Everdell Duo: Review

Everdell Duo: Review 

Information:

Mechanics: Worker Placement, Engine Builder, Duel, Cooperative
Player Age: 13+ 

Player Count: 1 - 2 Players 

Time to Play: 30 Minutes 
Game Designer: James. A. Wilson, Clarissa A. Wilson
Game Artist:  Andrew Bosley, Enggar Adirasa

Publisher: Starling Games

Year Published: 2025

BGG Weight: 2.77
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Refresh:

Everdell is a Starling Games evergreen franchise. Everdell Duo is the latest iteration that streamlines the game, catering for just 1-2 players. It is still a worker placement/tableu building game with set and variable worker placement locations that will change each season (round). There are also events like the original game that requires a worker to be sent to the location once the condition is met. 

In Everdell Duo, these events can also be based on your opponent requiring a larger combination of certain types of cards/resources than your opponent. .

If you are familiar with Everdell then you know there are 5 different card types consisting of constructions and critters. The 5 types are;

- Traveller (tan) instant abilities that activate when played.

- Production (green) abilities that activate when played and again during two of the seasons (spring and autumn).

- Governance (blue) that activates when the condition is met, which will often create card discounts. Some of these cards will have a star on them to signify that only one can be used for its purpose. So multiple cards with stars cannot be combined to reduce the cost of a card further.

- Prosperity (purple) cards will contain end-game scoring benefits.

- Destination (red) cards offer new locations in Duo that will be open to both players.

Actions:

There are six turns for each player in the four seasons. Unlike the original game, the number of turns isn't variable. On a turn, a player can perform one of three possible actions. Each action will move either the sun or the moon marker. If the marker is moved fully to the right of the board, the action pertaining solely to that marker cannot be used again.

The actions are either

- To place a worker (move the sun marker).

- Play a card (move the moon marker). This card can either be from the player's hand or it can be a specifically positioned card from the meadow (display of cards). To play a card from the meadow it must be adjacent to where the sun or moon marker is (as shown in the image below).

- The last action will move either the sun or moon marker and it allows the player to either draw one card from the deck or from anywhere in the meadow.

When both markers are at the end of the board the following will occur; begin a new season, determine the first player via the first animal on the season tile, 

reveal new worker locations, gain cards, activate production cards (on certain seasons), and return the sun and moon tokens to the start of the track.

Passage: 

This is a much faster version of Everdell due to its streamlined rules and quicker seasons. Instead of seasons becoming longer as more workers are unlocked, as seen in the original game, players maintain only three workers throughout the entire game and each season will only remain at six turns per player. The game still contains all the flavour of the original Everdell. I find that Everdell Duo would be my go-to version going forward if playing with 2 players.

Intracies:

Many of the differences in this version have already been discussed. The three other differences are; no limit to the number of cards in a player's tableu, the game can now be played cooperatively, and the occupied tokens work differently in this edition.

Occupied Tokens:

Once gained, these tokens can be used on any construction to play a critter of the save type for free. This can only be done once for each colour. 

Cooperative:

For the first time ever, Everdell can be played cooperatively in a 15-scenario campaign. The campaign has players working against Miss Thorn and her skunks who block certain events and locations. In this mode players share a single city, can share cards/resources/occupied tokens once per turn, and combat more changes in different ways throughout the campaign.

If your preference is one-off cooperative games then there is also a challenge mode that allows for players to play cooperatively against Miss Thorn without a campaign approach.

Determination:

- Streamlined gameplay that retains the essence of Everdell.
- The Sun and Moon tokens limit the actions players can do and which cards they play from the meadow. 
- I find the new method of occupied tokens a great improvement over the original rules. Since my original everdell deck became very large.
- Cooperative for the first time.

The original Everdell is a fantastic game but can feel hard to remember and table at times due to the vast array of expansions. Everdell Duo has easily become my go-to way to play at two players since it isn't hard to refresh on the rules and is a streamlined edition of the game. There are two new elements I really enjoy from this edition; first is the sun and moon system that eliminates that variable amount of turns per season. There are strictly 6 turns per season and players have to plan appropriately to time everything right. The meadow is also limited and becomes a bit of a moving meadow as players can only directly play cards adjacent to the moon or sun token. The second element I like is that in the original Everdell constructions had certain critters that could occupy them, but as the game grew and the deck became bigger, finding these combos inevitably became harder. With this version, the occupied tokens can have any critter paired with a construction of the same colour, and each colour can do this once per the game. If you are a fan of Everdell and want a more streamlined edition for 1-2 players but with the maintained atmosphere of Everdell, I strongly recommend Everdell Duo. It is gaining a Go-To Golden Seal.

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Starling Games
Everdell Duo on BGG
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