Intro

As autumn and winter is upon us we like to snuggle up with some hot chocolate, a warm blanket and a cozy board game. Building out a small forest settlement and having cute animals move into it fits that perfectly.

It has been enjoyed both with friends as well just the two of us, where depending on your mood you can share the solo challenge together or fight it out one on one.

Theme and Components

From the moment you assemble the components it’s hard to miss how thematic this game is. The board depicts a serene forest meadow, with the centerpiece being the cardboard Evertree.

The cards that you will be buying throughout the game all have pictures befitting the theme, but at the same time there is a seriousness to the pictures. They are not very whimsical or funny, the cards really feel like a depiction of the forest animals and their homes without exaggerations.

The meeples are made of wood and designed to look like different kinds of animals; in the base game they’re hedgehogs, mice, squirrels and turtles. The different resources you collect during the game are made out of different materials; berries - silicone, twigs - wood, resin - resin/pebbles - plastic. This makes the game feel very well thought out, and more luxurious.

Gameplay

You start your forest building career with two critters, these symbolise the number of actions you are allowed to take this round. A round is called a season in Everdell and will consist of you choosing to visit a variety of locations to gather the necessary resources to either buy a building or a critter.

The different cards can grant you all kinds of things from instant bonuses, resources to powers that will come into effect during certain kinds of actions.The cards are marked to distinguish what kind of bonus they give; Tan called Traveler, Red called Destination, Green called production, blue called Governance and finally purple called Prosperity.

Tan being instant bonuses but they only activate once. Red being somewhere you can place your worker as an action. Green gives you a bonus right away but also during spring and autumn transitions. Blue gives you effects after playing certain kinds of cards. Purple gives you increased points for certain kinds of cards.

For instance, a common building you can buy is a farm. Buying this farm will grant you one food as soon as you have bought it. This card being a Green Production will also have its effect triggered again during the corresponding season change noted on the Evertree.

All builds have a critter associated with them, if that critter is available during your turn it can move into your city free of charge. This action can be taken once for every building in your city. So with our farm from before when a “husband” or “wife” critter card shows up we can have them move into the farm for free. We then mark our farm with the occupied token to show that someone has moved in there for free.

You take one action, then the turn passes to the next player. When you can't take any more actions or don't want to, you will have to do the action “prepare for season”. This gives you back the critters you used, plus the bonuses for the next season as indicated on the Evertree.

Now the game loop starts over with you collecting resources buying cards. Getting more and better effects and maybe even some synergies between the cards in your city.

During the game you can also go for the different events, there are four Basic Events and four Special Events. To achieve the events you have to have special kinds of cards in your city, and will give you extra points at the end of the game if you achieve them. For the Basic Events you have to have a certain amount of card types.

For example you need to have three Red Destination cards in your city to achieve the Grand Tour Event, there after you have to place a worker during your action to be able to collect it. The Basic Events are much easier to achieve than the Special Events since you have to collect different card types. When you want to achieve a Special Event you have to have two specific critters or constructions, which can make these hard to achieve because these cards might not show up during this game.

Solo play

If you don’t feel that competitive you can also play the solo game (works well solo and for two players). During solo play you compete against the power seeking rat Rugwort and his companions. He will return to Everdell three years in a row, and each time it’s getting harder to beat him. When playing against Rugwort one of his companions will occupy one of the locations so you can’t get the resources there, this worker moves to another location when Rugwort prepares for season. Another of his companions will occupy one critter or construction on the meadow. For every new season a new companion will come into play and occupy another card on the meadow, until they occupy four cards which you can’t choose when you draw cards from the meadow.

How then does Rugwort get critters and constructions into his city? Well, for every card you place in your city Rugwort gets to draw one card for his city as well, and which card he draws depends on a dice roll. At the end of the game he will get two pints from each Tan Traveler, Red Destination, Green Production and Blue Governance cards in his city. For the Purple Prosperity cards he will get three points for each card. He will also get points for the Events that he achieves and points for the Special Events that you didn’t achieve.

Nathalies thoughts

I like this game and not only for the aesthetics, which is the reason why I bought it (believe me I could admire these critter and construction cards for days). I’m becoming a bigger fan of the worker placement mechanics, and being able to get the resources you want so you can play a card you’ve been planning for gives me a rewarding feeling.

Although I prefer to play it with 3-4 players. Because when you are only two players it’s harder to get the cards rolling, which decreases your chances of getting the cards you want or need. Since I’ve stated before I’m not the most strategic player, so playing the solo game with Fredrik gave me an extra brain to beat Rugwort which sometimes can be very hard if the cards are not in your favor. I sometimes feel that I like playing the solo game more than with just two players... It feels like the cards are changing more because when you play a card Rugwort also plays one from the meadow which means that new cards come to the Meadow and if you're lucky it’s a card you've been waiting for.

In the end I would never say no to a game of Everdell, since it's a fun game and I also get the chance to marvel at the beautiful cards and that 3D Evertree!

Fredriks thoughts

Solo mode was a welcome edition, it made it easy to tag along for a round on those days when Natta wanted to play but I did not feel like it. Teaming up to try and defeat Rugwort. You do get the feeling playing against him that it's just unfair how much he extra points he's getting. But after a few loses we were able to beat him fairly consistently unless we got unlucky with the cards.

I do feel like this game is not made for just two players even if there is nothing stopping you from playing it that way. Since there is no mechanic that helps circulate cards in the meadow, and you are not allowed to draw cards when you are at your limit. You can get stuck with a lot of cards that no one wants to play. It can be fun finding your way out of situations like these, but in Everdell I found it more frustrating then fun.

I am a big fan of worker placement games, and Everdell is a solid one in that category. For me it does not do anything special to take it to the top of my list, but I have enjoyed our time with it and look forwards to revisiting it with expansions.

Conclusion playing “Everdell” as a couple

Everdell, a game bought purely for looks, ended up as a mainstay worker placement game in our collection.

A good game to setup both for the days when you are feeling more competitive with each other or want to share a blanket and fight a mafia rat together