Gently swaying branches in the breeze. Dappled sunlight filtered through chlorophyll-drenched air. Seedlings taking root and stretching towards the sky. Evoking all things cozy and verdant, Evergreen, the 2022 board game by the same designer as Photosynthesis, is like a walk through a cool forest on a summer’s day. Until, that is, you realize that it requires cutthroat and almost mathematical arboreal biome assessment skills from the players as they stretch their natural resource management skills to the breaking point.
You are the master of your green planet, an all seeing, all knowing godlike being with the singular goal of developing the most efficient forest ever grown. Will the pressure to create the perfect natural area get to you, or will you reach new heights of dendroidal magnificence while also taking the time to appreciate the cozy little arctic foxes? Find out with Evergreen, for 1-4 players.
Gameplay Overview:
Your goal in Evergreen is to make your planet, represented by an individual player board for each player, as green as you can across four seasons of play. There are end-of-season scoring conditions and end-of-game scoring conditions, and the player with the highest point tally when play concludes takes the title of greatest forester.
The player’s boards are split into a variety of different biomes, and a token indicating the sun moves to a different cardinal direction around the board for each season. The position of the sun marker in relation to each biome is central to how points are scored. On a turn, players draft a card from a central market, with different cards representing different biomes. The cards also have powers listed on them, guiding the bonus actions that the players will be able to perform on that turn. Powers allow you to either plant extra sprouts, grow progressively larger trees within their indicated biomes, bud to get points outright, add bushes to your board to connect forest sections together, or add lakes, allowing you to grow your nearby trees more quickly. Each power has its own progress track and they get incrementally stronger the more often you use that particular power, creating an engine building element to gameplay.
After each player has drafted a card they simultaneously perform their chosen action in the card’s biome by moving tokens on their board (planting 2 sprouts, growing two trees, planting a sprout and growing a tree, or ignoring the biome indicated and either planting or growing anywhere on their board) and perform whatever bonus power is listed on the card.
Cards not drafted by players are added to the Fertility Zone. These add up to create bonus modifiers for each biome’s large trees, scored at the end of the game. These points are make or break in most cases, making the decision between which cards you take and which you let pass over to the Fertility Zone vital to your success or failure.
When the turn is over, the first player token moves, and a new turn begins. There are progressively fewer turns per round as the seasons progress. For the first round, there are four turns, for the second there are three, and so on. At the end of the final turn in each season, scoring takes place. Players score points for each tree that the sunlight hits and for the largest grouping of trees and bushes on their board.
When the final season is complete, each big tree is scored based on how the cards in the fertility zone are ordered, and the player who has racked up the most points throughout the game wins.
Game Experience:
Solo gamers and players who like the parallel turn style of roll and writes will particularly appreciate the Evergreen play experience. While it does scale well for multiple player counts, being just as effective at four players as it is with two, I think this shines as a solo game. Despite the interactive card drafting process, you’re essentially playing against yourself and your own placement strategies throughout the game. You will be your own worst enemy as you play, instead of worrying about other players whopping you with ‘take that’ turns.
The scoring process is a little bit overwhelming to decipher from the written instructions, but once you’ve seen it acted out on the board for one round, you’ll have it down for the rest of the game. The push and pull between short term and long term scoring goals in the game are engaging and challenging as you watch the consequences of your own decisions unfold on your board.
At any given point in the game there are always multiple strategies and pathways to victory to consider, whether you’re working on stocking the Fertility Zone for optimal end of game scoring or maxing out your special power gauges to create an effective tree planting engine.
What Evergreen does well that feels unique is taking the style of a roll-and-write game and translating it into a satisfying physical artifact. The Biome art on the cards is lovely, with a rich and mature color palette and simple, but telling, illustrations. The card iconography is easy to interpret, and the way that the tiny wooden feature tokens slat into the board as you grow your sprouts into trees is so much more pleasing than ticking off boxes on a pad of paper. The sun tangibly traveling around the board as the seasons progress gives the game a sense of movement and progress that boosts the narrative of growth, and creates a natural arc to gameplay.
Final Thoughts:
Many times games that are of a lighter complexity also feel light in production quality. There is a trend of filler games that are cheap and easy to digest, but that don’t leave much of an impact on you. Evergreen bucks this trend by providing an easy to teach and play game that stands out for its marriage of design and theme in a high quality, well produced package. If you want a main event game that is beginner friendly, or you want a solo game that still feels like a showpiece, Evergreen is an excellent option.
Final Score: 4 Stars – Evergreen is simple but beautiful, with fertile ground for strategy to grow
Hits:
• Well designed player board
• Lovely art and iconography.
• Each game feels a little different
Misses:
• Very little player interaction
• Scoring can be complicated to explain to new players until demonstrated
Source: Board Game Quest
