Complete review and comments available here: Opinionated Gamer

Reviewer: Dale Yu

Seasons has been one of the most anticipated games coming out at this GenCon for me.  Surprisingly, I’ve been around the game a number of occasions (both at Origins in July as well as at the Gathering of Friends in April), but I never managed to be able to sit down at the table to play it!  The reason for this was because it was always in play – everytime I wanted to give the game a try, there were other gamers already taking it for a spin.

I’d had a pretty good chance to read the rules or have it explained to me from Stefan from Asmodee.  I was pretty sure it was the sort of game I would be interested in as it combined some mechanics from other games that I adored.  The start of the game is dominated by a card draft a la 7 Wonders, Notre Dame, or Fairy Tale.  Then, once you get your hand of cards, you have to apportion them into 3 packets – kind of like the bidding cards in Strasbourg.  Finally, once you’re in the Tournament phase, you’re choosing actions in bundles reminiscent of San Marco or Last Will.  Finally, in this phase, you are also playing with action cards that have casting costs and special abilities – similar to Magic: The Gathering or perhaps even Dominion.

However, eventhough many of the mechanics feel familiar from other games, the sum of the parts feels different from anything I’ve played before.  Prior to receiving the game in the mail, I had had the chance to play a few times online as it is available at Boardgamearena - http://en.boardgamearena.com/#!gamepanel?game=seasons .  I was quickly enthralled with the online play, and I must admit, the gameplay online pales in comparison to the physical game.  Since I’ve had the game, it’s already hit the table in three different sessions for a total of 5 games.

So how does the game work?  The game is separated into two phases – the card drafting phase and then the tournament phase – which is played over three years or rounds, and the winner is the player who has the most victory points at the end of that second phase.

Though no victory points are scored in the first phase, it is quite important, as it is the way that you seed your hand with cards for each of the three rounds in the tournament phase.  At the start of the game, each player is dealt 9 cards*, and they are given time to look at all of the cards and read them.  Each of the cards has a casting cost, VP value, and special ability – so it can take a bit of time to familiarize yourself with the cards in that initial bunch of 9 cards.  Once you’ve had enough time to read them all, you choose one of them and place it face down in front of you – this card will be the start of your 9-card hand. You then take the eight cards you didn’t choose, and pass them to your neighbor on the left.  You’ll also be accepting a group of 8 cards from your RHO, and from this packet, you will again read them and then choose one card to add to your growing hand.  Repeat the passing procedure until you have 9 cards.  Many of the cards can work well in combination with others, so you’ll be spending lots of time in this drafting phase trying to choose cards that work together.  You’ll also need to use your memory as you’ll get a chance to see all the cards available in the draft fairly early in the process, and knowing what cards you might be able to draw will definitely help you decide what you take.

*There are 100 total cards in the game – 2 copies each of 50 different card types – and once you’re familiar with the game, the 9 cards you are dealt come from this pool of 100 cards.  However, the basic card set is only 60 cards (2 copies of 30 types), and it’s recommended that you limit yourself to these cards until you have played the game a few times.  And, to make things even easier, in your first few games, the rules even have suggestions for preloaded 9 card hands so that you don’t even draft cards.  Since novices to the game likely have no good way at evaluating the cards, the pre-built hands allow players to jump into an early game with fairly equal footing.

OK, so once you have your hand of 9 cards, you need to plan for the tournament phase.  To do this, you split your 9 cards into three packets of three cards each.  The first set of 3 cards will be your initial hand in the second phase.  The other two sets have tokens placed on them denoting “year 2” and “year 3”.  At the start of each of the successive round in the tournament phase, you will pick up the appropriate packet and add those three cards to your hand.

Each player gets a personal board which has spaces for storing up to 7 energy chits.  Your summoning strength is also tracked on this board – you may play as many action cards as your current summoning strength.  Finally, there are four special abilities that you can use on your turn, but each time you use one of these special actions, you are hit with a VP penalty at the end of the game.

Also, you need to prepare the dice.  There are 4 colors of dice, one color for each season.  You need to randomly select N+1 dice in each color – each of the dice is slightly different, so each 2 and 3 player game could have slightly different dice in play.  In a 4p game, you use all the dice, so there is no variation!  Each of the dice has a number of icons on each face – these icons correspond to 5 different actions:

Gain energy tokens of the type(s) shownGain VPsIncrease your summoning strengthDraw a cardTransmute energy tokens – sell tokens for VPs

At the start of each round, the start player picks up the dice which match the current season (blue for winter, green for spring, yellow for summer and red for fall) and rolls them.  Then, the start player gets to choose any of the dice and places it on his personal board.  Going around clockwise, each player in turn chooses a die from those remaining.  After everyone has chosen, there will be one left – leave it on the table for now, you’ll need to refer to it at the end of the round.

Now, going back to the start player, each player takes their turn.  The first thing you do on your turn is take the actions on the die that you chose.  If you have any icons which allow you to gain energy or gain crystals, you do these first. To gain energy, you simply take the matching round chit according to the icons on the die.  If there is a number on the die, you simply move your marker than many spaces ahead on the VP track.

The seasons board

If you have a star icon, you increase your summoning power by 1, and if you’re allowed to transmute energy, you use the chart found on the central Seasons board – depending on which season you’re in, different forms of energy are worth different amounts.  For instance, in winter, blue and red are worth 1 VP each, yellow is worth 2 VP and green is worth 3 VP.

During your turn, you can also play action cards from your hand.  You start the game with three cards, and you can draw more cards during the game from icons on the dice as well as from some actions found on certain cards.  To be able to play a card, you have to meet two criteria: 1) you have to have enough summoning power (as noted on the track on your personal board), and 2) you have to have the requisite energy tokens and/or VPs as listed on the card you are trying to play.

Every card type has a unique action – and they can take effect at different times.  Some cards have effects that occur as soon as the card is played.  Others have ongoing effect which start when the card is played and then remain in effect.  Finally, there are some actions which need to be triggered (sometimes with a cost associated with the triggering), and they can be triggered once per turn.

There are also four bonus actions listed on your personal board that you have access to – though only up to three times in each game.  There are four possible options:

Change two energy tokens for any other two energy tokensYou can transmute energy (without having the die icon), and you get +1 on each transmutationIncrease your summoning power by 1Draw two cards and keep one

But each time you use one of these actions, you have to move your penalty marker forward – it starts on 0 VP, then -5 VP, -12 VP and finally -20 VP.

The four bonus actions and the negative score track above

Each player takes their turn in clockwise order from the start player – doing all the actions they want to do on their turn.  When all players have finished, it’s time to move forward on the season board. You look at the die which was not chosen by the players, and move the month marker ahead a number of months equal to the number of pips on the remaining die.  Each of the dice in the game have a equal distribution – two sides each of 1, 2, and 3 pips.  But, as you can see, the speed at which the game progresses will depend on how many pips are on that remaining die.  If the month marker passes from 12 to 1, a new year has begun – and the year marker must be moved.  Additionally, players take their reserve packet of 3 cards for that year and add those cards to their hand.

If the third year has just finished, the game is over.  If not, the start player moves one position clockwise, and the next round begins.  You have to look at the new position of the month marker to see which season you’re in. Choose the matching color dice and roll them, and repeat the process outlined above.  Continue until the month marker moves through the end of the third year.

At the end of the game, the final points are tallied up:

Start with the VP total accumulated through the course of the gameAdd VPs found in the upper left corner of each card in playSubtract 5 VP for each unplayed card in your handSubtract any penalty points from the marker on your personal board from taking bonus actions

While the varied action cards are the centerpiece of the game, the actions on the dice end up being just as important!  For instance, you can have great cards in your hand, but if you’re unable to collect the right resources via the dice, you’ll have a hard time getting those cards in play.  Additionally, knowing that the remaining die determines the movement of the month cube is another layer of strategy to consider when choosing amongst the actions.

Also, with 50 different types of cards, there are many different possible strategies that you can employ.  The draft is a very important part of your strategy planning because you know from the start of the game what cards you will get into your hand in the later rounds.  As I continue to play the game, I’m still being surprised at some card combos (usually as they are played against me!), and we’re still limiting ourselves to just the basic 30 cards right now, though I think with our next game, we’ll break into the advanced cards.

When you get a chance to play Seasons, I think you’ll find that much of the game feels familiar.  However, the game as a whole feels very fresh and engaging.  There is definitely a learning curve with the cards, but if you follow the recommendations in the rulebook – starting with pre-set hands in your first 1 or 2 games and then limiting yourself to the first 30 card types – you should have time to learn how those cards work and get used to the flow of the game.  (To make another comparison, this is similar to how learning Dominion using the recommended starting 10 Action cards makes that process easier as well.)

There is plenty of replayability in the game due to the different action cards and the way the luck of the dice will change what actions are available to you during your turns. Based on what I’ve seen so far, the game has plenty of legs left in it as I haven’t even moved onto the advanced cards after 9 games, and I’m fairly certain that there is plenty of room for possible expansion here with new action cards or even new dice.

Complete review and comments available here: Opinionated Gamer