How To Play Meadow?

In Meadow you are playing down tokens to pick specific cards. These cards have symbols that they need to be played, and a symbol that they give you. So you build up from habitats to small creatures or plants, then cover those with the creatures that eat them or use them for shelter and build up upon that. Eventually trying to get landscapes and items to remember the location by.

Each card is going to give you points, minus the terrain cards, and you are trying to get the most points possible. The player with the most points wins the game.

Initial Impressions

Now, that is a very simple overview of the game. There is more going on, mainly the campfire and how you select what specific card you take. Both I want to call out here because they are interesting to talk about as well. And both of them I actually enjoy in the game. There is one part of the game that makes it harder for me to get to a full review though. We’ll get to that soon.

Action Tiles

The action tiles are really interesting in how they are used. I call them tiles, it could be arrows as well, or parts of a picket fence, depends on how you want to talk about them. It uses a mechanic that I enjoy in Quadropolis where it gives you a distance, 1 through 4, can where you place your tile, you count that many in. That card is the one that you are taking.

Now, other players can block where you want to go. And later in the rounds, cards will just become in accessible because of how people play. So you need to prioritize getting what you need. But the action tiles aren’t just for getting cards, they each have powers as well, which leads us into the campfire.

Campfire

There is a campfire in the game, not a literal one, but that is another spot you can use the action tiles. In the game each action tile has a special ability. It might be grabbing a card from a deck or from anywhere in the grid of laid out cards. This is great when the cards don’t work for you or the one you want is blocked off. The downside is that you don’t get to play it immediately. Or you can play two cards, or get two roads, which are used for the landscapes.

But there is even more going on. You have scoring tokens that you can put out. Around the campfire are symbols. If you match a combination of two of them, that hasn’t been filled in, so a bird next to a berry for example, you put down a scoring tile. The more you do that, the higher scoring tile you can place. But it isn’t something that always works to do. So it’s a balance of do you want an ability or not? And all this leads into the final thig.

Game Length and Complexity

The first thing to talk about is game length for Meadow. And with that complexity, they really go hand in hand. Meadow is not a game with a ton of rounds, and because of that, you want to optimize your moves. And because you need to optimize and plan out combinations, it can cause AP.

I tend not to get much AP in a game, but in a two player game, in particular, I slow down in this game. And the person I played with did as well. There is a lot going on in this game, and it makes me think I’d prefer it at four versus two. One thing that adds to the complexity and time needed to figure out is a wild tile. It can be any number in a two or three player game. In a four player game you just have one through four. That wild adds in a lot of options. as you can repeat a number or a power.

Who Is This For?

I think that’s an interesting question as to for it’s for. The game is pretty, which might make some gamers think it’ll be too light. On the flip side, it’s going to draw some people in and they’re going to realize it is too heavy. This is not a light game, it gives you a ton of options and a lot of planning that you can do. So I think this is a pretty game for seasoned gamers.

Now, that isn’t a bad thing. I want my games to be pretty. But Meadow reminds me of Calico in some ways. Calico is a very pretty game, a very cute game, but it is challenging. In Calico you can play with most people because it doesn’t give you complex turns. Meadow can give you complex rounds that you need to plan out more carefully. So I think it’s mainly a thing to be aware of.

Final Thoughts on Meadow

I enjoy Meadow. I think that the game play is interesting, I like how you pick your cards. And I really like the artwork as well. My main concern about Meadow and how long it may or may not stay in my collection is the game length.

Like I said, I enjoy the puzzle a lot of this game. I want to figure out how to optimize my turns, but the question is, who do I play it with. When I played it two player most recently, a few rounds 4 player at Gen Con, it was not a fast game. Like I said, I think I prefer it, maybe, at four players just because it limits your choices a bit more. But even that, with more players is going to take a while.

Meadow might be a game that I just play with same people. Which is not a bad thing for the game. Sometimes you find a more complex game and a group to play it with. I think for me, it’s one where I wish, with the artwork, it was easier for more people to play. But once I play it more, I’ll probably appreciate it more for what it is.

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How Important Is Winning?

Now, this is probably a pretty open question that depends on the person. For some people, winning at a game is extremely important. They play board games to win and if they don’t win, they aren’t happy about it. Or they want to go again because to them playing a board game is about winning.

For other people, winning might not be important at all. They play board games so that they can hang out with people. They want the fun social interaction you get at the table around the activity of board gaming. For them, getting together at the table to play a board game, the board game is the reason but not always the point.

Is One Way Better?

No, neither way is better, and a blend of both of them is healthy. Where both of them become bad is when people take them to the extreme. Let’s look at two examples.

I pull out a board game. I have new players and experienced players at the table. The experienced player really needs to win, so they absolutely destroy the new player.

On the other side, I pull out an easy game and I have someone who is just there to socialize. It gets to their turn and they don’t notice, haven’t planned anything and continue a conversation for five more minutes before actually looking at the board. And when they do they just slap a move together to get back to talking.

You can see how both of these when taken to an extreme aren’t ideal. I’ve talked about this with board games nights before. The point of a game night is in the title, it’s to play games. That doesn’t mean that socializing doesn’t happen, but it also doesn’t meant that gaming is lost at the expense.

So How Do You Balance It?

The way I’ve heard this described is that you try to win but winning isn’t everything. It’s more about having fun while at the table. For some people fun is only winning, but going back to something I talk about with RPG’s, it’s about the whole table having fun. Thanks again to The RPG Academy for that.

So what does this look like in practice. In practice it means, if I’m an analysis paralysis player who must win, I find a move that will help me and I take that move. It might not be the perfect or ideal move, but I keep the game moving. If I am a social player, it means I pay more attention to the game. I notice when my turn comes up without being told. I pause my conversation and take a good move for me and then can return to the conversation.

These aren’t hard things. They keep the game moving in both cases and they both players take moves to help themselves win.

Anything Else To Do?

I think there are, I think that players need to think about what group they might fall into. Do they need to win, do they need to talk? And split up into different groups sometimes. The trick can be that some players need to win and need to talk and that is trickier.

Also, going back to a board game night, think about who is coming. If you mainly have people who want to socialize, go with lighter games. Go with shorter games. That way when a game drags out a bit, you aren’t that long and people aren’t losing what is going on. It’s fine to just play party games. On the flip side, if you have winning gamers, go with bigger and tougher games. That way when their turn takes longer, the game is already longer so it doesn’t stand out as much. And if you have both, don’t hesitate to split into two groups during the night.

So, really, winning is important in a game. That is what games are for, you play them for the experience and to try to win. But winning isn’t everything and at least at my table will never be the only focus. Talking and conversations will happen. We’ll get up and get food or a drink, but when it’s your turn, you take it with the intention of trying to win.

Do you fall more on the must win side of social side of board gaming?

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1 – Not Being Ready to Game

Now this one might seem obvious, but I don’t think that some people get it or are ready to game. While there are certainly social elements to game nights, that is meant to be done in the context of while you are playing a game. So come ready to sit down and play again, not ready to talk for 30 minutes to an hour and then play a game at some point in time and then talk more after a filler game. I fairly often theme in filler game nights for those more social times, but sometimes you need to be prepared to play a bigger game and it’s a game night, so that should be the mindset.

2 – Quashing Fun

This really is #1 through #7, but I want to call this out specifically. It’s something that was talked about in the thread a fair amount. Don’t quash other people’s fun because something in the game offends you and the flip side of this as well, don’t pull out a game that you know will offend someone. If you aren’t sure, leave it on the shelf, if you are uncomfortable, sit out the game. You can always bring it up after the fact and do so respectfully. And if you don’t know, ask before pulling out a game if the person is fine with it. This also is true for conversation on a board game night. We’re trying to create an inclusive place. If you can’t shut up about the debate last night, don’t come, if you are wearing hateful or polarizing material on your shirt, or whatever it might be, don’t assume everyone is like you, and don’t assume everyone wants to talk about politics or whatever polarizing thing like you do.

3 – Alpha Gaming/Analysis Paralysis Gaming

Now, I’m lumping these two together, and really, like I said, this falls into quashing people’s fun. But while that is more specifically about your tastes and views on things, this is more about the game itself. Don’t tell people what to do on their turns, sure they might not be doing an optimal play, but that’s okay. It might mean you’re less likely to win a cooperative game, and that’s okay. By the same token, don’t take too long on your turn, that is how people checkout of games, and I’ll talk about that later. But slowing a game down makes it less fun for everyone. For AP players, they feel the pressure to go fast and not let everyone else get bored, for the other players, they don’t want to get bored. Here’s going to be an odd statement, but alpha gamers and AP gamers tend to have the same issue, they need to win. The issue is how they do it, one thinks they know what everyone should do, and one locks up to make the optimal play. Winning the game isn’t everything.

4 – Sore Losing/Winning

As I just said, winning the game isn’t everything, and losing the game isn’t nothing. But don’t be sore at either of them. Don’t huff and puff and say that the game isn’t fair, that people ganged up on you (even if they did), lose graciously. Again, this steps on people’s fun if you lose poorly. At the same time, if you win, don’t gloat about it. Also don’t deflect and say it was all luck and that you just happened to get lucky to win, because someone might have been playing their hardest and gotten crushed and feel now like they are a terrible player. Instead be gracious in both winning and losing and that’ll make the game more fun for everyone.

5 – Cheating

Simply put, don’t do this. No game matters that much that it’s worth cheating at, at a board game night. I don’t care if you’re playing poker for the last piece of Rhubarb Cream Pie, don’t cheat. Cheating if you get caught ruins the game for everyone. If you don’t get caught, it makes the whole experience more hollow. I’ve found that the people who cheat usually don’t cheat to win, or if they do, they’ll also cheat to win by more, which makes it less fun.

6 – Readily Getting Distracted/Checkout of the Game

This can happen for several reasons, but try not to. Firstly, again, it’s a game night, you’re hear to play a game, not to look at your phone, not to have a conversation with someone who is playing another game, or someone who just showed up at the expense of missing it’s you’re turn. It’s fine to chat, but don’t get so distracted you lose track of the game, hold it up by missing your turn, and then spend a while figuring out your turn because you weren’t paying attention to what everyone else did. Also, don’t checkout of a game because you think you can’t win. First, you might not be able to actually tell that. But also if you start playing worse than you were, you can king make or otherwise mess up the fun other people are having. See your strategy and plan through to the end.

7 – Mistreating the Game

Now, as I’ve said, we have food at the table, so I’m not as strict about this as most people. In fact we’ve had Doritos and red wine (not the worlds tastiest combo) at the table before. But I’m talking about doing stuff intentionally to a game, or subconsciously. Don’t bend cards and throw pieces. Wipe off your fingers if you have Cheetos or Doritos’ dust on them before picking up pieces and cards. Just generally be respectful of other people’s property, it’s a common courtesy but be conscious of that, and resprect the rules the owner of the game has for their game.

So obviously some people in the thread were more clever than I was and created ones related to the actual seven deadly sins, but I thought it was an interesting topic for a gaming group and board gaming in general, so I wanted to write something up about it. Generally, I think that The RPG Academy gets it right with their motto, “If you’re having fun, you’re doing it right”. So make sure that you’re having fun, and make sure that everyone at the table is as well and playing board games will be fun for everyone.

What are your rules for gaming?

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Real Time games have been around for a little while, but there have been more of them coming out recently. In a Real Time game, you and everyone else at the table are taking your actions under the pressure of the clock or something along those lines, so you are moving as fast as you can. Some real time games have you work together all at the same time, while others are still going to use turn order to determine when you go, and some are actively pitting you against each other as fast as possible.

What Real Time is great for in games is ratcheting up the stress level. Now, instead of being able to plan and think about your turn, you are hoping to get it done fast enough that time doesn’t run out on you, you are able to sink the enemy sub before they find you, or you can make it to the check point to get more time. Some games can give you that tension by giving you difficult decisions to make, this one creates a similar tension by whatever constraint you are under. And often creates more of it than the difficult decisions, but you have all the time you need, do. I know for some people that it can create too much pressure for them, and so they won’t play them, which I feel like is a fair decision. So, know your crowd before you pull them out.

One area that Real Time games can be quite good, however, is dealing with analysis paralysis players. They need to make a decision immediately, so even if they want to figure it out, they can’t. If you are dealing with an issue with AP players, and they are up for it, a real time game would be a good way to cut down on that play in a game. Now, they also might be some of the people who get too stressed out by it though. You’ll have to see with their personalities, but they might not like the pressure keeping them from playing their optimal strategy. I know one AP player who wouldn’t ever play a real time game, but I also know a couple who own and play them just fine. Games that have an element of real time, which I’ll mention some below, those might be a better fit than a purely real time game as well.

What are some games that use this mechanic?

Image Source: Board Game Geek

One of my favorites that uses this is Captain Sonar. Now, in Captain Sonar, you and an opposing team face off against each other in a real time battle to sink the enemy sub. Each Captain is shouting out orders and their crew are responding. The sonar operator is trying to plot the enemies route so that the team can locate where they are, get close enough, and fire torpedoes upon them. All of this while getting the torpedoes online and keeping the systems in working order. This game is a lot of fun, and, while the concept seems stressful, I feel like it’s less stressful than some. The fact that there is no timer means that if you want to move very fast and keep the pace frenetic, you can, otherwise, you can let the other team move more than you do, but either way, it’s a fun game of cat and mouse with both of you trying to chase down the other.

Fuse is a much smaller real time game. In it you’re trying to defuse bombs. Sounds stressful, and it is as there is a timer that counts down and plays tense music. As a group you roll dice, and then you can discuss and each of you picks one of the dice to defuse one of the bombs in front of you. However, if you can’t use a die, everyone has to toss back a die of the same color or the same number. But, once you’ve defused a bomb, you put the dice back, grab another one and start defusing that one. This game is very stressful and short. I’ve had a good time playing it, and when I have played it, we’ve played multiple times. For a game that is stressful, that’s a good sign that they designed the game well. There are also levels of difficulty, basically how many bombs you have to defuse, so the stress level can be lowered if you want, though, it’ll still be stressful.

Image Source: Asmodee

One that uses it only in part of the game is Galaxy Trucker. In this game, you are building up a lousy looking truck from scrap and watching it get destroyed as it flies to pick up items and then drop them off over three rounds. What works well in this game, though, is the fact that you build your spaceship in a real time element. The first person to get their ship to where they want it to be then causes everyone else to feel a time crunch and rush to finish building their ship the best that they can. Then, you get a few seconds to relax before your ships start getting bombarded by asteroids, aliens, and whatever else might be out there. Then you go and do that again, two more times. Now, I might be messing up the rules slightly, it’s been a while since I played it, but the main idea is there. Galaxy Trucker does a good job with the real time as you hunt for that perfect piece to put into your ship, but doesn’t make itself too stressful because the game isn’t too serious.

Games like Unlock and Exit are also real time as your score is based off of how well you raced against the clock. In these games, you are basically in an escape room, but it’s a board game, or a card game. You look at these cards, use items together, and try and find a way out of the situation that you’re stuck in. I personally like Unlock better because it’s reusable, in Exit you might destroy everything. And I like that Unlock has an app that counts down, versus Exit where the pressure is just trying to get it done in as little time as possible, but it’s just counting up. The pressure is definitely there more so with Unlock as you can watch the clock count down. I also like Unlocks solution to check if you got it right better than Exit. But both options are a lot of fun.

There are a lot more real time games out there as well. Magic Maze is a difficult cooperative one, but unless you’re playing with a somewhat dedicated group, you’re not going to get the full depth of that game. Plus a large number of party games use a real time mechanic as well. A game like Scattergories, Catch Phrase, and many others have that timer limiting how long you can think about things or how long you get to guess. Though, with some of the other games like Magic Maze and Fuse, when that time runs out, it determines if you win or lose, which is something you don’t get from those party games.

I’ll be curious to see what interesting ways real time can be used in board games. It definitely has been used well a number of times, but there seems to be more design space out there for new games to come out that are challenging and real time. And I know that there are a number I’m interested in, that I haven’t gotten to play yet. What are your favorite real time games? Or as they too stressful?

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