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Living Forest Duel

Living Forest Duel

2025·Aske Christiansen

2 players
20 min
Medium weight: Teach it in one sitting

From BoardGameGeek

Living Forest Duel or how to experience all the thrills of the award-winning Living Forest in a tense and tactical two-player showdown! SUMMARY: In Living Forest Duel, two players face off as the spirits of Summer and Winter, each striving to save the sacred forest and be recognized as its ultimate protector. Although their goals are similar, only one season will claim the honors. Your goal? Be the first to achieve one of the four victory conditions: Plant a 3×3 rectangle of Guardian Tree cards in your Forest Have only cards of your season on the recruitment line Collect 8 Fire tokens Move the Onibi creature to your opponent's side once the Onibi card is in their possession. The game is played in alternating turns. On each turn, choose one of the following options: Draw 1 guardian animal card from the shared draw pile and add it to the shared help line Use 1 action token on 1 guardian animal card in the shared help line • Draw a guardian animal card Draw a card from the shared draw pile and place it face up on one of the three help lines: the shared help line if it's a neutral animal your help line if it's an animal of your season your opponent's help line if it's an animal of their season Each animal provides elements that you can use later with one of your two Action tokens. Be careful: revealing too many solitary animals can be detrimental. After 3 solitary symbols, you lose an Action token, which will significantly reduce your ability to act. • Use an action token Place one of your Action tokens on a card to point to the last element corresponding to the action you want to perform. Count all elements of this type visible from the start of the common aid line OR from the last Action token pointing to this element. Possible Actions: Recruiting one or more Guardian Animals Extinguishing the fire by collecting one or more Fire tokens Planting one or more protective trees Advancing Onibi toward your opponent • End of the turn The turn ends when both Summer and Winter have used up their 2 action tokens. Add up the value of the fire tokens in the clearing: the value of each fire token is determined by its location. Then, add up your water values. Check to see whether the fire value in the clearing is strictly higher than your water value. If so, add a fire varan card corresponding to your season to the shared discard pile for each fire token present in the clearing. Next, place a fire token on each of the cards on either side of the Onibi standee. Retrieve your 2 action tokens back in front of you, and place all of the cards in the help line, as well as the cards in the players' personal lines on the shared discard pile. ------- No prior knowledge of Living Forest is required to enjoy Living Forest Duel. -description from the publisher

Living Forest Duel

Watch first

Learn to play

All the Games with Steph: Living Forest Duel52:08

All the Games with Steph: Living Forest Duel

Steph Hodge

Steph Hodge

Review

Living Forest Duel Review – Big Game in a Small Box?15:05

Living Forest Duel Review – Big Game in a Small Box?

Talking Cardboard

Talking Cardboard

Which Living Forest Duel video should I watch?

Living Forest Duel has 4 videos from 4 creators: 1 review and 3 how-to-play guides. They date from March to July 2025.

To learn the rules, start with "All the Games with Steph: Living Forest Duel" by Steph Hodge, which runs 52 min. For a quicker teach, "New to BGA! Living Forest Duel- Quick Start Guide on Board Game Arena." by Digital Board Gamer runs 7 min.

For an opinion before you buy, start with "Living Forest Duel Review – Big Game in a Small Box?" by Talking Cardboard.

If you like it, try Living Forest, Rising Cultures and Living Forest: Kodama, also by Aske Christiansen, or First in Flight, which shares several of its mechanics.

All videos

All the Games with Steph: Living Forest DuelHow to play52:08

All the Games with Steph: Living Forest Duel

Steph Hodge

Steph Hodge

New to BGA! Living Forest Duel- Quick Start Guide on Board Game Arena.How to play7:19

New to BGA! Living Forest Duel- Quick Start Guide on Board Game Arena.

Digital Board Gamer

Digital Board Gamer

Living Forest Duel Review – Big Game in a Small Box?Review15:05

Living Forest Duel Review – Big Game in a Small Box?

Talking Cardboard

Talking Cardboard

Subboardia presents: Living Forest DuelHow to play10:22

Subboardia presents: Living Forest Duel

Subboardia Brætspil i Forstæderne

Subboardia Brætspil i Forstæderne

Creators who cover this

All channels
Digital Board Gamer
Digital Board Gamer
1 video of this game
Steph Hodge
Steph Hodge
1 video of this game
Subboardia Brætspil i Forstæderne
Subboardia Brætspil i Forstæderne
1 video of this game
Talking Cardboard
Talking Cardboard
1 video of this game

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Living Forest

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89
Creators
61
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Rising Cultures

2025·Aske Christiansen, Francesco Testini

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Creators
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Mostly reviews and playthroughs

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Living Forest: Kodama

2023·Aske Christiansen

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Mainly unboxings

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First in Flight

2023·Matthew O'Malley, Ben Rosset

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42
Creators
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Mainly reviews

1 - 4 players·45 - 75 min·Medium weight

About Living Forest Duel

From BoardGameGeek:

Living Forest Duel or how to experience all the thrills of the award-winning Living Forest in a tense and tactical two-player showdown! SUMMARY: In Living Forest Duel, two players face off as the spirits of Summer and Winter, each striving to save the sacred forest and be recognized as its ultimate protector. Although their goals are similar, only one season will claim the honors. Your goal? Be the first to achieve one of the four victory conditions: Plant a 3×3 rectangle of Guardian Tree cards in your Forest Have only cards of your season on the recruitment line Collect 8 Fire tokens Move the Onibi creature to your opponent's side once the Onibi card is in their possession. The game is played in alternating turns. On each turn, choose one of the following options: Draw 1 guardian animal card from the shared draw pile and add it to the shared help line Use 1 action token on 1 guardian animal card in the shared help line • Draw a guardian animal card Draw a card from the shared draw pile and place it face up on one of the three help lines: the shared help line if it's a neutral animal your help line if it's an animal of your season your opponent's help line if it's an animal of their season Each animal provides elements that you can use later with one of your two Action tokens. Be careful: revealing too many solitary animals can be detrimental. After 3 solitary symbols, you lose an Action token, which will significantly reduce your ability to act. • Use an action token Place one of your Action tokens on a card to point to the last element corresponding to the action you want to perform. Count all elements of this type visible from the start of the common aid line OR from the last Action token pointing to this element. Possible Actions: Recruiting one or more Guardian Animals Extinguishing the fire by collecting one or more Fire tokens Planting one or more protective trees Advancing Onibi toward your opponent • End of the turn The turn ends when both Summer and Winter have used up their 2 action tokens. Add up the value of the fire tokens in the clearing: the value of each fire token is determined by its location. Then, add up your water values. Check to see whether the fire value in the clearing is strictly higher than your water value. If so, add a fire varan card corresponding to your season to the shared discard pile for each fire token present in the clearing. Next, place a fire token on each of the cards on either side of the Onibi standee. Retrieve your 2 action tokens back in front of you, and place all of the cards in the help line, as well as the cards in the players' personal lines on the shared discard pile. ------- No prior knowledge of Living Forest is required to enjoy Living Forest Duel. -description from the publisher

Designer

Aske Christiansen

Artist

Apolline Etienne

Publisher

Ludonaute

Categories

AncientAnimalsCard GameEnvironmental

Mechanics

Turn Order ManipulationPush Your LuckRaceTile Placement
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