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The Spirecrest expansion for Everdell introduces weather cards, big critters, and a journey/exploration mechanic. Does this expansion enhance the Everdell experience, or does it unnecessarily complicate gameplay? Review Where Bellfaire succeeds is with its simplicity and its modularity. It’s very simple to just throw a couple of these modules in – or indeed not – with any of the other base game or expansion content. For example, I would never not play with the specific player powers now, and each different critter all of a sudden has its own identity. The Market, I also like, but it is by no means a game changer – more like a nice, rewarding action that helps offer an option for every occasion. Expansion – Spirecrest Adornments are great and really useful for squeezing maximum results from minimum resources but Discovery cards are better! Although each player will only collect 3 discovery cards they will choose from 9 over the course of the game. This means the boosts these cards give can be more selected and targeted toward your current strategy and needs rather than the randomly dealt adornment cards. A note in the rulebook says, “Spirecrest adds substantial complexity to Everdell. When playing Spirecrest, it is recommended that you do not include other expansion material.” I agree with the second half of this statement — I wouldn’t recommend adding in other expansions with this one — but not the first. While I think Spirecrest is the most complex of the expansions, I don’t think it is that much more burdensome than Pearlbrook, and I wouldn’t say the additional complexity is substantial. I think new players can learn Spirecrest in conjunction with the base game, and I think its mechanics integrate fluidly with the base game. Players can get pearls for being the first to visit the underwater locations/citizens and flipping those cards over (which then become additional expansion spaces.) Sometimes these spaces allow pearls to be spend, as do some of the seasonal event cards that Pearlbrook introduces, but the main way in which you’ll spend pearls is by investing in the monuments, which are worth increasingly more points (right up to 25) should you be able to afford them.
Season cards now effect gameplay, putting players through blustering blizzards or ferocious floods as their brave meeple soldiers on. These seasons can slow you down, reducing the resources you can gain or increasing the cost to play critters, hindering whatever plan you might have had. Spirecrest also adds a new mechanic to gain victory points, where players stitch together pieces of a map that they collect as they undertake their expedition, fulfilling tasks as they go. Charting means you take a faceup map tile — there is one more than the number of players — which can earn end of game bonuses. For example, one one map tile, at the end of the game, you can trade 2 wood and 2 resin for 5 points on one of them. The catch is that, at the end of the game, you must move from map tile to map tile, so if you don’t complete one, you can’t complete the next ones in line. This rewards planning, and is a good way to use resources at the end of the game, since they tend to accumulate in Everdell. And there you have it, I’ve reached my conclusion earlier than I should have, but I truly hold very few reservations about Everdell . I love the look of it, from the squishy berries to the gorgeous card art. Even the slightly over the top Evertree looks fantastic. Given that the creatures here are simply adorable, you might think that Everdell could be a bit saccharine for adult players, but it’s not — it’s an attractive, detailed theme that reminds me of warmth and love and childhood, but it never made me feel condescended to. As such, I can look at Everdell all day and I can’t wait to show my own children when they are older. Once everyone has completed their actions for the final season (fall) the game ends. The winner is determined based on the sum total of points on all of the cards that players have in their personal tableau (up to a maximum of fifteen.) There are eight bonus objectives to score as well (four of which are randomised during setup) and some cards provide bonuses when combined, or bonuses for collecting certain resources or similar.By far the largest and most complex expansion to Everdell, Spirecrest introduces a large new board that adds to the bottom of the base game, and brings with it a load of additional content. For starters, there are new critters, and each of the species that exists both in this expansion and across the base game and other expansions also gets a rabbit explorer. Those rabbits are the brave souls who will adventure into the mountainous region of the titular spirecrest. A follow-up to the game called Everdell Farshore has been announced and is expected to release in August 2023. [1] Gameplay [ edit ] Everdell Board Game Review: A Charming Forest Adventure". The Board Gamer. 2023-03-05 . Retrieved 2023-04-23.
a b Law, Keith (August 30, 2018). "The Beautiful Everdell is One of the Best Board Games of the Year". Paste Magazine . Retrieved January 18, 2019. What this results in is the initial impression that the game might be quite brief (because everyone only has two animals) but in fact, it’s more likely that the first season will last four or five rounds of turns, with the second more than doubling in length and the third and final season taking up around half of the play time. As each season begins, the players will take one or two new workers to add to their pool (depending on the season.) At the end of a couple of the seasons, all buildings that previously produced when they were built, will produce again, generating a vast amount of resources for the final round of play.The term gateway game is now used so frequently that I’m not sure it has any value. What is a gateway game anyway? Often it simply seems to suggest that a game has to be as straightforward as something like Monopoly, yet I find that a lot of games carrying the label fail to prepare their charges for what modern board games are really capable of. Everdell might be the perfect gateway game based on my new definition. Why, you ask? Simply put, it does almost everything right — it’s beautiful and well made, it’s very simple and easy to teach, yet despite all that, it’s complex enough to develop some very competitive play. If I have one complaint about Everdell , it’s only that the final scoring can be a bit messy with the frequent need to recount when the score is close. Everdell is a game of worker placement, resource collection and tableau building in a woodland realm populated by one to four groups of animals. Each player controls one such group, which will be represented in game by gorgeous little wooden animeeples. Everdell is set in a forest beneath the Evertree, which is represented in the game by a large, well made and gloriously detailed model that is included in both the basic and Collector’s Edition versions of the game. Nonetheless, I greatly enjoy the expansion, and fans of Everdell will enjoy it too. This hits all of the high marks of the series, and like all good expansions, it highlights the best parts of its base game.
The expedition map is worth a decent percentage of total score if you can pull off the whole thing. It’s nice having the choice of tiles to take so you can plan ahead a little. It’s not too tough to complete the expedition usually but it is something else to think about when planning your grand strategy. You might even consider Preparing for Season early to nab the map tile you want. The stunning art Everdell is known for flows perfectly through into the Spirecrest board which sits neatly beneath the original.One key aspect of Spirecrest is the implementation of the weather cards, which I suspect may cause some difference of opinion in the board game community concerning whether said cards are a positive addition or not to the core game experience. It is certainly the case that they force you to approach the game from a different point of view, finding new venues for collecting resources or playing down cards into your city tableau. I can understand those who feel that the effects of the weather cards are too punishing, transforming Everdell from a relative tranquil board game affair into something more serious and complex. Mind you, we are not talking added complexity in the vein of a Vital Lacerda board game design. The last thing you do when changing seasons is “travel,” meaning you move along the mountain board. As you do this, if the next weather card is not revealed, you do it now. Weather affects general rules of the game — for example, a blizzard means you take a resource fewer at forest spaces, or a drought means production cards do not activate when played — so this can alter the strategy. This is probably my favorite of the new mechanics, since it works thematically and, with 12 different weather cards, adds variation to the game. Over four seasons, players place their forest animal meeples to get resources to buy cards into a personal tableau, which give points towards winning the game or special abilities to help them build further. [2] The game starts simply, with the complexity increasing as a player's cards gain synergies from newly acquired cards. [3] In addition to the points they get from acquiring cards, players score by triggering events, from special events, from collecting certain combinations of card types, and from end game bonuses given by cards for acquiring certain other cards in their city. [4] [5] Reception [ edit ] Components of the game Everdell is a board game for 1 to 4 players designed by James Wilson and published by Starling Games in 2018. In the game, players take the role of forest animals building a city over four seasons by collecting resources, recruiting workers, and constructing buildings. The game has been well regarded by reviewers, with its art and components receiving strong praise.
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