Tree Society Components Overview and Impressions

Tree Society has a theme I’m pretty excited about and while I expected the box to be a lot larger when it arrived in the mail for review from Asmodee, after getting it open I understood why. I think some of the component choices here are cost cutting measures to keep the game accessible, and ultimately nothing is sub-par. Let’s dive in to see what I love about this game and what I wish was changed!

I’m not going to bury the lead here – part of the concept of this game is that you can sell fruit that you have collected to earn coins, and use those coins to purchase and upgrade trees. The coins are nice, big and thick wooden pieces painted green, with a screen printed leaf on the each side. These chips are about the size of a poker chip, although made of wood. They are PHENOMENAL and give the game a really positive tactile feel. I love playing games with better than average components, and this is a better than average component.

In this context, cardboard coins would have been perfectly suitable for the experience, but to get these wooden tokens was a nice treat! There is some cardboard in the game, although it is minimal. There are 4 scoring markers that are little pieces of cardboard, and 4 boxes that need to be built that players will use during the game. While the cardboard for these boxes didn’t punch from the punch board as nicely as I would have hoped, with some careful pushing they came out alright and went together well. They are sturdy, made of an OK thickness of cardboard.

There are also two sizes of cards – miniature cards that are used for fruit cards, and larger, almost tarot sized cards for the various trees you will be purchasing. The larger card size is a great idea since you will be putting a marker on the card and moving it up as you upgrade the tree. The quality of all the cards is good, and although they don’t feel to be linen finish, they have a nice, premium-lite feel to them. They are definitely not cheap.

The disappointment for me comes from the player boards and central board. While I would have loved to have cardboard options here, the design team has instead decided on a cardstock-like material for the boards. They are pretty flimsy but should be OK long term. I always prefer cardboard player boards over cardstock, but perhaps I’m in the minority – more and more games are coming with these types of boards as opposed to cardboard. Perhaps it’s significantly cheaper?

The other issue is the box is like an inch too small. It takes a bit of creative planning to get all the pieces into the box at the end of the day, if you want to avoid any kind of box lift.

Overall, the production value here is better than average. With a really great table presence, it’s sure to be on that people stop to watch when playing in public spaces. I would have liked to see a bit more variation in the art, and just a slightly larger box, but overall I have few complaints about this one!