Depending on which out of the three cards you choose, Rugwort will receive a set amount of point tokens. The Spirecrest expansion for Everdell introduces weather cards, big critters, and a journey/exploration mechanic. With eight identical farms in the base game, I am smitten with the decision to diversify the farms so that they now both spark a tough decision and produce an I- knew-that-would-pay-off moment at the turn to Autumn. Sure, the leftmost card on the market row is looking rather tempting, but do you really want to hand over three point tokens to Rugwort?

I’ve included a word on my favorite components up front and a quick snapshot of my “go-to” configuration at the end. Having worked tirelessly to build the perfect woodland city, and having populated it with only the cutest, most charming inhabitants, the time has come for a new adventure. However, Spirecrest injects a sense of the unexplored, as players now undertake a journey through the rocky outcroppings to the south of the meadow.

One of my main criticisms regarding the Pearlbrook expansion was the lack of actual content in the retail edition, where the main culprit was undoubtedly the absence of Event and Adornment cards. The player who is the first to discover a new region flips the map tiles face-up while simultaneously revealing the next Weather card in line. To be honest, just flipping through these cards made me fall in love with Newleaf and the ‘Dell all over again. The Spirecrest expansion adds a second set of actions to your season and does not distract you from the main objective of building your city.

Yes, it is silly to see one of your owl meeples riding in a saddle of a mountain goat, but also very satisfying because these Big Critters alter the rules of that one worker when it is placed. What keeps me coming back for more, though, is that you bring the mountaintop high back to the ground and get back to business from season to season. One key aspect of Spirecrest is the implementation of the weather cards, which I suspect may cause some difference of opinion in the board game community concerning whether said cards are a positive addition or not to the core game experience.

When reviewing a game it’s really hard not to compare it to other games that share a key mechanism or theme. You simply take the leftover tile, add it to Rugwort’s expedition row and then proceed to the next step of the Exploration action. But in practice, I have yet to encounter a situation where it is unclear who is actually in possession of the mighty bear Honeypaw or the majestic white wolf Whisper to name but a few. Until recently, I’m not sure I had ever had six people around the table at once who knew how to play.

For me though, I enjoy the “game within the game” of constructing the most efficient Expedition and/or leaving my opponent with Map Tiles that I know will be hard on them to accomplish and watching them get frustrated. Based on several testimonies on Board Game Geek it would seem that I am not alone experiencing this defect, as several people have reported similar issues with damaged meeples as a result.

Discovery cards let players encounter intrepid new critters and locations on their journey, providing unique new strategies and abilities. I’ve not spoken of the Everdell for Everyone pack to this point, but the shift from Husbands/Wives to Harvesters/Gatherers is complete, with every card now bearing the new wording. Five full-scale expansions have come to the market, as well as a substantial handful of smaller modular options, culminating in the multi-million dollar Kickstarter campaign that delivered the Complete Collection in one massive twenty-pound box this autumn. If my favorite part of the expansion is the Discovery Cards, I’ll say that my least favorite is the Weather Cards.

But when I’m looking for an expansion, I’m usually looking for one that is less jarring to my sensibilities. I can still remember my daughter striving to build the EverTree—her favorite card—only to then trash it via the University or Ruins for a bonus and a chance at the twenty-five point Starfalls Flame. Unlike the Bellfaire expansion, Spirecrest is not modular and you either play with or without the full expansion. As is the case with the solo mode in the base game, playing Spirecrest solitaire requires extremely little upkeep on the part of the human player. All the abilities or effects are detailed on the cards meaning there’s no need to learn them all pre-game.My point is that this particular collector´s edition adds a cherry on top, as opposed to Pearlbrook which robbed you blind of the entire dessert if you acquired the retail equivalent. So how does Spirecrest fit into the expanding Everdell universe and is it worth your hard earned twigs and berries? With so many new cards, Newleaf also includes the golden doors that grant a certain backdoor accessibility. Because there are often multiple modules within each expansion, I’ve chosen to focus on each retail package in this ranking. The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.