Starling Games | Everdell 2nd Edition | Board Game | 40-80 Minute Playing Time | Ages 10+ | 1-4 Players

First of all this game is beautiful, the board the pieces the 3D tree the whole thing is lovely to look at - the game itself is maximum 4 players and we play as a family with our youngest being 6 (but generally good at board games) the game can last a while so allow a good 90mins or so although I guess it would be quicker with 2, hard to explain the game it’s basically about using resources to built a community - send your worker to get wood - build a farm - get a farmer (or a Court and a Judge or a School and a Teacher) etc then each building or character adds points and perks to your community / city - you play 4 similar but not identical seasons and then tot up your scores - the whole game is made super cute due to all of this being based in a woodland creature theme so you have mice, badgers, rabbits, bats, moles all with jobs that suit their animal persona - superb game not for the faint hearted this is not ‘roll a dice move so many places turn over a card’ kind of gameplay it is a little complicated and quite strategic but super engaging and easy to learn - highly recommended one of our absolute favourites

I like how the game design and mechanics fit satisfyingly well around the central theme of building a flourishing forest city. The art design on the playing cards is delightfully cute, and the pairing of critters with their corresponding construction in the artwork is a lovely feature.I've mostly played the 2-player game with my partner, but have also played with 3 or 4 players, where more of the unique cards and events can be showcased per game. A single player option is also available.Once players are familiar with the rules, each person's individual turn is relatively short, so that the game can progress fairly quickly without people getting bored waiting for their turn. There are good videos available online explaining the rules in around 20 minutes or less, and I would generally recommending checking these out so you can try before you buy. The paper rulebook provided also contains more artwork and lore about the game world.My family and friends have enjoyed playing this game together multiple times, so I would say this represents decent value for money. Overall quality and durability of the physical pieces (cards, resource markers, player markers, board) is very good, though I would recommend taking care when constructing the Evertree part of the board as this is the most easy part to accidently damage due to frequent construction and deconstruction.

A really good game which takes about an hour to play. You do need a large playing area, even with just two players.If I have any criticism to make, the printing on the cards are very small and you need to refer to the info on a regular basis.You need to play this a few times to establish a full understanding, and when I started to play this, there were a few rules which we "adapted" by common agreement.The tree is made from cardboard which after just a few plays tend to delaminate so initially we put some clear tape on it to assist with assembly. (If you have access to a 3D printer, you can replace the tree, but actually the tree is primarily just for show, so you can actually play the game without it with a bit of creative initiative).There are expansions, but you could end up paying an awful lot for the game, and I like the game in its basic form.

Very cute and great fun. Very high quality components - that make the game more engaging - and worth the price. The rules are probably slightly too complex for very young children but the basic rules are covered in just a few pages - the variety comes from the text on the cards - so older children will have no trouble and the learning curve is not steep at all. There are also multiple expansions if you want to increase the complexity and length of the game - but the base game is great on its own and the ultra cute theme makes it a firm family favourite.

I was intrigued by the first moment I saw this game, I did some research and I purchased. Me and my boyfriend played for the first time this evening and we absolutely love it! the world of the game is effectively detailed and the art is fantastic, it’s really engaging! It is so conveniently packaged and well made. Happy with this purchase!

In my opinion this game is overpriced and I don't get the tree thingy. I mean, it's a fun game... but if you are a board game geek like us... well, you have played already similar games that are less pricey and as good as Everdell. The components of the game look very nice, which I guess makes this game more pricey... but oh, the font is so small and uncomfortable to read, hopefully they will fix that in future editions?The game arrived in perfect conditions and on time (even if it was in Christmas season), so very thankful about that!

This game is wonderful! The design with all the little critters is beautiful, the big 3D tree makes it look like a piece of art, the gameplay is so much fun! The cards add an element of luck and ensure that no two games are the same, but you also need to use strategy.Works great for two players but will certainly also be fun with friends once the Pandemic is over.Not very aggressive gameplay. Most of the time each player is working on their own thing, you can get in the way of each other but there is only little opportunity to directly "attack" the other player(s) - which is a plus for me as I often don't like to have to risk all my hard earned supplies in a fight in a strategy game.

This is one of my favourite board games. It is so easy to pick up, fun to play and its accessible to so many people.All the little resources pieces are also super satisfying to play with.It may seem expensive but we have easily reduced our cost-per-play and we’re still going!

On first order, I received a Japanese, regular (not collector) edition.After re-ordering, I did receive an English version, but still NOT the Collector's Edition.

Este juego de mesa es TAN adorable y tan bueno que me he hecho toda la colección con las expansiones. Lo recomiendo al 100%. Es increíble todo lo que trae, como se juega, el diseño en sí, etc. Una gran idea y un gran proyecto.

Bellissimo

Beautiful and fun game. Worth gifting to someone that enjoys tabletop games.

Everdell is a turn-based worker-placement economic/farming/building game, similar to Viticulture (if you like one, you'll like the other).In a nutshell, you place your workers on the board to get resources of different types (wood, resin, pebbles, berries, cards, coins), and when you have enough resources to pay for a card, you lay it in your "city" in front of you, reaping the reward of that card. This progresses until you have no more workers, can purchase nothing else with your resources in hand, or opt to pass. At this point you retrieve all your workers, get some additional, and enjoy the benefits of the next phase (which is often the re-activating of some of your cards that make even more additional resources for the coming round). At the end of three rounds, players score to see who had the highest number of points/coins.Everdell has a few interesting mechanics that make it different from other worker-placement games. First, you are limited to the number of cards you may play ("in your city"), which means you might build the perfect engine and discover while you can afford expensive items you have no where to put them! So, it requires long term planning, strategy, and thinking about your options. Second, certain cards allow you to obtain other cards for free, so if you get the dependency chains just right, you can save your resources (but your city fills quicker). Third, the game doesn't hit a stall state where one player has done everything they can and must wait while others catch up before going to the next phase ("season"), rather you retrieve your workers and keep going. Although, at the end of the game, you might have to wait for players, but things move quickly and you can total your points at that time.This last item is where the game really shines -- because you're effectively making a choice: More Workers or Linger for more scraps (because you don't have enough workers to get all the resources you need). In the latter case, you get more millage from your turn, but the other player is going to be able to grab the stuff you want. However, there's a balance, in that your workers remain parked in places they'd like to be visiting (so you can block them).The game design in beautiful, it's colorful, it's got cute characters, and yes, there's a huge 3D cardboard tree as well. It's got nice little resource objects to fidget with while you're contemplating your turn. There's a huge deck of options, all kinds of variation cards so each game is unique and has its own bonuses, and there's even a mode where it can play single player. It's easy to explain and jump into.It is a good game for players that like a broad to overwhelming array of options that merely grows even larger with play. But, if you plan too far ahead, someone else can easily swoop in, take the card you had pinned everything on, and cause you to go back to the drawing board ...but because there are so many other options, the setback isn't that bad, often requiring a slight pivot of strategy, and so the game doesn't get frustrating when things don't work out as hoped.The cons. Turns out the 3D tree is highly superficial (and it has to be disassembled for storage). It's only function is to hold extra workers and four tiny cards, as well as some reminder text. The tree itself also holds the draw deck, which can make it difficult to get to.Print isn't in the best contrast or color selection, some text appears to be in a thin flourished font, and it's all a little too small for older eyes or bad lighting. The board itself is extremely busy, and the relative sizes of "one worker" / "two workers" / "many workers" is subtle. (Eventually you learn lower areas of the board are for multi-workers, cards have two spots printed on them, and pretty much everything else is one worker. Additionally, the iconography is pretty good, so the only thing to really worry about are the cards, which suffer less from the above issues.)The cards try to jam a lot of information onto them, and this can make reading them difficult due to the small sizes. For instance, want to know how many cards there are of that type? You have to look closely at the art work to find a very tiny number etched in a rock. Want to see what character a card can bring in? There's tiny print and even a tinier picture at the bottom right. We literally keep a magnifying glass at the table.Bonus cards better on readability, but they tend to use a comma where they mean an ampersand. But, again, none of this really detracts from game play, as once you get it, you won't need to do a lot of reading.The instruction manual is beautiful to look at and contains a lot of flavor content, and I give them props for keep it all to the side rather than interlacing it with the instructions themselves. The only serious complaint would be that the main instructions didn't go far enough in the text department. For instance, it'll show you a card and there'll be a tiny flyout reading "free character" and that's it. ...does that mean this card it's printed on is free? ...do all cards have this? ...are the cards that have this special? ...how do you use this, do you use this, when would you use this?Turns out, if you play the game the first time and discover that you've got a bunch of tiny chits you didn't use and a number of cards they fit on and you see other similar cards with those names, it'll click what they're for. And, it wouldn't have taken much to explain "If you card shows this, and the thing it names is available, cover it with one of those, and take the card without paying the cost."On the whole, Everdell is a very enjoyable and satisfying thematic game that offers strategy, construction, and engine building (over three phases) in such a way that there are extra considerations that make game play more fun.Would highly recommend this for game nights and gifting.