Everdell - An Introduction

 Everdell - An Introduction

Game Specs

• Advertised Player Count: 1-4
• *Actual* Player Count: 1-4, as advertised! The solo version with Rugwort (the automa) is very challenging and fun; I play it regularly. And while I think the game is much better with 3-4 players than at 2, it really does work at any player count.
• Playing Time: 40-80 minutes (Accurate!)
• Age: 13+
• Premise: Players are placing their woodland animal workers to gain resources they'll use to place other critters and buildings in their tableau in order to build a points engine and score victory points.

I learned about this game from my friend Chad during GenCon. I went to GenCon several years ago mainly so I could compete in a big Star Wars Armada tournament. I had attended the NOVA Open the previous year, had a blast, and thought it was worth finally trying out GenCon. I went with my friends Biff and Cush, but told Chad I was headed that way. He asked if there was any way that I could pick up a copy of Everdell for him while I was in the vendor hall. I told him that shouldn't be an issue, but didn't know anything about the game. I spent my entire first day at the con playing Armada, so I didn't get to visit the vendor hall on that first day. But I knew I wouldn't be making the top cut, so the rest of the con was mine for exploration! On the second day, I visited the vendor hall and was really overwhelmed by it all. There is an exceptional amount of content in that hall, and I'm just not wired to function in that environment for very long. I tracked down the booth at which I would be able to buy Chad his copy of Everdell and move on.

But then, not so much. Because I saw the game laid out for demo games, and I couldn't look away. I mean, just look at this game!

Look at it!

The components are so thoughtful and solid, and the game itself is just absolutely lovely and so much fun to admire. So I stuck around and watched a demo game. Then I started talking to the designer a little bit. By the time it was all over, I had purchased a copy of Everdell and the first expansion, Pearlbrook for Chad, as well as a copy of each for myself. The designer (James A. Wilson) and artist (Andrew Bosley) even signed all copies of the games they sold, and that was just the icing on the cake. I had promised myself that I was going to get myself something from the vendor hall, but I was wasn't sure what that something was. I was absolutely sold on Everdell. Completely and utterly. I kept looking through the vendor hall after buying Everdell for myself, knowing I had made my choice. Even after looking at everything else there, not for a moment did I have buyer's remorse. That was made doubly true when I brought the game home and I finally learned how to play it.

I really enjoy worker placement games and own a bunch of them, but I've not always been a huge fan of tableau games. Everdell does an excellent job of combining the two into something I really enjoy the hell out of! The game is fun, it's fun to look at, and it's pretty straightforward: you take one action on your turn, and that action will either be placing a worker, or buying a critter card or construction card to place in your tableau. The game plays over the course of a year, and as the game goes on, the seasons change. When a player Prepares for [the next] Season, they gain additional workers, and some sort of benefit, depending on the season. Basically, when a player is out of workers to place and is either unable to or uninterested in purchasing new cards for your tableau, that player can choose to Prepare for Season. So some players might still be in Winter while other players have moved onto Spring. I really like the design of the game because I think it's sleek and expedited, but there was something I sort of couldn't put my finger on until Zee over at Dice Tower articulated it in one of his Top 10 lists: this is one of the few worker placement games (if not the only one, since I don't know of any others!) in which players do not have to purchase new workers, but simply receive them during the course of the game. It's really great! Because it does mean that the game ramps up as it progresses and grows, but I also don't have to spend time during the game figuring out how to manage my workers in a way that gets me points as well as more workers. It's rare that the number of workers a player has in a game gets us points directly, but the value of added workers throughout a game to purchase the things that DO get us points cannot be overstated. So there's an element of "I'm buying this thing that has no inherent value to winning so that I can be better at buying the other things that are what will let me win" in a lot of worker placement games. And while I don't necessarily dislike the challenges that scenario presents while balancing how to approach a board game, I appreciate that it isn't part of the equation in Everdell.

It sort of reminds me of a pretty basic tenet of design: if everyone HAS to take the same first turn (place this worker to get 2 wood so I can build a hut because I cannot build anything else without the hut), then why not just take that turn and make it a given? Have every player start with a hut so that they don't all need to start the game the same way because there's literally nothing else that can happen in the game until the wood is purchased and the hut built. Now the workers can choose what to do in the first round of the game rather than all having to take the same action and spend their first turn the exact same way every single game. This is not a direct parallel, but it's something that comes to my mind, and it's an element of Everdell of which I'm very fond. I'm very glad that I accidentally fell down the rabbit hole of this game (thanks, Chad!), because I think it's an exquisite game, and I just adore it.

Bottom Line: Everdell is a really fun worker placement/tableau game that is rich in theme and features quite a lot of factors that make each game feel different, with or without the various expansions.