Seasons [Micro]

By What's Eric Playing? on September 16, 2024

Base price: $58? It's really hard to tell, sometimes.
2 - 4 players.
Play time: ~60 minutes.
BGG Link
Buy on Amazon (via What's Eric Playing?)
Logged plays: 5

Sometimes there are games that I'm surprised I haven't gotten around to reviewing. Just an odd combination of what gets played, what attracts interest, and what I remember to write up, eventually, I suppose. As you might guess from the title, one of these missed opportunities is the classic drafting game Seasons. I played it a lot in my early introduction to modern board gaming, and then it fell off a bit for me. I don't think I particularly loved drafting when I was getting started (and there's good reasons for that; drafting is a lot harder when you're less familiar with gaming or even just the specific game). Now, with a bit more experience under my belt, I'm both visiting (and revisiting) some classic games to see how my tastes have changed over time. I've definitely gotten more positive on Seasons, for instance, so I'll elaborate on that in the future. Let's get into it!

In Seasons, players spend twelve seasons crafting Power Cards from various elements and using their effects to gain crystals and thwart their opponents. The particularly interesting thing about this game is that you've got a bit of dice drafting and some more strategic card drafting. At the start of the game, each player drafts nine cards and then splits them into groups of three: three go in Year 1, three in Year 2, and three in Year 3. At the start of each year, those cards are added to your hand along with any other cards you've accrued, and then dice are rolled each round to give players some kind of bonus. You may get extra elements, some crystals, or even more Power Cards. The cards are the crux of Seasons' gameplay, though: some give you a one-time effect, some give you an effect that's activated each turn, and others still are activated through various other circumstances, like the change of seasons. Will you play aggressively, using your powers to steal from your opponents? Or will you build up an impenetrable engine that just keeps giving you more power and crystals? Only one way to find out!