Humans have always interacted with their environment, going back to our earliest ancestors who either followed the wildlife from place to place or building settlements in order to grow crops and maintain livestock.
During the Industrial Age, advances in business processes often came at the expense of the environment. The land, the water, the air all suffered in the name of progress.
It wasn’t until Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published in 1962 that the average person realized the impact of pesticides on the environment and on themselves. That was the start of public awareness of nature and the environment, something we largely take for granted as common knowledge these days.
Nature is an intriguing web of interconnected dependencies and unique traits that make for fascinating study, and for some equally fascinating board games.
Here’s a selection of games about nature, all of which have reviews right here on Meeple Mountain.
Meadow
A hand management, set collection card game where players are trying to collect the most valuable landscapes and species. The game features over 200 cards with watercolor illustrations.
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Verdant
Bring nature indoors with this card game where you try to create the best space in your home for your houseplants.
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Canopy
A two-player card game where you’re trying to grow the lushest rainforest.
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Earth
A card-heavy, open world engine-builder, Earth sees you working to build a better ecosystem than your opponents. The rulebook even has a beginner and advanced play set up, as well as solo and team play.
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Winterhaven Woods
A card drafting, set collection card game about preparing forest animals for the cold winter ahead. BONUS: Designer Joel Bodkin designed this game to teach his young son the concept of booster drafting in Magic: The Gathering.
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Flourish
A card drafting game in which players seek to build the most beautiful gardens. The game comes with rules for competitive and cooperative play.
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Forest Guardians
A tile placement game where you’re also a forest ranger, looking to protect both the mountain environment around you and the wildlife.
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Wingspan
Add birds to the ecosystems in your own bird sanctuary to increase each ecosystem’s powers, gain resources, and score points. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?
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Evolution: New World
In this branch of the Evolution gaming tree, players try to adapt their creatures to a variety of things, including different ecosystems throughout the ages.
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PARKS
A beautiful game that celebrated 59 of the US National Parks. Play as hikers hiking along trails who collect memories as they move, memories that can be traded in for a visit to one of these parks. Trails will change and grow on each turn, and resources can be hard to come by.
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Photosynthesis
Plant seeds that grow into trees that capture the sunlight. As the sun moves around the board on each turn, different trees will score light points, points that can be used to plant new trees.
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Trekking the National Parks: Second Edition
A family board game where players go across the country to visit National Parks and collect the most points.
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Ecosystem
A card drafting game where you’ll choose cards to add to your grid, trying to create the most balanced, diverse ecosystem.
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