Spring is here and it is time for us to build our city before the next winter arrives and all our critters are f**ked, this is Everdell the game where you build a city for critters and hope to the god you do not get the starting hand that I got!
Now for the boring bit!
Players: 1 - 4
Age: 13+
Time: 40 - 80 minutes
So now we know the general idea behind the game let us look at what you get in this box!
What is in the box?
What do you get in this box? Is it worth it? Why are my underpants on inside out? These are all important questions! You get the following inside this beautifully illustrated box;
1 game board
4 basic event tiles
10 3 point tokens
20 1 point tokens
1 8 sided dice for solo game
128 deck cards
11 forest cards
16 special event cards
1 victory card
30 berries
30 twigs
25 resin
20 pebbles
6 workers per player (24 total)
1 ever tree
When you first get the game you need to build the ever tree and it comes with instructions on how to do this. They say it is easy to build and take apart but I found the cardboard was bending and taking slight damage when I was building it. For this reason, I have built it and stored it away because I think over time this would be destroyed if I kept taking it apart and putting it back together.
Aim of the game
When all players have completed all 3 seasons (spring, summer, and autumn) everyone adds up their Victory Points (VP) and the player with the most VP wins the game.
This sounds easy enough but there is a lot of resource management and planning to this game!
Setting up the game
Everdell is without a doubt a beautiful game once you have it all set up, the artwork and design for the game are fantastic. Look at the picture above and tell me that this game is not a stunning one! Do it! I dare you....
To set the game up we have to of course have some steps we need to follow;
1 - Place the game board down and put the ever tree on the stump located at the back of the board.
2 - Along the river you will sections with icons that match twigs, resin, pebbles and berries, place these in the river next to their icons on the board.
3 - Next to the game board place the 3 and 1 VP tokens.
4 - Shuffle the forest cards and place one in each of the clearing spots on the forest floor (2 on either side), in a 2 player game you only place 3, not 4.
5 - Place the 4 basic events on the matching spots just above the river and 1 of them in the river (boat).
6 - Shuffle the special event cards and place 4 at random onto the lower shelf on the ever tree.
7 - Shuffle the main deck for the game and place the top 8 cards into the meadow space (large clearing on the board) then place the rest of the deck in the slot under the ever tree.
8 - Each player needs to pick a starting colour and take 2 meeples of that colour. Then decide who is going first (can roll the dice (it states the most humble player goes first though)) the first player takes 5 cards and in clockwise order, you all take 1 more card than the last person, in a 4 player game the 4th player will take 8 cards.
9 - On the top shelf of the ever tree place 1 of your other meeples in spring and summer and then the final 2 in autumn.
That is it, we have set the board up! The rulebook does a great job of explaining how to set the game up so do not worry about that!
How to play this beauty?
Everdell is not a complicated game, it is at the core of the game a resource and construction game. Though I say that there is a lot to the game you need to watch out for so you do not end up stuck in a rut hoping that you manage to get some god damn pebbles!
In your turn you can do one of three main actions;
1 = Place a worker
2 = Play a card
3 = Prepare for season
These are the main actions you will take in the game but there is a lot you can do with one simple action. Once you have completed 1 action your turn is over and it moves on to the next player, this means if you place a worker you can not play a card or prepare for season.
One thing I would like to mention is that resources are unlimited, if you run out of one of them use anything else in its place, for example, if you run out of pebbles use the small eyes of a pixie and note that they are pebbles.
Place a worker:
Your workers are well your workers at the end of the day and we need these little buggers to collect items, score points, visit places and most of not betray us and stab us in the back.
In your turn, you can place 1 of your workers, long as you have 1 or more still, in a location space on the game board. There are two types of location;
Shared = This space is outlined with an incomplete circle
Exclusive = This space is outlined with a complete circle
If the space is exclusive and some other sh***y worker from another player is in the location space you can not play your worker there, sad times. However, if it is a shared location you can place your worker there with other workers from the other players and they can do what they need to while having a chat about life in the forest. Now there is also one more rule we need to cover here, if the location is a shared space you can place more than 1 of your workers in this location if you wish to do so, if it is exclusive you can only have the 1 lonely worker in that location. Makes sense! Not very exclusive if you have 3 workers in there tearing s**t up.
Last bit on this before we talk about the locations, okay if you place a worker in a location that worker is there until you prepare for season or a card allows you to move them again. Once you place the worker in that location action the location, this means do what you need to do at the location! I.E collect the resources it allows you to collect, draw cards and so on.
Locations! There are several types of locations and we shall cover them a little bit here.
Basic locations = These are the location spots that are not events at the river bank edge near the meadow side. There are 8 spots here 4 shared and 4 exclusive, these sports in order from left to right are;
Exclusive = collect 3 twigs
Shared = collect 2 twigs and draw a card
Exclusive = collect 2 resin
Shared = collect 1 resin and draw a card
Shared = draw 2 cards and collect 1 VP token
Exclusive = collect 1 pebble (woooooo pebble)
Exclusive = collect 1 berry and draw a card
Shared = collect 1 berry
Forest locations = These are the cards you shuffle and placed in the clearings, these are all different and I am not going to cover them all, instead, look at the card and understand it, fool. Now there are two locations on these cards and unless 4 players are playing you can not use both locations. Also if 4 players are playing you still can not place both workers on 1 of these location cards, you are not allowed to occupy both locations on a forest card. Naughty worker trying to con the government!
Destination cards = There are cards in the game that have locations on them that allow you to perform certain actions. There are two types of cards;
Your city = In your city if you have any cards with a location symbol you can use that location.
Other cities = In any other players city if they have a card with a location and that also as the open sign (check the card) you can place a worker here. If you do use one in another players city they take 1 VP token for you using their location.
Event locations = On the board we now have the 4 basic events and the 4 special events. If you meet the requirements for that event or special event you can then place a worker on that location and collect the event.
Basic events show a symbol and a number and that is how many you need of that type to collect the event.
Special events at the top of the card will list what you need in your city to claim that event.
These are a good way to score VP! Keep that in mind.
Haven location = This is the large stone area on the game (like Stonehenge in England), here you can discard 2 cards to collect 1 resource of any type. This is a shared location so you can use this more than once in one turn if you wish to do so, though if you do what is wrong with you? Why did you not use it when you needed to the most so you are not wasting two of your workers, you fool.
Journey location = This space can only be used in autumn because otherwise it is pointless, this location is used to score VP at the end of the game by taking one of the spaces and discarding cards;
2 (shared) discard 2 cards for 2 VP at the end
3 (exclusive) discard 3 cards for 3 VP at the end
4 (exclusive) discard 4 cards for 4 VP at the end
5 (exclusive) discard 5 cards for 5 VP at the end
That is this section complete, you made it! Well done, I think you should go get a coffee and get ready to look at placing a card, In this section, we will see how you place a card, how to pay for a card and also how to swim in space.
So you made it this far, well done, I expected you to give up a long time ago, I am impressed.
Okay, swimming in space, bad idea, avoid space, it is cold and dangerous. Now let us look at placing a card.
Let us start by stating that remember you can only perform 1 action on your turn, if you played a worker you can then not play a card, it is that simple!
There are two types of cards, construction and critter, and we will cover them one by one here so you understand them.
Construction:
A construction card in the top left-hand corner will show the resources you need to spend to place this card, if you do not have the resources you can not build this card. If you have the required amount then you need to spend these resources (return them to their piles) and you can place the card. Once a card is placed you can perform the text located at the bottom of the card if it allows you to do so. We will cover the 5 main types of cards after this section to understand this more. You will also see that the card shows how many VP this is worth at the end of the game.
Critter:
A critter card in the top left-hand corner will show the resources you need to spend to place this card, also note that under the resources it will name a construction card. If you have built this construction in your beautiful city you can play this critter card for free! Yes, you do not need to spend any resources, you do need to then place an occupied token on the construction card to let you know you have used this ability and can not use it again (unless you build a second one of these construction cards and get a second matching critter card). Just like the construction card once you place a critter action the text. You can also see how many VP this is worth at the end of the game.
When you are building your city you need to know that you are limited to 15 cards (lay them out in rows of 5), this limit does not count event cards just the construction and critter cards. Saying that some cards also state they do not count towards the city limit! If you get any of these I always put them off to the side.
Type of cards:
I mentioned before there are 5 main types of cards and we are going to look at them now, why? Because I want to and I am writing this :)
Tan Traveler (bag on a stick, brown coloured) = Once played the text on the card activates and never can be used again!
Green production (seedling sprouting, green coloured) = Use the text when played and in the spring and autumn prepare for season phase.
Red destination (paw print, red coloured) = Activated when you place a worker on this card (never activated when first played), if it is a open location if another player places a worker here you gain a VP token.
Blue governance (script paper symbol, blue coloured) = Usually grants you a bonus when you play certain cards, also gives you a discount when playing certain cards, quite hands these!
Purple prosperity (lotus flower symbol, purple coloured) = Worth bonus points at the end of the game if you have any cards that grant you that bonus.
Now we need to cover some of the basics about drawing cards because this can be tricky, it's not haha if you get stuck then that's on you. I will talk about it anyway because I am here and I am typing still.
If you are told to draw a card it usually means from the draw pile under the ever tree, however, it sometimes tells you to draw from the meadow, if this is the case you take that number of cards from the meadow before you restock it back to 8.
You can never have more than 8 cards in your hand, this is a strict hand limit. If everyone does have 8 cards and you are told to give a card to another player it is discarded instead.
The discard pile needs to be face-down! I did not do this in my game but yeah it is meant to be face-down, my bad.
If the deck comes to an end then you need to reshuffle the discard pile and create a new deck to draw from.
If a card tells you to gain that means you take and if it says pay that means you spend and return to the resource piles.
Symbols, I quickly want to cover the symbols in the game;
A sun looking symbol no number = VP token
A sun looking symbol with a number = How many VP it is worth at the end of the game
Blank card = Construction and critter cards
Stick/log = Twig resource
Orange/yellow odd shaped star/blob = Resin resource
Oblong grey stone/pebble = Pebble resource
Purple/pink circle berry = Berry resource
Basket with lots in = Any resource
Did you like my descriptions above? I think I nailed it! Okay moving on because we have covered this section, next we are going to talk about prepare for season and what that actually means!
Right, do you remember at the start when I said we are preparing for the coming winter? Yes, good, the game actually starts in winter and when we first prepare for a season we enter the spring season and all is good!
You can never use this action if you have any workers that you have not placed if you have a worker or workers left you need to use them and then when it is your turn again prepare for season. In all fairness why you would have not placed them all is beyond me!
When you use this action you do the following actions;
Return all your workers to your stock pile
Look at the top of the ever tree and action the season you are entering;
Spring = Take the extra worker meeple, any cards you have in your city with the green production symbol need to be actioned also.
Summer = Take the extra worker and take 2 cards from the meadow, if you have 8 cards take them and discard them, only replenish the meadow when you have taken the 2 cards.
Autumn = Take the 2 extra workers, any cards you have in your city with the green production symbol need to be actioned also.
That is it for this action, it is the only main way you can get all your workers back and start deploying them again.
You also need to know that players do not have to be in sync with the seasons for example;
Jason = In summer
Carrie = In autumn
John = Still in winter (not even gone to spring yet, what are they doing?)
Rachel = In spring
This is allowed, you do need to know though if a player is in autumn and they have played all their cards, they have no workers left to use and basically can not do anything they have finished the game for themselves. Their workers stay on the board and can not be removed, They pass on each turn, They can not be given any cards or resources if all players have finished and you are the only one left and have to give a card or resource to a player these are discarded instead.
Now once all players have finished it is the end game! You then need to add up all your VP and see who has the most, if there is a tie then the player with the most events wins, if you somehow tie again then the player with the most resources wins, if you tie yet again then it is pistols at dawn and the survivor wins, or you can call it a draw, that is up to you.
My beautiful final thoughts!
We have got to the end of this post and I need to wrap up my thoughts, I am not sure if I mentioned the fact that the game is beautiful and well-illustrated, even the game board is well thought out, it is not just a beautiful game it is a game that plays well!
The set-up was easy enough to follow and the rules are simple and to the point, though we did play it wrong that is because I missed a few rules somehow.
At times you will find yourself thinking about what you need to do and when you should do it, I found myself using other players turns to see what they were doing, what they were collecting, watching what spaces were left and trying to plan my movements around all of this.
It is a simple and complicated game because of how you need to manage your resources, pebbles are a nightmare to get and yet I always found I needed them.
Your starting hand can make or break the game, I had a bad starting hand where it seems the other players had great ones. This put me on the back foot straight away but what could I do? Well, I needed to plan my moves to try and get better cards.
I enjoyed the game and ended up coming second in the end, I now know next time I play what to do and how to play the game correctly, it is a game that I look forward to playing again which is a good sign, I have some ideas on the game I would like to try out.
To sum this game up: It is a beautiful, simple, fun and yet complicated game that should be played by everyone.
8/10
