My Lil’ Everdell Review

boardgamequest.com:

In my attempt at trying to ween my kids off mindless mass-market games (a la Trouble or Candyland), I’m always on the lookout for games in the “My First” or “My Lil'” lines. My tykes have cut their teeth on a number of HABA games throughout the years, and lately have really been into Catan Junior, so I was hoping My Lil’ Everdell would be a good next step for them.

If you are not familiar with it, Everdell is a worker placement and engine-building game published by Starling Games. It’s a really good game, but a bit too complex for my almost 6-year olds. Is My Lil’ Everdell a better fit? Let’s find out.

My Lil’ Everdell is played over 4 rounds, and in each round players take 3 turns. On a player’s turn they first place one of their friends to a worker placement spot. The spots come in three types: large ones that grant 1 resource, which can hold any number of friends; dice spots, which grant what’s showing on the dice, but can only hold 1 friend (first come, first serve); and spots on red cards that players can build into their tableau, usable only by them.

After placing a friend, players can optionally buy a card to add to their tableau. Much like the original Everdell, cards come in 5 types: production, one-time bonus, new worker-placement spot, ones that trigger off other cards, or end-game bonuses. Cards will cost anywhere from 1-3 resources of varying types (berries, sticks, or amber).

Finally, if a player has acquired enough cards to put on a parade, they can claim the associated victory point token. These require you to have X number of houses or critter cards, or different sets of colors.

Then the next player takes their turn.

After each player has taken 3 turns, the round ends and the first player marker passes, dice are rerolled, and players’ production cards produce resources for them. After the 4th round, the game ends and victory points are tallied from cards, tokens, and purple cards’ abilities. The player with the most points is the winner.

I was a