The two new Events make sense in that they round out the collection to include all of the most sensible options. Having two extra on the board increases the opportunity, temptation, and indecision over whether and when to secure the points. If like me you can’t get enough of the adorable little critter meeples from Everdell then you’ll be pleased to note that Bellfaire adds two more. The red cardinals and the green toads come with their very own Critter power cards obviously. They also come with the frog ambassador meeples that make them compatible for use with the Pearlbrook expansion. The flower festival is a new basic event that requires one of each card type for four points. This works just like the other basic events, and it is such an intuitive add that I kind of started to wonder why it wasn’t in the base game. Now, the Market! I think this is my favourite part of Bellfaire. The Market is an open worker location, but each player can only have one worker on it per season. 4 tiles populate the market each with a different mix of resources and cards on them. There are two areas, the Gain row and the Trade row, all tiles start in the Gain row. When you visit the Market you may take the resources and cards printed on any card in the Gain row, then that tile gets moved down to the Trade row.

Jonathan Bolding (2022-08-03). "One of BoardGameGeek's top games now has a Steam version". PC Gamer . Retrieved 2022-10-04. The cards are much like the Events—they make sense. My favorites at this point include the adorable butterfly Poet who scours the Meadow so well, and the Greenhouse, which shares a space with the farm for some combo-tastic resource options. To be honest, just flipping through these cards made me fall in love with Newleaf and the ‘Dell all over again. If you run out of cards in the Meadow, no more cards may be drawn for the remainder of the game, unless cards are discarded, creating a new draw pile.

During setup, shuffle the Garland Awards and draw 1, placing it either faceup beside the main board or in the designated area on the Bellfaire board.

You may place the Market board beside the main board, or use the Market area on the Bellfaire board. While I now own the wooden EverTree, and it is beautiful, I would hardly call it necessary. It is more of a conversation piece for the mantle than a practical component. Before we logged a half-dozen plays of the base game, we dispensed with the assembly of the tree. While the world stretches less into the third dimension without it, I cannot defend it as anything more than decoration for those playing on oversized tables. Various cards didn’t take up space in our cities, which opened the door to my daughter’s city containing 22 cards (thank you Corrin Evertail!) and mine having 20 thanks to a Farm/Greenhouse combo that was outside the city, a Legend/Harvester combo, and others. I was worried the Visitors would turn into a late-game dumpster dive, but the mechanism is preventative. With a one-worker limit on the location at a given time, the stars must align to pull multiple cards in a given season. Plus, with all the work being done in the city, there isn’t always time to spend a worker gaining the card. Instead, they are a pleasant temptation and an occasional competition. Nicely done! Everdell is a superb game and a beautiful product. It deserves its recently held placement in the BGG hotness list and I hope it remains a popular choice that continues to impress new and old players alike. If you only buy one game this year, Everdell should be on the shortlist alongside the likes of Lords of Hellasand Lowlands, with only your personal preference to differentiate between those in the running.The setup was no joke, obviously, but once laid out the game is quite stunning on the table. Assuming, that is, that a table of sufficient size is available. I’m not sure I’d have been half as happy playing on the floor! By game’s end, our dining room table might have been able to bear a third player, but even at two we were often standing for portions of our turn because the needed component was out of arm’s reach. The scores were bloated, but not to an extreme. Honestly, they were only a small percentage higher than my most recent play of Newleaf. In addition to the worker placement spots that allow players to collect one of the games resources, everyone also has a hand of personal cards, as well as access to a shared hand of eight cards that are placed on the board, in a location called The Meadow. Many cards can be played without an action (although they may cost resources) so whilst the game appears as if it will be very brief thanks to the low number of workers in hand, it is actually much more involved that you might think. the locations along the edge of the river). When you visit a Basic location, also gain the "any" resource token from there. You may use each token one time as any resource of your choice. By far the largest and most complex expansion to Everdell, Spirecrest introduces a large new board that adds to the bottom of the base game, and brings with it a load of additional content. For starters, there are new critters, and each of the species that exists both in this expansion and across the base game and other expansions also gets a rabbit explorer. Those rabbits are the brave souls who will adventure into the mountainous region of the titular spirecrest. The Bellfaire market brings with it unique player power cards. Each of the game’s countless meeple factions can hold unique powers, meaning players must fine-tune their playing style to best take advantage of these new and exciting abilities. This asymmetrical mechanic means that there are combinations-a-plenty when it comes to meeples and no two games will be the same.

Law, Keith (August 13, 2018). "The Best Games at Gen Con 2018". Paste Magazine. Archived from the original on September 30, 2019 . Retrieved January 18, 2019. The expansion doesn’t add any new ways to win just changes how you get resources and how easy it is to get events and awards. The replayability of the game is increased with 15 vastly different player powers, lots of new events, 4 more forest locations and the new market space which fluctuates during the game. The game end scoring remains identical to the base game. Everdell is perhaps one of the most beautiful games ever made. It’s certainly one of my favourites. This year (2020) Everdell received not one but two new expansions, Bellfaire and Spirecrest. Both share the beautiful art of Andrew Bosley and sky high production values of the base game. These additions however are in fact very different to each other. Spirecrest is more like the original Everdell expansion, Pearlbrook, in that it adds a single gameplay module that raises complexity appreciably. Bellfaire on the other hand is a veritable smorgasbord of small modules and variants that can be added into your games however you see fit! Sound good? Then read on Everfan! Boards game

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Everdell: Bellfaire is an expansion on the base board game which increases the total player count, letting up to six players compete to build the best city the woodland has ever seen. Developing on the base mechanics of Everdell, Bellfaire introduces a new board extension, representing the bustling market where players may trade their goods or send workers to gain resources. The market opens up gameplay, making resources more available to cater to the increased player count. In the same vein as adding the Garland Awards, Bellfaire ups the ante on the different events that players are vying for. The Flower Festival Event tile acts similarly to the four Basic Event tiles found in the base game where a player can place a worker here once he or she meets the criteria and score four points at the end of the game. To be eligible for the Flower Festival Event, a player must have one of each card type in their city. My favorite addition comes from 15 cards which introduce asymmetric player powers. At the start of the game, each player gets 2 player powers and chooses 1 to keep. These are small bonuses that help guide your strategy. For example, the “Mice” player power allows you to gain 1 of a resource you don’t have when you visit a basic or forest location. The “Otters” can use resin as any resource. The “Cardinals” have a hand limit that is 2 higher (so 10 instead of 8 initially), and, when they draw cards, they draw an additional one. In all, there are 15 new player powers, and they add an interesting and engaging amount of asymmetry without adding much complexity. Though they aren’t necessary (and may clash) with the other expansions, this is a straightforward and effective way to spice up Everdell for experienced players. If you run out of cards in the draw pile, shuffle the discard pile to replace it. If you run out of all cards in the draw pile and discard pile, you may draw from the Meadow cards as if they were the draw pile. With Bellfaire, players are treated to an expansion that I would say falls firmly into the “more of the same” category, offering a number of small expansions that can be used in a modular way. Like the other expansions, it adds another side board or two, although the setup instructions are keen to point out that you don’t always need those.

Where Bellfaire succeeds is with its simplicity and its modularity. It’s very simple to just throw a couple of these modules in – or indeed not – with any of the other base game or expansion content. For example, I would never not play with the specific player powers now, and each different critter all of a sudden has its own identity. The Market, I also like, but it is by no means a game changer – more like a nice, rewarding action that helps offer an option for every occasion. Expansion – Spirecrest In the name of science, I had no choice but to play one game with every available expansion (with the exception of Mistwood) simultaneously to see if Everdell can bear the weight of its own worldbuilding glory. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised, though the absurd play did reinforce several of my opinions regarding the expansions. Kaufman, Rachel (December 11, 2018). "The 10 Best Games of 2018". Smithsonian . Retrieved January 18, 2019.

A word on components

The new Bellfaire special Events are less specific events than those found in the base game. These can be added to the game in a number of ways, depending on preference: