Review: Colorful Card Congregating in VILLAGERS
I love the variety in theme and style of board games. It can go from the cold tundras of Russia to the greater expanses of space. But other games are as simple as Ramen noodles. Villagers takes the simple idea of building a village with a host of different people and applies it to an interesting drafting and building system that is quick to learn, quick to play, and strongly entertaining. While once in a while luck will fall to one person or another, Villagers stands as a well put together card game with solid replayability and a beautiful, minimalist aesthetic.
Simply put, Villagers is a drafting game where players add new villagers to their area and then score points accordingly. These villagers have a variety of bonuses and connections to each other. Some stand as prerequisites for others to be played and others alter the amount of points, drafts or villagers you can play. Initially, the game’s symbology can be a bit confusing and overwhelming, but after a minute or two of playing, things start to make a lot of sense and are easy to interpret. There are two major points in the game where players will score money (which determines the winner). The game does a great job of giving you enough information about the score of other players while still leaving enough mysterious parts to allow for some major plays at the end of the game.
Another big part when passing out cards and playing the game is the sweet, simplistic, and colorful art. Each card/villager is well drawn up with great color schemes that match their suits. The colors and design of the whole game and each card are wonderfully appealing and cute. Some cards that have a lot of symbols or parts can get confusing or overwhelming at times (even with the simple art), but only a handful of cards are like that.
As mentioned at the beginning, there can be some back or good luck streaks that will lead certain players to victory. This doesn’t happen often and it isn’t terrible, but it can lean some games towards randomly favoring one or two players. Villagers is a great drafting and city building game that packs a lot of fun with fresh replayability, higher player counts, and a solo mode with unique cards.
