Winter is coming

Let’s talk about ❄️ Endless Winter! Lately we have heard many lukewarm opinions about it. On the other hand there are those that speak of it really highly. I am definitely more on the positive side - my first impression of a solo game was not that great. Now after finally convincing Reni to play, we both really liked the game!

Endless Winter is a real amalgamation of almost every game mechanic known to mankind. 😄 Some might not like this, but I am absolutely a fan of the idea. Parts of it might be a bit watered up, but in my opinion most of it works well.

First and foremost you have worker placement, tightly knit with deck building. You send your workers to locations, but use labor, food and tools to pay for the actions themselves. Labor mostly comes from cards that you play together with the worker placement. A game only lasts 4 rounds and you have 3 workers, so that’s 12 placements. But don’t let that fool you - these action columns allow you to do multiple things, so it feels like a lot more - both in what you achieve, and how much time the game takes. We easily clocked in about 2 hours for both 2p plays. That’s also due to the fact that you can do satisfying combo chains, so it’s worth the time investment!

⛺ You have some area control on a randomly built board where you place and move camps or transform them into villages. It works well and is fun.
🪨 A favorite of mine is the megalith board, where you place cool slabs for bonuses and points.
🐾 Set collection of animals cannot miss either, that is if you don’t slay them for resources.😅
🪬 Another staple are icons that you uncover on your player board to give you ongoing income.
🃏 Cards are also multi-use, as you can save them for the Eclipse phase at the round end for valuable effects.

The only lackluster thing is the Offering track, which barely has any rewards, but is a necessary way to earn points.

All in all, I think this is a great game that successfully mashes many mechanics into a fun package. It’s not a tight game, but you do have to manage resources well and watch out for the order you do actions in. The game allows you to do many things, and offers many ways to succeed.