Everdell for two

🐾 Everdell is one of our favorite games, so naturally we are drawn to every new version that comes out. The latest is Everdell Duo, a 2p-only version. I never had any problems playing the original with 2 players, so I didn’t think this was necessary - but after seeing some great duel versions of other games lately, I was intrigued. 🙃

The gameplay is familiar: 👉 You either place workers to gain resources or play cards from your hand or the shared Meadow. There’s also a new action that lets you take a card to your hand. As before, your goal is to create a well-scoring town full of synergistic effects. The main change are the Sun ☀️ and Moon 🌙 tokens, that move after each player action, acting as a timer for rounds. ⏱️ The location of these tokens also influences which cards you can play from the Meadow.

Critters and constructions work similarly as before:
🟢Green cards provide income
🔴Red cards add new shared worker spaces
⚪Grey cards offer one-time effects
🟣Purple cards score at game end
🔵Blue cards grant passive abilities.
Many effects are new, though you’ll recognize some illustrations from the older games. There are also the usual objectives to complete for additional points.

So gameplay is familiar, which is good, but one of the new mechanics, the fixed turn structure - unfortunately breaks what makes Everdell so fun for us: The flexibility of rounds. 😞 Normally even if someone goes into the next season, you get to continue at your own pace, and it can feel so good when you draw out your seasons and chain a bunch of actions together that you didn’t even think was possible to achieve. Maybe you managed to generate some resources so you can squeeze out even more points. Timing season change was also very strategic due to worker blocking. Now that’s gone, after 6 turns each you go on to the next season. It’s a real pity. 

That said, there’s a co-op mode, which might be Everdell Duo’s saving grace. We haven’t tried it yet, so I can’t say for sure. It features 15 Chapters where you work together against skunk 🦨 meeples that block spaces as they move around the board. We’ll see how that goes. 🤔