My first play of Everdell lasted three hours. I was new to so many of the concepts in the base game that we were wide-eyed throughout the experience. Three of us played that first game. With Bellfaire, the invitation was set for up to six players. Six players! On the one hand, that’s so exciting. But on the other hand, every time a new player comes to the table, the length of the game jumps inordinately. Until recently, I’m not sure I had ever had six people around the table at once who knew how to play. Those that did weren’t looking for the extended experience. Cardinals: Increase your hand limit by 2 cards. After you draw cards, either from placing a worker or another effect, you may draw 1 additonal card. My daughter even passed me her Rugwort cards as part of a card effect. It was a sweet gesture, because she knew I would just discard him at the first opportunity in favor of resources, points, or anything else. You may keep this drawn card, or you may give it to an opponent. If you give it away, draw 2 cards. Regardless of the merits, I knew from the start that Bellfaire would have to appeal to me somewhere other than the player count.

All powers are additions to the normal rules of the game, so they do not replace the normal functions of workers that are allowed in the game, and they are not considered "card- playing abilities". 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. The cards are much like the Events—they make sense. My favorites at this point include the adorable butterfly Poet who scours the Meadow so well, and the Greenhouse, which shares a space with the farm for some combo-tastic resource options. To be honest, just flipping through these cards made me fall in love with Newleaf and the ‘Dell all over again. If gaining, choose one of the available tokens, gain the resources and cards, then move that token to the "trade" side.

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As I mentioned at the start of the review, players can mix and match the different modules. If you’re playing with basic Everdell, I think it is easy to mix in the Bellefaire board and everything on it, and to throw in the new player powers. You may only do this 1 time for each Production card (you may not use this ability to activate a Production card 3 times). You must discard the card before you activate the Production card. After playing Pearlbrook, I was a little worried about Spirecrest. This massive expansion introduces beautiful new scenery, another oversized specialized meeple—the Rabbit Traveler, several tokens and cards, and, of course, the OVERsized (and wonderfully adorable) Big Critters. What separated Spirecrest from Pearlbrook and landed it higher on the list is the way the new mechanisms keep attention on the base experience.

Spirecrest proved its worth admirably. The Big Critters were a massive help in the wider affair, and the Weather effects forced the same sort of strategic adjustments along the way. We were still able to pull off most of our Expedition targets. For what it’s worth, the new saddles (if any out there know the frustration of the first edition’s troubles) work beautifully—we were so happy to finally mount up the critters properly. Various cards didn’t take up space in our cities, which opened the door to my daughter’s city containing 22 cards (thank you Corrin Evertail!) and mine having 20 thanks to a Farm/Greenhouse combo that was outside the city, a Legend/Harvester combo, and others. Kaufman, Rachel (December 11, 2018). "The 10 Best Games of 2018". Smithsonian . Retrieved January 18, 2019. the locations along the edge of the river). When you visit a Basic location, also gain the "any" resource token from there. You may use each token one time as any resource of your choice. The Everdell franchise is known for its stunning artwork and Bellfaire does not disappoint. Every aspect of the game fits beautifully with the main board and other expansions, should you wish to play with all of them together.

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In addition to the worker placement spots that allow players to collect one of the games resources, everyone also has a hand of personal cards, as well as access to a shared hand of eight cards that are placed on the board, in a location called The Meadow. Many cards can be played without an action (although they may cost resources) so whilst the game appears as if it will be very brief thanks to the low number of workers in hand, it is actually much more involved that you might think. Law, Keith (December 18, 2018). "The Best Board Games of 2018 Party games, town-building, reissues, and more". Vulture . Retrieved January 18, 2019.

The only component in the entire series that I’ll replace (via Etsy, no doubt) is the set of “Open” signs that came with Pearlbrook. They are a bit oversized and unwieldy, and they don’t fit in the base box. I’m going for “just large enough to notice.” Something the size of the meeples will do. Otherwise, I keep the expansion-specific materials and the less common modules in their boxes for the time that we’re itching to bring them to the table. Likewise, the Expedition map tiles add a bit of the good stress by looking toward the endgame in anticipation of leftover cards, pebbles, resin, and the like. Building the path of a one-way journey adds an appropriate bit of intrigue. During setup, shuffle the Garland Awards and draw 1, placing it either faceup beside the main board or in the designated area on the Bellfaire board. Everdell Bellfaire is the most recent expansion in the Everdell line. The expansion is modular, meaning it comes with different pieces that can be mixed and matched. While it changes gameplay less than Pearlbrook and Spirecrest, and is less thematic, I consider it the most functional of the expansions, since it has some cool elements that integrate nicely with the base game. While Pearlbrook is my favorite of the expansions, if you’re looking primarily for a few extras (including components and rules for 5-6 players), Bellfaire is where you should look first.Fear not the absurdly overexpanded play. I doubt I’ll try it again soon, but it was interesting! Settled But wait, there’s more! I am so very grateful for two additional perks that accompany the expansion, and they collectively form my second reason for placing Mistwood higher on the list. I suppose they could have been included anywhere, but they were in this box, which only served to secure the ranking. First, more Legends! I LOVE the Legends. My emotional spectrum experienced a thrill ride with this particular module. Second: the Through Every Season farm cards. With eight identical farms in the base game, I am smitten with the decision to diversify the farms so that they now both spark a tough decision and produce an I- knew-that-would-pay-off moment at the turn to Autumn.