Board Game Arena

Curious whether anyone has ever successfully played a game with using hoofed animals as a dominant strategy. I've tried a couple times but run into trouble with all the cards being expensive to play (need two cards to pay for most if not all). I don't think I've ever seen an opponent win this way either.

This game is so much better balanced than the original Forest Shuffle but this seems like the one strategy I can't get to work.

I agree, hoofed animals are kinda underwhelming. Dartmoor sheep is prob the worst card in the game whereas Horse is decent with a moor strategy and deers are situationally good. I don't think you can afford to play hoofed as main strategy but you can put few hoofed animals here and there to complete a strategy.
I hope the exmoor expansion coming soon adresses this issue. They are adding "pony foal", cheap hoofed animal. Could justify playing the dartmoor sheep and use hoofed animals as main strategy.
Reptiles and birds are kinda on the lower side of the spectrum too.

The deer can provide surprisingly many points, so they can be good end game plays. The sheep are just terrible, never play them.

Yeah it’s the weakest link. But it’s better than the alternative. Let’s rate strategies

Forest shuffle (I’m including the 2 expansions)

Deer/wolf strategy rank S
Oak tree strategy Rank A
Butterfly strategy Rank A
Bird strategy Rank B
Paw Strategy Rank B
Bat strategy Rank C
Amphibian/reptile strategy Rank D

Forest shuffle dartmoor
Plant strategy Rank A
Moor strategy Rank A
Rodent/paw strategy Rank A
Bird strategy Rank B
Bat Strategy Rank B
Reptile/Amphibian strategy Rank B
Dragonfly strategy Rank B
Hoof strategy Rank D

So as you can see while there is a very bottom of the barrel strategies in both games, there’s a few evenly matched strategies in one rank and a few in the lower rank for dartmoor.

On the other hand original forest shuffle has 4 strategies that are 2 ranks in difference. So the Question you should be asking yourself if this was the Forum for original forest shuffle is. Has anyone who ignored playing deer and wolves ever won with bat strategy? Because if the answer is no, then what chance does the hoof strategy have in dartmoor?

Still one awful strategy is better than 2 awful strategies.

That's kinda true. Moreover, the exmoor poney foal comes in 5 units with the expansion and costs 0 cards to play. That means we will have easy access to cheap hoofed card => the x2 multiplier from exmoor sheep and hoofed moor from base game could become viable, even quiet strong.
You could definitey see a 10 points "exmoor poney foal" play that costs 0 AND let's you play a free Poney/ deer from base game clearing.
That's an easy 25 points bomb with a single card play that costs 0.