Everdell Openings: Winter and Spring

Everdell has no fixed opening. Your starting hand, the Meadow, and the Forest cards change every game. But the first two seasons still follow patterns, and they all come from one fact: a card played early works for you longer than a card played late.

The shape of a year

Count the workers. You start in late winter with 2. Spring adds 1, summer adds 1, and autumn adds 2. Each worker can be placed once per season, so a full game gives you up to 15 worker placements: 2, then 3, then 4, then 6. Your city also holds 15 cards.

That symmetry is a good way to think about the game. Workers bring in resources and cards. Card plays turn them into a city. Winter and spring are short. Autumn is big. Whatever you build early shapes every season after it.

Why early green cards pay more

Green Production cards activate when you play them, and again when you prepare for spring and for autumn. So the season you play one decides how often it pays:

A Farm gives 1 berry each time it activates. Played in winter, that is 3 berries over the game. Played in autumn, it is 1. A Barge Toad gives 2 twigs for each Farm in your city, so a Farm also makes a later Barge Toad better.

The lesson: in winter and spring, a cheap green card is often the best card you can play, even if its printed points are low.

Read your starting hand

Your hand holds 5 to 8 cards, depending on your seat. Look for three things:

• Cheap green cards you can afford in the first few turns.
• Pairs: a Construction and the Critter that names it, so the Critter comes in free.
• A color you have three of, pointing toward a basic Event.

Don’t build a plan around a single card. Build it around what two or three cards in your hand and the Meadow do together.

Free Critter pairs

Every Critter names a Construction in its corner. Build the Construction first, and the Critter moves in without costing berries. The Courthouse and the Judge are a good example. The Courthouse gives you a twig, resin, or pebble each time you play a Construction, and the Judge lets you swap one resource in a card’s cost for another. Together they make every later building easier to afford.

Berries are the currency for Critters, and free Critters save them. In the opening, a Construction that lets in a Critter you already hold is worth more than its printed points.

Your first two workers

Your first placements should pay for your first cards. Constructions want twigs, resin, and pebbles. Critters want berries. Before you place a worker, name the card it is buying.

A few habits help:

• Take the exclusive space you need first. Spaces like 3 twigs hold one worker. If you need it, take it before someone else does.
• Read the Forest cards. They are usually the strongest spaces on the board. One that gives exactly the mix you need can be worth more than a basic location.
• Cards are a resource too. If your hand is thin, a space that draws cards keeps your options open.

When to prepare for spring

You can prepare only when both workers are out. After that, you can keep playing cards from your hand or the Meadow for as long as you can afford them.

So the winter question is not “should I prepare now?” It is “can I afford one more green card first?” Every green card you play before preparing for spring pays an extra time.

When you do prepare, your workers leave their spaces, which opens them up for everyone, including you on your next turn.

Aim at one Event early

Each basic Event is 3 points for one worker placement, and only the first player to claim it gets it. Harvest Festival needs 4 green cards, which fits an opening built on Production. If your hand points toward another color, follow it.

Special Events on the tree name specific cards your city needs. If you already hold one of the cards an Event names, keep an eye out for the rest.

A rough check for your spring prepare

There is no perfect target. As a rough check, when you prepare for spring, a strong opening often has:

• one or two green cards already in your city,
• a plan for your next two or three cards, and
• resources that match that plan, not a pile of extras.

For the bigger idea behind all of this, our explainer on engine building games shows why early investment beats late points in so many games.