Another play of Everdell, this time with three of us and trying out the Pearlbrook expansion. Pearlbrook adds a board with a lake/river containing five new locations, which can only be visited by a new Frog Ambassador piece, and everybody gets one of them. The Ambassador can only go to these locations, and one addtional location that is on a new card shuffled into the deck.
Four of the locations have one card on them, which is only revealed when you place your Ambassador there. However, you can only place it there if you have enough cards in your city of a given type, much like you need to qualify for claiming basic events. For being first, you get a pearl, and can do the action on the revealed card, if able. These cards are a random assortment of two locations and two citizens. One lets you discard particular cards from your hand in return for a point token and a pearl. The other lets you return a point token and some resources in return for drawing cards and a pearl. The fifth new location lets you discard two resources and two cards for one pearl.
Additionally, there are Wonders and Adornments. Wonders replace the basic events and are valued at 10, 15, 20 or 25 points, each costing an increasing number of twigs, resin, pebbles, and pearls to obtain. Like events, only one player can claim any given Wonder. Each player is also dealt two Adornments at the beginning of the game. Each costs one pearl to play, and gives an immediate effect, and then an end game scoring bonus.
Add in some new cards, special events and forest locations, and that’s the entirety of the expansion.
My wife was having trouble focusing today, so she felt that she made a number of tactical mistakes. One that I know of for certain is she missed that a Crane had entered the Meadow at one point and didn’t take it, so I did when it got to my turn. She was able to get the 10 point Wonder, and was the first to get one. However, I got the only other one taken, and it was the 25 pointer.
I won with 76 points. Her brother was second with 69, and she came in third with 56.
Pearlbrook was interesting. It is hard to get pearls, as you only get to place your Ambassador four times at the most, and while you get one when you go to one of the river destinations, you may not be able to use the card there because you don’t have the necessary cards or resources to discard. As such, you have to carefully deliberate between the Adornments and the Wonders. The Wonders are worth major points, but can cost a lot in resources. The Adornments only cost a single pearl and give an immediate effect, but the end game bonus may not come into play. For instance, I had one that gave a bonus 3 points for every Wonder I had. I got 3 for that, but it easily could have been 0.
Contrast with Spirecrest, which has all the new stuff happen automatically after you prepare for season, but with the penalty of the weather effects. I think Pearlbrook requires more forethought, and you need to know if you are going to commit to the Wonders or not probably by the beginning of Summer. This is just based on one play, admittedly, but the pearl game seems really tight. I got lucky in having an Adornment which gave me a pearl in return, otherwise I would only have been able to take the 15 point Wonder at best, or not played one of my Adornments, either of which could have cost me the win. Spirecrest has some forethought in picking map tiles, but otherwise it just requires estimating which of the destination cards will benefit you the most. In any case, I enjoyed it.
Newleaf up next! Probably!
