Gnome Hollow Components Overview and Impressions
gamesreviews.comGnome Hollow was one of the must-have titles from GenCon 2024, and I’m still not sure whether that was because of the gameplay or because of the magnetic player board and pieces. I wasn’t able to get to GenCon this year, but this would have been on my list of games to pick up – thankfully, The OP sent over a copy of the game to review, so let’s dive in and see what comes in the box!
Gnome Hollow will have players playing tiles down to the table, collecting mushrooms, moving their gnomes, and attempting to collect points. In my opinion, there is a certain quality expected from tile laying games – players are handling the the tiles so much, and they are randomly placed into a draw bag as well, so having them at a certain thickness is pretty important.
I would argue that in a blind bag drawing game, tiles can be too thick. If everything is nicely stacked and easily accessible, I love a nice thick tile, but when it comes to drawing tiles randomly from a bag, a slightly thinner tile is preferred, in my opinion. Gnome Hollow balances this well. The tiles are not as thin as I’ve seen from other companies – looking at you, Life of the Amazonia – but also not too thick to make drawing them from the bag a hassle. They punched out really well too, which was nice – no torn corners here!
The included bag is fine – I’ve seen really great draw bags in games and really poor draw bags in games. This one sits right in the middle. Functional and durable, but not flashy.
In 2024 we are accustomed to overproduced board game experiences, and I know a lot of people are going to be clamouring for a deluxe version of the game that turns all the cardboard mushroom tokens into wooden tokens. While that might be a nice addition to the game, it’s also going to drive up the price substantially, so I’m glad to see that not included here. The cardboard tokens are actually really practical to the experience, since there are times when they will be stacked on top of the tiles being laid. Thick wood
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