Meadow

Meadow is a game about wildlife in the countryside. The key underlying concept is the food chain. You need certain terrain to be able to support certain plants, you need certain plants to be able to support certain insects, and in turn these insects are food to small animals, and then these small animals are prey of larger animals. You collect and play cards with various icons. The icons allow you to play more cards, and as you "upgrade", you get to play cards with victory points. That is how you eventually win. 

Cards are made available in this 4x4 grid. Every round, you have five tiles which you can use for claiming and playing cards. You place a tile along the edge of this board, pointing at a specific row. Depending on the number on your tile, you take a specific card in that row. 

You can have at most 10 columns of cards in your play area. A column always start with a terrain card. Terrain cards have no prerequisites. All other cards do. Normally cards specify the icons you need to have in order to play them. When you play a non-terrain card, it must partially cover another card. You may cover icons on other cards, causing you to lose these icons. The game requires carefully planning to get to specific icons. You also need to plan carefully when to use which icons. 

You start with a hand of cards. You already have to plan carefully from the get go. The numbers on the leaves are the victory point values. They go from 1 to 5. 

Each player tile has two parts. The pointy part is used when you claim a card from the grid display. The flat part can be used for something else. Let's go from left to right. The two circles are road icons. If you use this, you get to claim two road tiles. Road tiles allow you to play cards which have a landscape layout. The second tile lets you claim any one card from the grid. This is different from using the pointy part. When you use the pointy part, you get to play a card too. If you use the flat part, you don't get to play a card. 

The third tile is a joker. You can treat it as any flat part icon. The fourth tile lets you draw three cards from any deck then keep one. 

This is the other game board. This keeps track of the round number. You play 6 rounds. All those icons around the fireplace is a source of competition. When you have a pair of adjacent icons in your play area, you get to claim the seat between these two icons, placing your point marker. You have three point markers valued 2, 3 and 4. You must place them in this order. 

Any any time there are three decks used for refilling the board. The East cards are mostly terrain cards. The West cards are usually cards related to roads, houses and fences, i.e. human civilisation. The South cards are mostly animals. At mid game, the South cards are replaced by the North cards. These are higher valued animals. 

I think of Meadow is a pyramid building game. You collect and play cards with the right icons to help you play higher value cards. You need to have a strong foundation to be able to build many high value cards. You must plan carefully how icons will be covered by other cards. Timing is very important. You don't want to accidentally cover an icon which you still need. Player interaction can be unforgiving. You will compete for those cards with rare icons. If you watch you opponents closely, you can tell what they need and you can deny them those cards. Even without intentionally frustrating your friends, you sometimes do so accidentally because you have placed your tile in a slot they plan to use. 

The game is almost overproduced. It has pretty card trays and a wooden round marker which to me are not really necessary. They do provide a nice play experience. They are a luxury. 

Gameplay is a pleasant experience. It is satisfying to collect the right combinations of icons and to play those high valued cards. Collecting the right cards can be challenging. You can't pick any card you want. You need to think about how best to use your tiles. This is not really a game for casual players. The game mechanisms are slightly complicated, and even I find myself in long pauses thinking about what I should do next. The game is certainly challenging enough for seasoned gamers. There is some luck, in terms of what kind of cards become available. It is satisfying to work out what you can do given the situation you are in. You certainly make meaningful choices. You can choose to play this in a more peaceful way, without deliberately trying to mess with your opponents. You will be kept busy enough managing your own play area.