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Everdell
#43BGG8.0RATING
Consulted 5 times·Updated Jun 12
1–4
PLAYERS
40–80
MINUTES
3
BEST WITH
2.8
MEDIUM
DESIGNER CLARIFICATIONS26
Prepare for Season is asynchronous — players don't advance togetherdesigner
- CONTEXT
- Players were unsure whether all players advance to the next season simultaneously or independently.
- RULING
- "Yes, players will be in different seasons at different times." Each player performs the Prepare for Season action on their own turn when they choose to. Other players continue taking their turns normally — no one waits for everyone to finish a season before advancing.
AUTHOR: greycloak (James A. Wilson, designer); iomio, CavemanLogic (James R. Gracen), DrCrow (Rob Bell) (designers)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(25 replies)DATE: 2019-01-06Prepare for Season is voluntary even after all workers are placeddesigner
- CONTEXT
- Players asked whether they are forced to Prepare for Season as soon as all workers are placed.
- RULING
- "The Season action may only be performed after you have placed all of your current worker population. Once you have placed them all, you can continue to play a card on your turn, or if you feel that you are prepared for the next season, you may perform the Season action." Preparing is not forced — you may keep playing cards first.
Workers remain on spaces and block them until their owner Prepares for Seasondesigner
- RULING
- "The workers will stay there blocking spaces until that player prepares for season and takes them back. Planning for or around this kind of thing is a big part of the worker placement in this game and is what makes Everdell stand out from other worker placement games."
Production cards treat Prepare for Season activation as if freshly playeddesigner
- CONTEXT
- Question whether cards like Storehouse refill their stored resources when activated during a Prepare for Season.
- RULING
- "Yes, anytime you activate green Production cards, you treat them as if you just played them into your city." A Storehouse that was emptied earlier restocks fully when Production fires on Prepare for Season.
AUTHOR: CavemanLogic (James R. Gracen, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(25 replies)DATE: 2021-04-06Summer card draw is mandatory, not optionaldesigner
- CONTEXT
- The rulebook's phrasing suggested the Summer draw might be optional.
- RULING
- "You must Draw cards in Summer." (iomio). greycloak: "I have never played the Summer Meadow card draw as optional and I would never want to." Drawing 2 cards from the Meadow when you Prepare for Summer is mandatory if your hand has room.
AUTHOR: greycloak (James A. Wilson, designer); iomio (designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(25 replies)DATE: 2021-01-08Full hand when entering Summer: skip the draw entirely, no discard-insteaddesigner
- RULING
- "If your hand was already full, then you would not draw cards for summer. You do not get to discard two instead."
"Reveal" and "Draw" are distinct game actionsdesigner
- RULING
- "Reveal means you will draw cards for an effect (like gaining coins), you may even build one of them in some cases (postal pigeon, cemetery) but you will have to discard the rest unless specified otherwise. Draw is gaining cards and keeping them in your hand (hand limit still counts)."
Construction and its paired Critter occupy separate city spacesdesigner
- RULING
- A construction and its matching Critter do not share the same city slot — they each occupy their own space. They also do not need to be placed side-by-side in the city.
Getting the matching Critter for a construction is optional and a separate future turndesigner
- RULING
- "You do not have to get the matching critter if you do not want. You can build multiple things before getting the matching critter." If you do get it, that must be on a separate future turn — not on the same turn you built the construction.
Legendary cards are their own category, not Common or Uniquedesigner
- RULING
- "No. Legendary cards are Legendary, not Common nor Unique. They have their own 'category'." Legendary cards do not count toward end-of-game scoring bonuses that reward Common or Unique cards.
Playing a Legendary requires replacing one copy of its prerequisitedesigner
- CONTEXT
- Players were unsure whether a Legendary could be played alongside the prerequisite card.
- RULING
- "You may play a Legendary card by paying the cost in resources, or if you have the card listed in the red banner, discard that listed card from your city and play the Legendary for free." If you have multiple copies of the prerequisite, you only need to discard one. You cannot add a Legendary alongside an existing prerequisite — one copy must be replaced.
Legendary counts as the basic card it replaced for events and synergiesdesigner
- RULING
- "The Legendary card counts as the basic card it replaces for purposes of claiming Events or using other cards."
After playing a Legendary, no new copies of the replaced card may be addeddesigner
- RULING
- "From now on, you may not play any more copies of the listed card in the red banner into your city." Any extra copies already in the city before the Legendary was played may remain.
Ranger cannot move permanently-placed workersdesigner
- RULING
- "The Ranger can't bring Workers back from the dead." The Ranger cannot remove a worker from any location that says the worker stays permanently (Cemetery, Monastery, Graveyard, etc.).
Ranger unlocks the Dungeon's second celldesigner
- RULING
- "If you have a Dungeon, then get a Ranger, you can put up to two Critters in your Dungeon. It is like the Ranger unlocks the second cell."
Ranger leaving city does not evict the prisoner from the second Dungeon celldesigner
- RULING
- "If you later get rid of that Ranger, you keep the prisoner in the cell." The prisoner already in the second cell is NOT discarded when the Ranger leaves your city.
Rugwort stealing a Construction: the paired Critter stays with the original ownerdesigner
- CONTEXT
- Rugwort steals a Construction that has its paired Critter already in the original owner's city.
- RULING
- "Player A plays Storehouse. On a later turn, player A plays the matching critter, the Woodcarver. Player B plays Rugwort, steals the Storehouse and plays it in B's city. Player A has to discard two cards from the hand. Player A still has Woodcarver." Only the Construction is stolen; the Critter remains.
Shepherd card: pay 3 berries to an opponent, then gain 3 from supplydesignerpublisher
- RULING
- "Instead of paying the 3-berry cost to the supply, you pay it to an opponent. Then once the Shepherd is played, you immediately gain 3 berries." You must have 3 berries before playing; the net cost is zero, but you are not free to play it without the berries unless you have a Chapel.
AUTHOR: greycloak (James A. Wilson, designer); Game Salute (Starling Games, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(17 replies)DATE: 2018-07-17Shepherd with Chapel: no berries paid to opponentdesigner
- RULING
- "If you have a Chapel, you get to play the Shepherd for free, so you don't have to pay the 3 berries to an opponent in that case."
The forest location "draw 2 meadow + play 1 for −1" counts as a card-playing abilitydesigner
- RULING
- "It counts as a card playing ability, so you could not combine that space with something like the Crane." Using this forest location to play a card invokes the "may not be used with any other card-playing ability" restriction.
Cemetery can be used even when your city is fulldesigner
- RULING
- "You could use the Cemetery because it could reveal Ruins, Wanderer, Husband or Wife." The Cemetery's reveal may yield a card that lets you remove or replace something, so a full city does not block you from using it.
Whether the Ranger can be an Acorn Thief is an intentional designer ambiguitydesigner
- CONTEXT
- Question whether the Ranger can be placed under the Capture of the Acorn Thieves special event.
- RULING
- greycloak: "I have actually pondered this and have gone back and forth: can he be one of the thieves or not? I honestly couldn't come to a conclusion, so I didn't. I leave that one up to the players. I think there are viable arguments either way."
AUTHOR: DrCrow (Rob Bell, designer), quoting greycloak (James A. Wilson, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(18 replies)DATE: 2019-10-19Critters placed under an event: show to opponents first, then place face-downdesigner
- RULING
- "You should show them to the other players at the table to verify they are Critters, then place them facedown under the Event. They are facedown so you don't count them as still being in your city by accident." Applies to all events that place Critters underneath (e.g., Capture of the Acorn Thieves, Graduation of Scholars).
Wife scores 5 points total when paired with Husbanddesigner
- RULING
- "5 points. All purple cards are worth their base points and their end game bonus points." The Wife's base value is 2 points; the pairing bonus with a Husband is 3 additional points, for 5 total.
Only one Husband/Wife pair can share a single city spacedesigner
- RULING
- "Only one Husband/Wife pair per space is allowed." If you have 2 Husbands and 1 Wife, only one Husband can share a city space with the Wife; the second Husband occupies its own separate slot.
Journey worker placements are only available in Autumndesigner
- RULING
- "Reminding the Journey is only available in Autumn may help." Journey locations cannot be used during Winter, Spring, or Summer — only after a player has Prepared for Autumn.
Q&A5
Capture of the Acorn Thieves: are Critters physically removed from the city?designer
- QUESTION
- After achieving the Capture of the Acorn Thieves special event, are the Critter cards physically removed from your city and placed under the event?
- ANSWER
- "Yes. You can place zero, one, or two Critter cards under this event. They are removed from your city, and placed under this event." Stack the event card on top of them face-down. They score 3 VP each at game end but are no longer in your city.
AUTHOR: CavemanLogic (James R. Gracen, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(18 replies)DATE: 2020-03-28Do city slots free up after placing Critters under the Capture event?designer
- QUESTION
- After removing Critters and placing them under the Capture of the Acorn Thieves event, do their city slots become available for new cards?
- ANSWER
- "You removed 2 critters out of city, so their slots are now available."
Storehouse resources at game end: do they count for Architect scoring?designer
- QUESTION
- Are resources left sitting on the Storehouse card at game end considered unused resources for Architect point scoring?
- ANSWER
- "Correct, if you do not place a worker there to collect them, you don't have them." Resources on the Storehouse that were never collected via a worker do not count as yours for any purpose, including Architect scoring.
Architect: 1 VP per individual resin/pebble or per pair?designer
- QUESTION
- Does the Architect score 1 VP per individual unused resin/pebble, or 1 VP per resin+pebble pair?
- ANSWER
- Per individual resource. "Every Amber and every Pebble" counts separately — 2 resin + 1 pebble = 3 VP. Maximum 6 VP total.
AUTHOR: CavemanLogic (James R. Gracen, designer); greycloak (James A. Wilson, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(18 replies)DATE: 2018-10-19Undertaker: is the draw step mandatory, and what is the correct order?designer
- QUESTION
- When using the Undertaker (discard 3 Meadow cards, replenish, draw 1), can you skip the draw if no remaining card interests you? And does replenish happen before or after you draw?
- ANSWER
- "You must Draw cards in Summer and you must draw the card for the Undertaker." All three steps are mandatory. CavemanLogic confirmed the order: (1) discard 3 Meadow cards, (2) replenish those 3 spots, (3) draw 1 card from the freshly replenished Meadow.
AUTHOR: iomio (designer); CavemanLogic (James R. Gracen, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(25 replies)DATE: 2020-12-24
EDGE CASES5
Miner Mole chaining through an opponent's Miner Moledesigner
- SITUATION
- A player has a Miner Mole in their city and wants to use it to copy an opponent's Miner Mole, then have that second Miner Mole activate a card in the original player's own city (e.g., their Mayor).
- RULING
- "Yes, a Miner Mole can copy a Miner Mole." (greycloak). "You can absolutely use your Miner Mole (in your city) to activate an opponent's Miner Mole (in their city) to then activate your Mayor (in your city)." (CavemanLogic). The full chain is legal.
AUTHOR: greycloak (James A. Wilson, designer); CavemanLogic (James R. Gracen, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(15 replies)DATE: 2018-07-19Ruins played on a construction with permanently-placed workersdesigner
- SITUATION
- A player uses Ruins to remove a construction (e.g., Monastery, Graveyard) that has permanently-placed workers on it.
- RULING
- "You can do that with Ruins, but you do not get those workers back. They are gone from the game permanently." The construction is discarded and resources are returned, but the permanent workers are removed from the game.
Husband and Wife cannot share a single Dungeon celldesigner
- SITUATION
- A player has both Husband and Wife and wants to imprison them both using only one Ranger-unlocked second cell.
- RULING
- "The dungeon contains 1 cell for one Critter card. The Ranger unlocks a second cell for a second Critter card." Husband and Wife cannot share a single Dungeon cell — each occupies one cell. You need both the base cell and the Ranger's second cell to imprison both.
Crane + Judge cannot be combined; Judge + Courthouse candesigner
- SITUATION
- A player has multiple discount/substitution cards and wants to stack their effects when playing a card.
- RULING
- "The Judge cannot be combined with another card that helps you build. So no Crane + Judge. You use Crane, you must give the appropriate resources without substitution even if you have Judge." However, Judge and Courthouse CAN be combined: "Say you have the Courthouse. You also have the Judge. You want to play a Farm. You play 3 Twigs using the Judge. You get a berry. Thanks to the Courthouse, you get 1 of the 3 resources." Courthouse's "after building" reward fires regardless of how resources were paid.
McGregor's Market counts as Farm for Production but not for end-game scoringdesigner
- SITUATION
- A player replaced a Farm with McGregor's Market (Legendary). Does the Market count as a Farm for Production triggers (Husband, Barge Toad) and for end-game Common Construction scoring?
- RULING
- Production: yes — McGregor's Market is treated as a Farm for Production purposes (greycloak: "Yes."). End-game scoring: no — "Nope. Sorry." McGregor's Market is a Legendary card and does not contribute to Common Construction scoring bonuses.
Last researched: 2026-06-09
CATEGORIES
Animals·Card Game·City Building·Fantasy
MECHANICS
ContractsEnd Game BonusesHand ManagementIncomeOpen DraftingOwnershipSet CollectionSolo / Solitaire GameTags
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