Let's play Everdell, an adorable critter board game!

 

When it comes to board games one of the first things that draws me in is definitely the aesthetics of the game from the cover to how the photos of the game laid out on the back of the box looks. I love board games that involve character tokens, collecting items and a good theme, so when I first spotted Everdell I knew I wanted it for our ever-growing board game collection. Everdell is a game full of stunning artwork & cute as can be critter cards. It is by Starling Games, I was lucky enough to be gifted a copy of the game from their publisher Tabletop Tycoon. This game is recommended for ages 10+, It can be played with one to four players and is played over the course of forty to eighty minutes. In this game you will play as cute woodland creatures competing to build the best town & earn enough points to become the champion. 

Your town will consist of building cards & town folk cards, the luck of the draw really helps you progress in this game, as starting off with cards that require a ton of resources to build can really put a damper on your movements. When you first start there are a lot of rules to digest & I am not going to lie, our first game was a little rough as we all tried to get used to the new game. Once we finished our first game we had a better understanding of how the rules worked & how to plan better for the next game to make our cards work to our advantage. Every game after the first has been quite smooth & the game is a lot of fun to play. 

The character cards are quite adorable & very well drawn, we love seeing the different creatures and buildings that can be added to our towns. Along with character cards there are also coins & resources that will be collected during each round of the game. The resources you collect are what allow you to build & place creatures in your town, they are each a form of currency. If you get lucky you may get a free character card added to your town by having the building that they go with already in your town. It is extremely helpful if you are able to get a few buildings built up then get lucky enough to have a free creature character for each one. 

Your town can only have fifteen cards in it, so you want to make sure you are building cards that are worth as many points as possible. There are cards that are worth zero points & even some cards you can play into an opponent's town that gives them negative points. There are four stages to the game & during each you will have a different number of turns, for example during the first round you may end up with a bad hand, so you are only able to take two turns before going into the next phase. However, if you have a hand that is easy to build & collect resources right you could have several extra turns before needing to move onto the second phase. All players will move at a different rate so when the first person ends it may take a little while until everyone is done. Once the last person finishes all of their possible moves, you can then add up your point total & see who won. So far, my husband has been the only one to win, but the rest of us have been close & victory will belong to one of us soon! 

The various aspects of this game are beautiful. From the main board to the cards and even the small resources are very well made. In the original edition the coins and the little closed doors that are used are made from cardboard, but in the collector's edition you will get metal coins & wooden doors along with the original cardboard versions, so you are free to choose which you'd like to play with. We personally prefer playing with the solid metal coins because we like how they feel in our hands. I can see this becoming one of our go to games when we have a game night. It has already claimed a higher spot up on our game shelf which is where we stick the best of the best. This game can be purchased for $75 on their website, it might seem like a lot but if you are a board game player you'll know this is a great price for how much comes packed into this game. As an added bonus this game has several expansion packs which can add extra players & lengthen gameplay. If you love board games head over to their website to check out Everdell & see some of their other wonderful games. 

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Tabletop Tycoon for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.