- Publisher : Matagot
- Designer(s) : Philip duBarry
- Artist(s) : Kerri Aitken
- Players : 1–4
- Playing time : 15–60 Min
- Weight BGG : 2.13
What's this?
In this game with a Zen and mountain atmosphere, you play as a village chief living in the snowy heights, where you must guide your villagers towards spiritual enlightenment through agriculture, construction, prayer and meditation.
But all this doesn’t come without effort: the mountains are unforgiving, resources are scarce, and ancient secrets are well-kept. You’ll need to build wisely, meditate deeply, and sometimes confront spirits or guardians to make your community thrive in the eternal snows.
How do you play?
Snowcrest is played by 1 to 4 players and takes place over a series of turns where each player performs one of three main actions :
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Activate a Villager card already placed in your village to benefit from its effect.
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Add a new Villager by paying them with barley, then activating their power immediately.
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Rest when 3 cards are face down in the same row of your village: this allows you to collect resources and reactivate your cards for the following turns.
Key mechanics:
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Resources are central to the gameplay: Barley, Juniper, Prayer Bell, Offering Bowl, and Gold (wildcard resource) .
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You develop a grid of 3×3 cards representing your Village .
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Villager cards can be played, activated, or used as disposable resources.
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Building tiles ( Farm, Temple, Forge) produce resources when turned over.
Interactive actions between players:
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Meditation : By spending Prayer Bells, you enter a form of auction where the highest bidder wins a Scroll.
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Veneration : By offering resources to a Guardian, you trigger a blessing for yourself… and a curse for your opponents.
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Appeasing the Forest Spirits : When you harvest too many Junipers, a Forest card is triggered. All players must pay a cost (resources, cards, or buildings), but only the active player receives the reward.
This common, but only instigator-rewarding, punitive mechanic creates constant tension around your choices.
Objective and end of the game:
The game ends when all the Scrolls have been collected . Players then score points for:
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the collected Scrolls,
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the buildings constructed,
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their position on the Augur track (positive or negative),
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and their majority in each type of resource.
The player with the highest total points is declared the Master of the Mountain .
Is it good?
Snowcrest features a simple and effective tableau building mechanic . The game adds a mandatory rest system , which forces players to plan their actions and make timely choices. This mechanic introduces significant strategic tension, particularly because resource management is often tense , and key moments for performing key actions like meditation , worship , or appeasing forest spirits must be carefully chosen.
All this is done while keeping an eye on your opponents, with the aim of penalizing them at the right time by making them lose resources or Augury points. While the game remains generally quite solitary , it nevertheless offers welcome indirect interaction , particularly through the race for objectives and Scrolls.
What everyone agrees on is the quality of the material and the artistic direction . The whole thing is very neat , with original illustrations and a beautiful visual coherence.
The games are relatively short and the rules easy to learn , although the booklet is not always very intuitive and could do with being a little clearer.
Despite its many qualities, Snowcrest can be criticized for its somewhat linear pace , which evolves little from start to finish. It does not offer truly powerful combos between cards, and its mechanics, although solid, may seem lacking in novelty or depth for more seasoned players.
In summary, Snowcrest stands out as a pleasant game , particularly recommended for those looking for an aesthetically pleasing , accessible but tactical experience , with subtle interaction . It will delight fans of optimization and planning , but may leave players looking for combos and new features wanting more.
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Review Snowcrest
Positives
- High quality material
- Original artistic direction
- Accessible mechanics
- Smart rest system
- Well thought-out indirect interaction
Negatives
- Fairly linear rhythm
- Lack of combos
- Unintuitive rulebook
Breakdown
- Edition 9.0
- Mechanics 7.0
- Thematic 7.0
- Replayability 6.0
- Getting started 8.5
- Interaction 7.5
- Originality 6.5
