Description

Everdell

Within the charming valley of Everdell, beneath the boughs of towering trees, among meandering streams and mossy hollows, a civilization of forest critters is thriving and expanding. From Everfrost to Bellsong, many a year have come and gone, but the time has come for new territories to be settled and new cities established. You will be the leader of a group of critters intent on just such a task.

There are buildings to construct, lively characters to meet, events to host, you have a busy year ahead of yourself. Will the sun shine brightest on your city before the winter moon rises?

Everdell is a game of dynamic tableau building and worker placement.On their turn a player can take one of three actions:

a) Place a Worker: Each player has a collection of Worker pieces. These are placed on the board locations, events, and on Destination cards. Workers perform various actions to further the development of a player’s tableau: gathering resources, drawing cards, and taking other special actions.

b) Play a Card: Each player is building and populating a city; a tableau of up to 15 Construction and Critter cards. There are five types of cards: Travelers, Production, Destination, Governance, and Prosperity. Cards generate resources (twigs, resin, pebbles, and berries), grant abilities, and ultimately score points.

The interactions of the cards reveal numerous strategies and a near infinite variety of working cities.

c) Prepare for the next Season: Workers are returned to the players supply and new workers are added. The game is played from Winter through to the onset of the following winter, at which point the player with the city with the most points wins.

Everdell Gameplay

In the valley of Everdell, a civilization of forest creatures is forming, and the seasons are changing.

At the start of the game, each player receives two workers, plus a handful of cards. Each turn is straightforward: a player can place a worker, prepare for the next season, or play a card (either from their hand or from a common area called the meadow).

There are fixed worker spaces in every game these spaces allow players to collect additional resources, additional cards, or points but there are also four areas that vary from game to game. Some spots allow more than one worker, but most only allow one player to occupy the space.

When a player has placed all of his or her workers, he or she may call them back and prepare for the next season, opening those spaces once again. The first and second time they do this, they get an additional worker for the next season, but the third (and final) time they do it, they get two. Additionally, there is a bonus for moving to the next season.

In the spring and autumn seasons, a player activates all of their production cards, generating resources and other benefits. In summer, they can draw additional cards, either from the deck, or the meadow (which isn’t usual, since players must normally draw from the deck).

The effect of moving between seasons is that workers come on and off the board at differing times. There is no requirement that players be in the same season, and it is entirely possible (and a frequent occurrence) that players end the game at drastically different times.

But while Everdell may appear to be mostly about worker placement and changing seasons, the real game is in the cards, which represent the critters and constructions that will make the forest civilization. Each card comes with a cost, although players can also earn free cards by building prerequisite constructions.

Players are limited to a hand of eight, and with a few exceptions, their civilization is limited to just 15 cards played. So players must carefully choose which cards to hold, and which cards to play. Certain spaces allow players to discard cards for resources or points.

There are five types of cards in Everdell. Traveler cards activate once, giving a single benefit. Production cards activate when played and during certain seasons. Destination cards give additional worker placement spaces.

Governance cards give special powers that change gameplay. And prosperity cards give point bonuses at the end of the game.

Along the way, there are events for collecting sets of cards in the city. The basic events these are in every game reward players for collecting sets of the card types in the games. The special events vary from game to game and require specific cards for instance, the woodcarver and chapel to earn various rewards.

Players must place a worker to collect both the basic and special events, but of course, they can get that worker back as they prepare for the next season.

A game of Everdell ends when all players have passed and finished playing.

At that point, players earn points for the cards in their city (which generally are the lions share of points in the game), point tokens (which can be collected at certain spaces and from certain cards), basic and special events, prosperity cards (which generate bonus points in a players city), and the journey (which is a special space that awards points for discarding excess cards in the final round).

Features:
– Age: 10 years and older
– Players: 1-4 players
– Duration: 20 minutes

Official site: https://www.starling.games/everdell