Everdell (2018)

How to Play Everdell

Everdell setup

1. Place the board on the table. Place the Ever Tree on the stump at the top of the board.

2. Place the following:

• twigs, resin, pebbles, and berries in piles along the river bank
• point tokens and occupied tokens beside the board

3. Shuffle and place the Forest cards on the forest clearings.

• Use 3 cards for two players, or 4 cards for three or four players.
• Put the remaining cards back in the box.

4. Place the 4 basic Event tiles along the river, then shuffle the special Event cards and place 4 special Events on the lower branches of the Ever Tree. Put the remaining special Events back in the box.

5. Shuffle the main deck and randomly place 8 cards face up in the Meadow. Place the deck inside the Ever Tree.

6. Each player chooses a color and starts with 2 workers of that color. The first player will draw 5 cards from the deck, the second player 6 cards, the third player 7 cards, and the fourth player 8 cards.

7. Each player places their 4 other workers on the upper branches of the Ever Tree: 1 worker on spring, 1 on summer, and 2 on autumn. Select a player to go first.

Gameplay

In their turn, a player can take one of three actions:

1. Place a Worker: Each player has a collection of Worker pieces. These are placed on the board locations, events, and on Destination cards. Workers perform various actions to further the development of a player’s tableau: gathering resources, drawing cards, and taking other special actions.

2. Play a Card: Each player is building and populating a city; a tableau of up to 15 Construction and Critter cards. There are five types of cards: Travelers, Production, Destination, Governance, and Prosperity. Cards generate resources (twigs, resin, pebbles, and berries), grant abilities, and ultimately score points. The interactions of the cards reveal numerous strategies and a near infinite variety of working cities.

3. Prepare for the next Season: Workers are returned to the players supply and new workers are added. The game is played from Winter through to the onset of the following winter, at which point the player with the city with the most points wins.

Everdell Official Rulebook

Everdell Review

“We love games that draw us into a new world while we play. And Everdell definitely delivers on that. We totally enjoy sending our mice, squirrels, turtles, and hedgehogs out to gather resources and help us build out our forest cities.

And we absolutely love the artwork and tactile joy of the twigs, boulders, resin gems, and rubber berries. They’re so nice to use for resources that it further pulls us right into the forest realm.”

theboardgamefamily.com

“The game builds and progresses nicely. The first season is short — a sort of foraging for resources — and that builds to a long final season, in which players are scrambling for points and putting the final touches on their city.

And for something that builds so nicely, the game plays quickly. We’re usually done in an hour or so. Everdell works well at all player counts, and it is easy to teach. But it is hard to master, and after many plays, I’m still finding fun card interactions and side strategies.”

Chris Wray, opinionatedgamers.com

“…It’s easy to play the game, but it’s hard to run away with it, and that’s a fantastic quality for a game. It also helps in getting over the learning curve, because despite the frustrations in your first few games, it’s easy to want to play again when you’re only losing by a little bit. You tell yourself that, once you master what’s in the deck and what to expect that you’ll be able to get over the hump and secure yourself a win.”

Logan Giannini, meeplemountain.com

The content of this article is originally from Board Game Geek, board-game.co.uk and daroolz.com. For more information and a better understanding of the game, you can watch the videos below.