplier for every river token.
• Take the river token whose symbol you already collect.
• Late task cards rarely pay: you need time to fulfil them, and each one needs its own item.

Player counts

• 2 players: each HQ tile has one reward and you earn a coin even when you use your own upgraded building — upgrades pay off fast.
• 3–4 players: HQ tiles fill up; move to an empty complex for the better reward. Forester tokens and good harvest spaces go quicker.

Solo

• Keep your cube level with the forester’s: every turn it is ahead, it collects the dark-bar bonus. Plan for the next objective only — they go in order.
• The forester holds one contract and takes the most valuable on display; take the one it would want when you can.

Videos vs the rulebook

• Early rule texts suggested drawing a contract from the top of the deck; that was corrected — you only take contracts on display (FAQ).
• Rahdo Runs Through first put spent seedlings back in the supply: they stay on your reforestation table.
• The rulebook lets you put a token below a full column; the designer’s later rules change makes the table mandatory whenever a column can still take the token.

Sources

• Forestry - Tutorial & Playthrough — Gaming Rules!
• Forestry - Start Playing in 14 Minutes, including Variants. Board Game How to Play Tutorial — Meeple University
• Forestry - Board Game Teach & Playthrough — Before You Play
• Forestry Review ➔➔ Board Games with Rob — Board Games with Rob
• ►►► It’s nice when a game like FORESTRY gives one hope for humanity! :) — Rahdo Runs Through
• How to Play - Forestry — Capstone Games
• Rulings: the official FAQ thread and the BGG threads linked in the FAQ.