Finding a Stranger in the Alps – Forest Shuffle – Alpine Expansion Review

(100,000 bonus points for anybody who gets the (kind of) movie reference in the title)

I’ve been a fan of Forest Shuffle for quite a while, as you can tell from reading my review.

This wonderful tableau-building game never really gets old and plays equally well at 2-4 players (I’ve never played it at 5, but I imagine it does).

However, there were a couple of strategies that were dominant in it (especially the Wolf/Deer one) and some strategies were pretty weak (bats and butterflies).

With the arrival of the expansions, though, that has greatly been helped!

I’m not sure which arrived first, but let’s talk Forest Shuffle: Alpine first.

Also designed by Kosch, with art by Toni Llobet and Judit Piella, this expansion was published in 2024 by Lookout Games.

This expansion is a simple card expansion, adding two new trees (7 cards of each), 12 top/bottom animal cards and 10 left/right animal cards for a total of 36 new cards.

So it’s not very big, but it does have a pretty big impact on the base game.

Of course, adding new cards (even just 36) can dilute the deck when you’re removing a hefty portion of it (in a 2-player game, you’re getting rid of a fair chunk of the deck).

That is one concern with adding expansions.

However, the cards themselves really make this game much better.

First, the butterflies.

Now with 6 different butterflies, you can get a maximum of 35 points per set instead of the measly 20 from before.

Secondly, you actually have a couple of cards that score off of butterflies.

Not to mention an animal that scores off of bugs (which, of course, butterflies are but now you can score on all of your bugs).

The Alpine Newt actually lets you play two types of cards when you play it, if you discard the right colour.

Forest Shuffle: Alpine also adds a new species of bat, though bats don’t really come into their own until the other expansion so I won’t say much about them here.

But having another bat possibility is nice.

There are two new trees, creating two new colours of card to choose from when you’re paying to play a card, though many of the Alpine cards don’t actually require a colour (except the trees themselves, obviously).

Alpine also adds another Hare that can score, though it can’t inhabit the same space as the European Hares (which can have tons in the same space if you manage it right).

Finally, there is now a third card (the Bearded Vulture) which can add cards to your Cave, though it still doesn’t really make a Cave strategy worthwhile.

It’s a small expansion at just 36 cards, but I do like what it adds to the game.

A few new options for scoring, like the Golden Eagle that gets a point per clawed animal and a point per amphibian, which is quite nice if you’re going that route.

This can definitely add to your fox and hare strategy, since they’re both clawed, and you can also have a side benefit of toads and salamanders!

Of the two expansions, this one changes the least and has the least impact (that review is coming soon) but it still makes enough of a change that it’s worth getting.

Diluting the deck can only help against the Wolves and Deer, keeping them from over-populating the forests.

Of course, the more cards you add, the more randomness there is so definitely keep that in mind.

If you dislike Forest Shuffle because of that, this will just make it worse!

Overall, I recommend Forest Shuffle: Alpine to those of you who really like the base game as it makes the base game so much better.

If you didn’t like the base game simply because of things like the Wolf/Deer strategy, then this may mitigate that somewhat so it’s worth trying.

Now I’m going to try to stop that stranger from the Alps destroying my car.

(That’s another hint for the title)

(This review was written after 3 plays with the expansion, and multiple asynchronous Boardgame Arena games with it)