Board game review of Evenfall: A magical experience?

In 2020, Alexander Pfister's and Arno Steinwender's Cloud Age, the first game by Austrian publisher Nanox Games in collaboration with dlp games, was released in Germany. At the beginning of 2024, the second title from both publishers, Evenfall, was released, and an expansion was recently announced. The first work by game designer Stefano Di Silvio comes with an interesting theme and illustrations. You can find out whether his game is convincing in the following review.

A new era is approaching. Magic clans from all over the world are preparing for it, because the World Tree is opening its gates to distant, unknown worlds. Sorcerers and witches are exploring these worlds and claiming these places of power for themselves. They use arcane rituals and fight for the power of the magic stones, because there is only one clan that can ultimately ascend the magical throne.

Step by step to a more effective engine

Evenfall is a card-driven engine builder with worker placement elements, in which our task is to use our resources wisely and to use actions as effectively as possible in order to build the most powerful synergies between the different cards and generate as many points as possible. A game runs over three rounds, each with four phases: an exploration phase, action phase, combat phase and the end of the round.

In the exploration phase we receive resources, mana and draw cards according to the information on our clan board. Then we move on to the action phase. The players take turns to carry out one of five actions until everyone has passed.

Discover During the action phase we have a place of power, we place a certain number of witches on the round field of the region from which we want to take a Place of Power card. The number of witches is determined by the card we take. We then place the Place of Power card to the right of our personal tableau in the Outer Circle. This is located in the upper area of ​​the personal tableau.

Rituals, Specialists and Council Members

We can use the action Play cards Rituals give us various bonuses that can be achieved either by Placing witches on fields of action, when a certain situation occurs or immediately after being played. There are also specialist/council member cards. These cards depict people who can be played either as a specialist (top left on the personal game board) or a council member (under the personal game board). If we play them as a specialist, we get an effect that is either permanently activated, in the combat phase or whenever we want. However, if we use them as a council member, we get effects when something happens during the game or at the end of a round. They can also bring victory points at the end of the game.

In addition to the council members, we also receive points for all our specialists, as well as our rituals in the Inner Circle. As briefly described earlier, places of power (where our rituals are placed) are first placed in the Outer Circle. Here, the various places of power give us valuable resources once per round when we Activate Clan Token. With an effect we can move places of power and the rituals on them into the Inner Circle. From this point on we no longer receive any resources for the place of power, but the ritual on it only gives victory points at the end of the game.

In addition, we have the option of using our so-called Elders in rituals that we activate by placing witches on action fields. The advantage of this is that we can leave the limited number of witches untouched and use them for other actions in the game.

Strengthening our clan

We can then use the witches, for example, to fields of action in the three regions. Depending on the region, we have different effects available that can help us advance in the game. These witches also count towards the evaluation of the combat phase. More on that in a moment.

The last action we can perform is the construction of catalystsThere are two catalysts: the scythe and the orb. These can be placed on a catalyst building site on rituals by paying the respective costs. The scythe doubles the resources of the respective place of power on which the ritual has been placed. The orb, on the other hand, lets us climb up our clan bar. This gives us valuable bonuses with each climb, such as victory points, moving cards from the outer to the inner ring or mana for the combat phase.

Hexen hexen

After all players have passed, the game moves into the combat phase. Here, the number of playing pieces of all players in each region is evaluated to determine a winning clan for each one. Each person can also spend mana per region to strengthen themselves in battle. The total number of playing pieces in the region is then added together with the number of mana for combat strength. The person with the most combat strength wins and receives a magic stone of their choice from the region. In addition, all clans receive certain bonuses depending on how high their combat strength was in the region. Then it's on to the next of up to three regions.

Magic stones, which we receive after a victory in the combat phase, have the ability to double the victory points of a ritual in the Inner Circle at the end of the game. Therefore, they are very valuable for victory. Each place of power has magic stone symbols that are connected to the ritual that lies on them. At the end of the game, you try to have as many magic stones with the same symbols as possible. In addition, it is also possible to cleverly place rituals with a high score on places whose magic stones you already own.

After the combat phase, the game moves into the end of the round, where the game is prepared for the next round. After the third round, the end of the game is triggered. Now the magic stones are placed on rituals and you receive victory points for all specialists, end-of-game effects (eg on council members) and rituals. The clan with the most points wins the game.

Successful solo mode

In addition, Evenfall also has a solo mode in which we compete against an Automa controlled by the game. This mode is pleasantly easy to handle and works surprisingly well. We draw a card from the main stack (which has rituals & specialists/council members) and move a marker on a rondel of the Automa board according to the victory point value of the card drawn. We then carry out the action of the field on which the marker landed. If the marker lands or crosses a yellow-framed field, it stays on it and carries out this action.

The combat phase is carried out according to the usual rules. We determine our combat strength by adding up our witches and spending mana. Instead of spending mana, the Automa receives combat strength from the number of rounds, the number of its witches in the region and - based on this - the drawing of cards. With the cards, the number of victory points again determines how much additional combat strength the Automa receives. The game ends at the end of the third round.

Info about Eventfall

Conclusion

We've come up with something new for this conclusion. Since Sven and Jonas discovered the game independently of each other at the same time, we'll now give our opinions for each category.

Game idea:

Sven:
Basically, a lot of things in Evenfall sound familiar. We use our witches or "workers" to carry out actions and build up our engine step by step. Evenfall still feels pleasantly fresh. The reason for this is that with the Places of Power and the two Circles we have intermediate steps that must first be completed in order to make the engine really effective and generate victory points. However, these intermediate steps are by no means pointless, as we can get resources in the Outer Circle. So it is important to be clever in estimating when changing cards to the Outer Circle. Overall, estimating when an action makes the most sense is an important part of Evenfall and is what makes it so much fun.

Rating: 8/10

Jonas:
Mechanically, all elements of the game are familiar from many other games. The combination of worker placement, card-driven engine building and resource management is nothing new. Nevertheless, it manages Evenfall to make something out of this mix that feels fresh. The two circles are the main reason for this. In many engine builders, everything just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Here, this unbridled growth is limited, as you have to decide early on when to start moving which places of power into the inner circle. Otherwise, you will quickly end up lacking the actions to do so. The two worker types also bring exciting decisions. The elders and the actions in the inner circle are particularly important for a strategy that earns points. But even the normal witches are rarely used "just like that", especially with more than two people, as the combat phase at the end of each round has to be considered.

Rating: 8/10 points

Material

Sven:
The material itself is well made. The cards have a chic linen finish and the personal game boards are put together by hand to form double-layered game boards. Unfortunately, the adhesive dots that are included for crafting do not hold optimally. One board has now What I noticed negatively is that the cards in our test copy stuck together strongly at first. Here I had to slowly and carefully separate each card from the other. This went without leaving hardly any residue, but it is still a bit annoying. And even though the cards are really high quality, they are a bit too thick. Too thick to shuffle properly and too thick for game sleeves that are actually designed for the size of the cards. I have tried various sleeve manufacturers and I always had to squeeze them halfway.

Rating: 7.5/10

Jonas:
The game is also very convincing in terms of its appearance and feel. I really like the dark, mystical look, as it also has a certain elegance. The wooden components are also impressive and the "DIY" double-layer player boards are great for organizing your own components. The only annoying thing is that the cards stick together very strongly even after several games, making it difficult to shuffle them. Due to the layout, it takes time, especially at the beginning of each round, until everyone has an overview of all the effects of the cards.
The game takes up a lot of space on the table, as each personal display spreads out in all directions. But that's not surprising for card-based engine builders.

Rating: 8.5/10

Instructions

Sven:
The instructions are well written and easy to understand. This makes the game relatively easy to learn for its complexity. We hardly had to look anything up in our test games. Only some of the graphics in the instructions are of such poor quality that you could almost count the pixels.

Rating: 9/10

Jonas:
This is the hardest part for me to say anything about, as the game was explained to me during my first game. I only learned the rules for solo mode myself. But these are very well written and left no questions unanswered. The various borderline cases that arise from the large number of combinations of card effects have already been included in part in the printed instructions. A QR code takes you to a digital overview of other effects, which is constantly being expanded and supplemented.

Rating: 8/10

Game flow

Sven:
Evenfall has a good flow and hardly drags. Because individual moves are usually completed quickly and you think a lot about your next move between moves, the game never seems too long. The basic rules are also quite easy to understand, which means that the game is not constantly interrupted by questions about understanding the rules.

Rating: 8.5/10

Jonas:
In the action phase, everyone plays for themselves. The little interaction in the action fields doesn't really stand out. The few effects that affect other players don't do much either. The round usually runs like this: at the beginning, you choose the six cards you want to play and then gradually select the actions so that you can play them in the right order. Sometimes you have to make sure that all the action fields remain free. In principle, however, you shouldn't plan on being able to use certain action fields more than once. Then you're pretty sure that you can play everything. Overall, the flow of the game is mostly fluid, but it still feels quite exciting, especially when you're the last person to just play the last few actions or watch the others "work through" their plans.

Rating: 7.5/10

Replayability

Sven:
Due to its variety of cards, no two games are the same. Even if some names and illustrations are repeated, the effects of each card are different. Depending on the game, you are always set up differently and have to play different combinations that drive the engine. This means that every game offers something different in terms of strategy. Evenfall also has an excellent solo mode that will keep solo players coming back to the game. In terms of replay value, Evenfall is very well positioned.

Rating: 9/10

Jonas:
I can't see any limits to the replay value at the moment. The first cards you receive give you options for the direction you want to develop your own engine. I haven't used similar effects in any game so far and discovering the various synergies is just great fun. I haven't played with the asymmetrical side yet. But there's probably more to be teased out of it. The game also feels very open in terms of the number of players. It seems ideal for three players, but the games with two or four players all had their own charm between contested power stones and limited action fields.
I also like the solo mode. It is a bit too random in its design and because the bot simply carries on carrying out actions until you pass, it does not reward you for a large engine, but rather for a small engine designed for maximum efficiency. If the bot were to receive a similar adjustment to Chronobot/Chronossus from Anachrony it would quickly be very high up among my favorite solo versions. As it is, it is "only" in the upper middle range.

Rating: 9/10

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	Pegasus Spiele 57600G - Everdell (German edition)*	Currently no reviews	51,99 EUR

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