LogFAQs > #962414504

62. Everdell

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1198/set

Category: Player vs player
Key mechanics: Resource management, worker placement, tableau-building
Rules complexity (0 to 7): 5
Game length: 60-120 minutes
First played: 2021
Experience: 1 play with 3 players
Previous ranks: N/A

Everdell is probably one of the top 10 table presence games on this list. The game is themed after woodland animals gathering materials to survive winter, and the central worker placement area is a three-dimensional tree. It's a gorgeous production.

Through the game, you get cards into your hand, play them onto your tableau, place workers onto the board, collect resources, and ultimately try to score victory points. The game occurs over the course of four seasons as you move from spring into winter, with each player moving onto the next season independently when they've exhausted their legal or willing moves in their current season.

My main issue with Everdell is that it doesn't have a single cool mechanic linking things together. On your turn, you either place a worker or play a card from your hand or activate a card in your tableau. With tableaux capable of exploding in size and complexity, it's the opposite of the elegant, simple decision spaces that characterize most of my personal favorite games. Worker placement usually points you toward a focused sort of game, but instead your opponents could be either taking the contested spots or playing a totally heads down game.

The fact that different players can be in different seasons is also a little awkward. Leads to cleanup phases not really being a group activity, but a solitary thing that happens kind of randomly. Which is... okay, in and of itself, but it's just a little weird. The bottom line mostly is that Everdell, while pleasant to look at, does a few too many things, and none of them quite well enough. At least so I found in my one time playing it.