Let's get outdoorsy!

Meadow: Downstream is the expansion for the beloved and beautiful tableau building game Meadow. We really like the game, yet it took some time to finally get this expansion to the table. As expected, it is an awesome addition to the base game, expanding on it in more than one way! 🤩

The first thing everyone will notice is the new board, which is actually double sided! 😮 You can play 2 slightly different modes depending on the side used. This board is mostly a track for your Kayaker meeple - the further along you are, the more points you get. The way you move on the track has to do with the River Deck cards.

These new cards are accessible from this board using your new action marker (and some base game abilities as well). Instead of points, river cards have oar symbols. The more arrows on them, the more you move. 🧐 So actually the more of these you play the more points you can unlock with your kayaker. Playing them works the same as in the base game, though there is a new terrain type and some new symbols too.

There are spots on the kayak track that give you additional actions or new bonus tokens or cards. Usually the faster you reach these, the more/better things are available, lending the game a bit of a race aspect. 🚣 To add to this, there are also shortcuts you can take, forgoing bonuses but allowing you to jump forward on the track.

💬 The biggest change is definitely the new 6th action marker. With this you have 20% more actions each round, which makes games longer but also gives more time for strategic (and fun) tableau building. I think this playtime lengthening is worth it for sure. With the bonus actions from the kayak track you can potentially play even more cards for free, growing your tableau that much more! 🤯

While I think Downstream is not necessarily a must-buy (because the base game works so good), it is absolutely phenomenal, and I don’t think we will ever play without it. 🥰