Photosynthesis: Under The Moonlight - How To Play

[@AisforAwkwardd]

"if you're playing with the beaver you also take this dam tile" To quote SUSD, this is a family show!

[@RulebooksForYou]

I can't believe Rodney dislikes the Beavers that much!

[@shawnsands5774]

I immediately paused the video to look for a comment regarding the damned tile.

[@unlimitedrabbit]

​@@RulebooksForYouI know, right? Especially considering that beavers are also Canadian. 🍁🦫

[@willbeplayin]

2:20 sounds to passive aggressive. :D

[@gitgeronimo9375]

Cool, we just played it this past weekend and all decided we couldn’t go on until you made a video! Thanks, so helpful as always!!

[@WatchItPlayed]

So glad this arrived in time to assist :)

[@soogymoogi]

Been hyping this up to my roommate since he owns a copy of Photosynthesis and didn't know this came out, but he said "we should learn how to play the game properly at least once before I buy the expansion" because someone always messes up a rule 🤣 I'll have to link him to your original tutorial.

[@WatchItPlayed]

I hope it helps :)

[@jayvalentine2046]

How was it

[@chrismusix5669]

Under the Moonlight really really really really really needed to include player aids for the animal powers. Fortunately, BGG has some user made ones.

[@danpsou]

Dam beavers with their dam tiles... I'll just leaf it at that...

[@timothymclean]

I originally thought that maybe the sun going all the way around the board was kind of like a year; there's no place on Earth which receives more sunlight from the east or west at different times of year*, but the direction of light can change significantly throughout the year depending on your latitude†, so it kind of makes sense. But the moon changes phases roughly every other turn‡, and that doesn't make any sense-two turns would be four months if one revolution is a year, and that's four lunar cycles. Changing phases from "high light" to "low light" roughly corresponds to a lunar cycle, and takes about four turns. So if each turn is a week instead of two months, that makes sense. But there's nothing that changes the direction of sunlight in anything like a six-week cycle. In conclusion, I have put way too much thought into how this game's turns interface with celestial cycles. *With the obvious exception of places where local shade blocks light in some directions seasonally, e.g. a big banner directly to the west that blocks sunlight while people are advertising local attractions or something. †This is most obvious in the tropics, where the sun shines from the north in the Northern Hemisphere summer and from the south in the Southern Hemisphere summer. ‡Moving five spaces is one less space than it would take to move to the same spot, two sides counterclockwise. Add this almost-two sides to the one side the sun tracker moves, and you get three sides per turn of relative motion.

[@Skarpo89]

Love asymmetric player powers. Thanks as always Rodney!

[@WatchItPlayed]

Thanks for checking it out Skarpo!

[@glenhewey8795]

Nice job of explaining. Really appreciate your demonstration.

[@WatchItPlayed]

Thank you Glen!

[@casperspanggaard7397]

I can't believe Rodney Smith, the nicest man on earth, just called a piece of cardboard for "a damned tile!" Great How to Play video as always - thanks :)

[@WatchItPlayed]

Very glad you enjoyed - sorry I lost my temper :)

[@wyz1324]

Did you get new glasses?

[@WatchItPlayed]

Yep!

[@aaronbadfish]

I love this channel Definitely the Marc Summers of board games!

[@WatchItPlayed]

So glad you're enjoying :)

[@FalcusDead]

Thank you for the video. One thing that confused me with this was are you able to activate a space with an animal ability and also activate it in a normal manner, like growing a tree, then cutting it down with the boar, or planting a seed with the hedgehog immediately after cutting down a tree there, or immediately growing it. I feel the answer should be no as the rules don't explicitly state that you're allowed to do this (except in some specific cases it doesn't explicitly state what you can/can't do) so you'd follow standard rules for activating a space, however I could see it being allowed as well. Surprised I can't find anything anywhere clarifying this.

[@WatchItPlayed]

Hey Falcus, normally I do my best to answer all questions I get on on videos I've made, but I lent my copy of this game and the expansion to a friend, and have no easy way to look this up for you.

[@darkjuly8360]

2:19 Okay Rodney, fine I'll take "that dam tile". :P

[@WatchItPlayed]

FINALLY!

[@BKStarlet08]

I'm a little confused by the Great Tree rule with the example given. So, even though the moonstone is facing the moon, it won't get moonlight because the Great Tree is casting a shadow from the sun? That also means that the tree facing the sun won't get any light because the Great Tree is casting a shadow on it caused by the moon?

[@WatchItPlayed]

Correct. None of them get direct light, because of the shadow cast by the great elder tree.

[@JonoNZBoardGamer]

I agree that doesn't sound intuitive. That moonlight shadow stops the trees from seeing light from the sun. I thought it should just block all moonlight to the right of it and sunlight to the left of it, from the example. I haven't read the rules though, so I trust you Rodney :) just seems a little odd

[@WatchItPlayed]

@@JonoNZBoardGamer I found it helps to think of it as "interfering" with the light. It casts a shadow from the sun that is extra dark which causes the effect of the moonlight to weaken, so that it is not able to fully light the items it hits in its path. And vice versa. It doesn't really work from a realism standpoint, but I suppose moonstones that power animals isn't very realistic either :) The challenge here though, is that it just goes contrary to what people might expect. I'm quite confident I have this right though, as I double checked the rules (out of concern), and we do run the video by the publisher before it's published to ensure we didn't have any errors. Things can still be missed occasionally, but this time I think we're good.

[@dougmoore4653]

so if the elder tree is on a line from the sun + the moon then that WHOLE line gets no light from sun nor moon?

[@chasevansyckle4377]

Hey Rodney! Have you played with this expansion yet yourself? How did you enjoy it compared to just the base game itself? Thanks!

[@WatchItPlayed]

Hey Chase, I think you mention it in another recent comment, but I avoid giving out recommendations or opinions on games - even when the opinion are just my own. Hopefully the video can give you an idea of whether or not the expansion would be a good fit for you!