Game(s) Played:
And welcome back to another edition of our monthly meet-ups to teach, learn & play boardgames for the niche group of us who are strangely only free on Saturday mornings. And today, we are playing … …
Session – Everdell
Game: Everdell
Designer: James A. Wilson
Players: 1 – 4 Players
Playing Time: 80 minutes (This Play: 90 minutes)
Main Mechanisms: Worker Placement, Drafting, Pair Collection
Player(s):
… … Everdell, where the time has come for new territories to be settled and new cities established beneath the boughs of towering trees, among meandering streams and mossy hollows, within the charming valley of Everdell. 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?
The charming valley of Everdell is indeed a beautiful place and drew the attention of many a passerby
Everdell has presence. That's the simplest way to put it. This is largely due to the Evertree, which is like looking at a range of mountains, monstrous yet beautiful in its own way. The board depicting the meadow of Everdell is no slouch either, I mean, look at the size of the thing occupying a McDonald's banquet table!
It is not easy to play Everdell with more than 3 people due to logistical issues of space
But enough about how wonderful Everdell looks, let's get into our "pro" tips for playing the game:
TIP #1 – Pebbles Are SOOOPER Valuable
Thematically it just doesn't make sense that pebbles are the most valuable resource, I mean pebbles are everywhere
So take a quick look at the forest action cards on the board, if you don't see any that provides pebbles then you might want to look into investing into pebbles for your future, such as building a mine to generate said pebbles or some other green production facility that generates a resource of your choice or some other construction that allows you to take a basic action or…. Well there are a number of ways to get around this problem, but it still involves "getting around" the shortage. To be fair, not all buildings require pebbles to be constructed but it can sure be restricting to build pebble costing ones in a game with a high player count where the pebble worker space is always occupied. Instead you could always go with Tip #2.
TIP #2 – Look For Discounts & Free Stuff, Free Is Always Better
They say that if you build it, they will come
7 Wonders veterans will be familiar with this concept of cheating cards into existence in your play area. Each building in Everdell has a natural native critter (i.e. the School is home to the Teacher, the Farm is home to the Husband/Wife, the Postal Pigeon the Post Office and so on). If you build the building, the corresponding critter can then be recruited for free! There are also cards that allow you to put cards (building OR critter) into play for free (subject to terms and conditions mumblewhimble) and cards that give you discounts / rebates / substitute costs and to be honest, it feels like thriftiness is how Everdell was designed to be played. MAN IT FEELS GOOD to turn ONE card into THREE! And yet…
TIP #3 – Being Cheap Is Addictive, Remember Value Is Key
There is sometimes too much of a good thing being bad for you
So you're on a roll, flipping cards into your play area for free, laughing at your opponents who had to PAY for their card costs, when you crash into what we call the "City Limits". Your city only has 15 plots of land and unfortunately demolition is a very limited option when you have to stare into the big brown eyes of your occupants as you evict them from their homes. So whilst you may be tempted to throw down a card that you don't actually need just because it's FREE, well maybe think about putting the cards you really need to put into play instead, even if you have to pay (shudder) their costs.
In today's game I actually failed at Tip #3, I was so busy trying to play cards with the minimum amount of resources that I was playing cards to maximize my city limits as opposed to maximizing my score. In the end I could have denied Jimmy his victory if I had traded in my cards for VPs at the Haven before Jimmy did.
Jimmy was the berry-licious man, always having plenty of berries on hand
Results Of Game(s)
WINNER – Jimmy from the Mickey Mouse Club (42 Points)
2nd & 3rd – Henry from "Are those Platypuses?" Clan (41 Points)
2nd & 3rd – Justin from the Rugworts (41 Points)
Jimmy ALWAYS smiles the biggest when he wins
Everdell has its issues but in the one month that I've owned it, it has risen to the second most played game for 2019. My kids love the game and can play competitively (although they have yet to win) with the full set of rules which is something of an achievement and earned them an entry into my logged plays on BGStats. The jury is still out on Pearlbrook expansion for me but the base game of Everdell is definitely a keeper.
Until next time, keep calm and play better!
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