Snowcrest: Discussion

0:09 some viewers may find the following video disturbing viewer discretion is advised hey everyone welcome back to Bor games on L and today I'm doing a discussion over snow crass which was a game that I had backed pretty much out of whim I don't even I remember kind of seeing it and I'm like oh that looks cute and it's relatively affordable so I'll uh I'll go ahead and back it and it just came in and I got to say this is a adorable cute little game that has quite a little bit of meat to it more so than I was actually uh anticipating because for a game box of of this size and like the Simplicity of the rules I was thinking this was going to be a relatively lighter game but there's there's actually some some deeper strategy to it than I was expecting it's very clean in terms of its gameplay and everything that you do on your turn because basically on your turn you activate a card in your village or add a card to your village by then activating it and or resting which is kind of refreshing everything um and you essentially use resources to fulfill achievements go and visit various Guardians that require offerings of either bill buildings cards resources to gain Scrolls which are victory points at the end of the game and then you just kind of rinse and repeat the game does

1:42 not necessarily overstay its welcome I think uh there's definitely some instances where it feels like the game is kind of about to hit that threshold of okay it's going on a little bit long but then it then it's over it's it's a weird kind of balance where if you're kind of if you have your village maxed out and you have an engine going of oh I have multiple cards that give me so many resources that I could then spend to build buildings to max out my building track and I could then use those to just kind of run a guardian Gauntlet then you're just kind of doing that over and over but but if you're doing that over and over then that means it's going to be the game's going to be over so I mean the game says it's uh 45 minutes I would actually say it's less the game goes by pretty quick it gives you plenty of ways to ramp uh a lot of resources to then spend them very quickly now with that being said I think this is a whoops I think this is a like I said adorable game they do a really good good job teaching you the game and the rules I don't even know Grail games that's not familiar to me and Philip duberry is also not familiar to me so I don't know if it's a first-time designer or what but I do think

3:14 that this game can suffer from multiple playthroughs because while there are a ton of common folk cards uh enough to like I don't think there's any duplicates in here and the art is fantastic it's adorable like it gives off funny enough it kind of gives off um oh nine Souls Vibes but that's just because they're animals and it's like a kind of an Asian Asian theme is what I is what I'm kind of getting uh there's a ton of common villagers that go into the market for you to get but kind of the problem is that you're not really going out and getting them a lot you're limited on your 9 by your 3x3 and you technically start the game out with five you start with one from your deck and the four your four starting cards which are they they recommend you just keep you never replace them just because they help you gain the actions that you need to be able to do anything in the game but I feel like the 3X3 is kind of restrictive because you get so many common villagers that come out and then you're just you're fine with that I I never felt reasons to go out and get more um and I feel like there's a kind

4:45 of a weird disconnect because you have the common villagers but yeah you also have a personal deck and I almost would rather have it be one or the other or a deck builder like deck builder SL Tableau Builder because your deck acts as personal cards to that you can add but yet the common villagers also do the same thing not that they do the same abilities but you if you play a card from your hand it goes to your village or you can buy one of the five villagers that are out and add them so I don't really see an incentive of having a personal deck other than offerings from either the Spirits or the Guardians ask that you discard them so it's kind of well you need to be able to draw cards because we have offerings that make you discard them and if you can't you go you go on an omen track like and The Omen track is bad if you're going negative so I'm not really sure how I feel and the other thing I feel about the personal decks is that they're completely like identical so between all players everyone has the same cards which I would get if it was a deck builder but it's not you just buy them from the market and put them into your village so I would almost rather you yeah again deck build and I'm not saying that this game it should be a

6:17 deck builder because it's clearly not but I just don't really understand why you have a personal deck that you that's virtually just nine similar cards than what's not in the common almost I'd rather not have the deck at all and have your villagers because some of the offerings from the Guardians which are a a big way of you getting resources and Scrolls which are victory points is I'd rather that be more punishing that it makes you clear out your your villagers which some of them do they say hey get rid of a get rid of a face up villager and if you can't get rid of a face up villager then you have to lose an omen I think balancing The Omen Track by either sacrificing villagers that you think is really good choosing to take the omen instead or if you have used all your villagers then you take Omen I I don't necessarily see a reason to actually have this deck of cards except that there might be a strategy you're going for and none of the face up cards in the common villager Market are going to be able to do that for you but the thing about this game is that it's not so strategy heavy it's a lot lighter game like may not Gateway level but maybe the next step up so I don't know it's a confusing design choice because even then you have to have actions that that you draw it's not like at the start of your turn you draw you draw up it's oh I'm going to flip my

7:48 herder card that now lets me draw two and again for the most part you just have your hand of cards that are virtually just you so you don't have to take Omen from the guardian you're not even looking at these they're all good like they're all good cards like the great initiative gives you two bowls um it costs four barley but you just have to spend one bowl to do the venerate action which is to go and visit a guardian uh the farmer lets you spend a juniper to build a farm like these are all good cards to have but I would have much rather had to focus like have your have your starting small uh shrine Sanctuary they are trying to entice regular folks which are the common folks in and retain them um while you're trying to gather Scrolls by visiting the guardians or uh tempering the the anger of the forest Spirits so I don't know with with a game that has so many unique villagers like all of these cards are unique not being able to actually utilize them because your your village is full and everything you're doing is working that feels kind of um you know what's what's the word uh feels kind of anticlimactic you just get to look at them be like oh that'd be good but I don't really need it because I don't

9:18 know who I'd get rid of besides your starting ones but at the end of the day you you kind of you just need them they're a good crutch I don't know like like I said this this game feels like after multiple plays you would just kind of see and do everything because there's not enough Guardians they're not so unique like and the the the design of them is actually kind of disappointing because they they just really have a title and that's it it'd be cool if this was like full art but it's it's more of just a it almost look like a just a it's three boxes oh I have to get rid of two cards in the build or take Omen and your opponents all the opponents are are cursed cuz they didn't get to go and my reward is three three coins and a and a scroll oh but this this uh this abominable snowman I have to get rid of three of three resources and the building and I get two gold get the draw a card and I get two Scrolls so I don't know it's like this game is good like the me there's there's there's stuff here to do and it's Charming the art is really nice but again I kind of feel that after you play it really just a few times you're going to be well that was that was that game it doesn't necessarily it doesn't wow me

10:48 personally like I was able to play and do enough and you're engaged the entire time and then the game is over but I don't necessarily have a have like a desire to jump back in and try a different strategy because there's not really a a ton of strategies to do you either visit the Guardians and visit the Guardians that's pretty much it that's that's more ways I mean there are different achievements that kind of are aace to do other stuff oh be the first person to have no cards in your deck be the first person to fill out your villager thing your village be the first person to do a meditation and and then you get scrolls for doing those the meditation is also kind of there it you basically have these bells that if you it's kind of a bid not even really a blind bid it's not like o how I have this many Bells how many am I going to put in it's an open bid you look at how many you could have oh I have five bells on me and my cards that are face up I could spend to give me four more so I'm just going to go out and say nine and let's say you're playing a four-player game I have nine so okay can the person next to me can they do more than nine no I get a scroll next person can they do more than nine no I get another scroll can the

12:19 third person do more than nine yes they can do 10 they spend their 10 and then they get a scroll and that's it it's just an open bid you can clearly see what uh what people have I mean yeah they have their their cards and stuff but it's it it just feels like it's there and it kind of sucks cuz I really like this theme and the overall system in the game is solid because on your turn you just flip a card in your village to do its actions and I like that I like Tableau building and I wish positioning mattered positioning only matters really for uh um resting when you rest you have to have three face down cards in a row which is either hor horizontal vertical or diagonal and that's the only time you can rest but then you just flip everything face up and I also like the way you gather resources like your starting ones only give you a resource if you have use them if they're face down but everything else that's face up has an icon on the top right and if they're face up they give you those resources and I think that's neat I haven't seen something like that done before so choosing when to rest who to keep face up is is decisions you have to make but you can also just it's pretty easy to get resources that you need so

13:49 you're never starve for resources you have a bunch then you have these buildings that you can build which are also easy to build some people like the Gardener she just costs five barley and her action is to just give you a farm so you have all your buildings that you can also flip to either if you have a shrine it gives you a bowl if you have a forge it gives you a a bell and if you have the farmer it gives you a barley you can flip those to spend resources but then you need another action to flip them all back well one of your starting cards just lets you do that so everything that could have been a double-edged sword of like uh I want to spend all these buildings to to get those resources but then it's going to take me so long to get them back no not really you can flip them all and then flip your Aristocrat and then she just kind of flips them all back and that's it uh the the tug and the you know back and forth of the omen track where it's either going to be positive points or negative points depending on where it's at at the end of the game there's cards that can just swing it you hey lose three Omen like lose by meaning gain like it moves in the positive direction it's well that's great so I'm going to go visit the guardian not spend any resources take the omen hit and then just flip my calm priest which is like a horse guy to recoup that Omen

15:20 loss and so everything that's here feels like there should like there should be some decision making behind it and if you have ways to just gain any resource you want really then you can kind of always do everything but I don't know I never felt like this was a heavy competition it is kind of a race because the game ends you know roll for the Galaxy style where there's only a certain number of victory points in the pool and once those are taken that's when the game ends so you kind of are trying to ramp the game when you feel like you might be the one to to win but if you have to gain more Scrolls at the end of the game then you just gain them from the supply so it's not oh this was first one out let's see let's do final scoring so I don't know I I want I I guess I just want more meat to the game just because and it feels like they they also want more meat cuz they in their rules they give strategy tips and they explain why you do certain things or what you should do hey if you're going to use an action make sure you can do all of it because just flipping it isn't that's not a wise way to play but maybe maybe it's just for a different audience a different type of type of gamer I'm not saying this game needs to be the most complex Tableau builder ever but I I feel like that there could be more to it and maybe they'll plan more expansions it doesn't seem the way the

16:51 box came it uh it's a relatively small box so I don't know if they would do more um I would like some individuality with like the decks If You're Gonna Keep the decks which I mean obviously they're not going to make an expansion be like remove the decks but more Guardians would be cool more Force Spirits would be cool more achievements you don't need more common villagers because there's so many that barely get used I don't know again I'm I'm not necessarily trying to say oo here's what they need to do to fix the game there's nothing really here to fix everything works perfectly fine you're never starved for resources you can kind of always draw cards from your hand uh it's light even for a game that's icon heavy everything is very easy to understand um it is kind of a rinse and repeat game you once you get the villagers that you want in your village you just do those the ones the three four that you want to do in a row and then you you rest and then you do that again and eventually you'll have the things you need to go deal with guardians or the forest Spirits or the achievements and then the game's over so it sounds like I hate this game and I don't the game you know was you know it worked it's Charming the art probably carries it a little bit more uh for me I think that the art is really good and it

18:23 has a nice peaceful aura about it again that's probably its theme I think the cover is is gorgeous that's probably what grab my attention in the first place so yeah this is this is definitely for people like there's there's a an audience where people would enjoy this and play it a lot uh I would say it's leaning towards like non- Gamers really but I could be wrong there could be a ton of people that are like uh I play Twilight Imperium and varda games daily and snow Crest was it's so much more in depth than you were giving a credit and that's great that's that's fantastic but for me I I kind of want a little bit more but even then like I said I don't think this is a bad game by any means so on scale 1 to 10 I'm giving snow Crest a seven I think it's a good game and I know a lot of people they're like seven that means you hate it no seven is good this is a good game uh I like the I I guess I have the deluxe version but like the the the wooden tokens the components for this are really nice the cardboard buildings are thick cardboard those are nice the little playmats are cloth and the the board is cloth which is very nice the card everything in component wise is really really good um so yeah maybe maybe if they if they plan on supporting it a little bit more I'll I'll check it out um so yeah that's

19:56 that's pretty much it that's my thoughts on snow pressed let me know what you think of the game in the comments below other than that like comment share and subscribe and have a wonderful whatever time of day this for you hey everyone thank you for watching and I really hope that you enjoy the video if you would like to see more of my content go ahead and click that subscribe button and the bell to be notified whenever I upload any new content if you feel like supporting the channel you can go ahead and click that patreon link to be taken to my patreon and any help is truly appreciated other than that stick around for any any other run-throughs or reviews or cool top t or whatever I feel like putting on other than that like comment share and subscribe and have a wonderful whatever time of day it is for you