Silverfrost is an independent game in the Everdell world, set beyond the snow-capped Spirecrest mountains. Send your Critters into the different regions below the mountain to gather resources. Or, if you’re brave enough, send them up the mountain to light a beacon and seek the aid of a Big Critter. Build your city, clear the snow, keep your critters warm and complete the quests for the Ranger’s Guild.
Intro to the Game
This cosy game is arguably the most aesthetic of the Everdell games. Silverfrost is a 1-4 player, engine-builder, worker-placement game.
We estimate the play time to be about 1.5 - 2 hours, but it will be longer with more people.
As you can see from the photos, the game takes up a lot of table space, especially if you play with 3-4 players, so it may not be suitable for people with small tables, or you may need to play on the floor!
Slightly more challenging than the original Everdell, you must place your workers to gather resources to build your city. But there’s a catch: throughout the game, snow will come down from the mountain and cover your constructions and critters, making them useless. You must be resourceful and use the fire you can gather to melt the snow and maintain your city.
Set Up
The box contains 1 Game Board, 1 Rule Book, 1 3D Mountain Board, 1 2D Mountain Board (alternate option), 4 Beacons, 123 Main Deck Cards, 27 Big Critter Cards, 28 Lowland Quest cards, 14 Highland Quest cards, 24 Snowstorm cards, 1 Snow Clearing Reward Tile, 1 Winter’s Fury Tile, 24 Worker Critter Meeples (6 Red Pandas, 6 Penguins, 6 Falcons, 6 Hares), 4 Ranger Snowshoes, 8 Chimneys, Snow Tokens, Fire Tokens, Resource Tokens (Birch, Moss, Copper, Acorn) and metal Point Tokens (1’s and 5’s). There are also some additional solo player components, which we won’t be going into during this review.
There are clear instructions for setting up in the game box, but if you’re curious, here’s a quick run-through.
Start by building the 3D Mountain (clear instructions included). Place the game board in the centre of the table, placing the mountain along the top edge of the board. Add 1 Beacon per player onto the Mountain (they are a little fiddly to put together). Then place the resources in their designated spots on the board, with the snow placed at the top of the mountain.
Each player chooses a different type of Worker Critter and takes 2 of those workers. Each player places snowshoes on 1 of these workers; this is your “Ranger”. Place the other 4 workers near the season area at the top of the board: 1 in Autumn, 1 in Winter, and 2 in Spring. Place 1 Chimney per player in the Autumn and Winter areas. Players don’t begin the game with any Chimneys; however, each player starts with 1 fire token.
Next, face up, place Highland Quests equal to the number of players plus one, along the edge of the board near the Guild. Place the Lowland Quests in a stack face down near the Guild. Each player draws 2 Lowland Quests, secretly chooses 1 to keep, and places the other at the bottom of the Lowland Quest deck.
Place the stack of Big Critters on the left side of the Mountain facedown, then place 1 Big Critter face up on each of the 4 designated spots on the Mountain. Now, place the Winter’s Fury tile on the board showing the side with 1 fire. Snowstorm Cards go in a facedown stack on the board (cards will need to be removed from this if playing with fewer than 4 people).
Place 8 cards from the main deck face up in the valley; if there are any duplicate cards in the Valley, stack them together. Place the deck to the left under the word “draw”.
The first player draws 5 cards from the deck, the second player 6 cards, the third 7 cards, the fourth 8 cards. If you do not like the cards in your starting hand, you may discard your entire hand to draw a new hand. You may only do this once, during set-up.
The coldest player goes first!
Gameplay
On your turn, you must perform one of the following actions:
- Place a worker
- Play a Card
- Prepare for Season
Additionally, when you either place a worker or play a card, you may also clear up 1 snow from your city. Silverfrost has 4 phases, played out in Seasons. It starts in the summer and ends in the spring.
Placing a Worker
You can place one of your workers on any space on the board with a paw symbol that is not already occupied by another player's worker, and perform the action at that space immediately. Some spaces have multiple paw prints in them which mean any number of works can share that space. There are a few locations that have a fire symbol next to them; this means that you are required to pay Fire to visit there.
Your Ranger worker (the one wearing snowshoes) either gains a Fire when placed, or allows you to share a location with another player's already placed worker.
There are 4 ‘Basic Locations’; these will give you resources when you visit them.
The hot spring gives you 2 Fire and lets you draw 2 cards from the main deck.
The Forge lets you discard cards to gain resources.
The Beacons up on the mountain signal to the Big Critters that you need aid. Once you place one of your workers here and pay 1 fire, you can take one of the 4 face-up Big Critters. The Big Critter's ability activates immediately, and the Big Critter is then discarded. The Big Critters left on the Mountain then move one space to the right to fill the gap, and a new Big Critter is revealed.
The Guild is operated by the Rangers of Silverfrost. When you visit here, you may achieve 1 Quest card that you meet the requirements for (this can be either a Highland or Lowland Quest). Place the achieved Quest face up near your city. Then draw the top 2 Lowland Quests from the deck and choose one to keep. Achieved Quests are worth their listed points at the end of the game. Quests you did not complete are not scored.
You can also place your worker on red destination cards and along the Journey track. The Journey track can only be visited in your final season, which for Silverfrost is Spring.
Playing a Card
As your action, you may play one card. Cards are either Critter cards or Construction cards. To play a card, you must first pay the resource cost shown on the card. Then place the card face up in front of you. These cards will form your city. You have 15 card spaces in your city. You can play cards either from your hand or from the 8 face-up cards in the valley. You have a hand limit of 8 cards. If you take from the valley, refill the missing card at the end of your turn.
Each player will receive two Chimneys throughout the game (unless an ability comes up that allows you to reuse them). The Chimneys allow you to play a worker using a fire instead of the acorn cost. The Chimney is placed onto an available construction in your city with a matching symbol to that on the critter card being played.
There are 5 different card colour types, and each has a slightly different function. If you’ve played Everdell, you’ll already be familiar with these.
- Green: Production - activate immediately when played and when changing seasons (when indicated).
- Blue: Governance - Activate as described on the card. These cards often grant bonuses when you play other cards. They do not trigger themselves when played.
- Brown: Traveller - Activate once when played.
- Red: Destination - These cards have a paw print on them, meaning you may place a worker on these cards in your city to activate them.
- Purple: Prosperity - These can score you points at the end of the game depending on what is in your city.
Preparing for Season
Once you have placed all your workers, it may be time to prepare for the next Season. To do so, retrieve all your workers from the board and perform the steps for the next season that you are preparing for. These steps are outlined on the board in the season space (top left corner).
One of the main differences between Silverfrost and Everdell is the snow. Preparing for the season triggers snowstorms. The season space shows how many Snowstorm cards are revealed by the player changing seasons. These cards will show where the snow is placed on the board. For snow in your city, place it on the highest valued card in your city that doesn’t already have snow. The value order is Purple, Blue, Green, Red, then Brown.
If there is snow on a card in your city, it cannot be activated, score points, count towards quests or have a chimney placed on it. If there is snow on a valley card, the snow must be cleared before it can be played. If there is snow at a Location on the board, that Location cannot be activated unless the snow is cleared. To clear snow, you must pay Fire. This can be done when placing a worker at that location/on the card and once more per turn on a card in your city. Keep any snow you clear, as this is counted and potentially scored at the end.
Scoring
Once you have reached the end of Spring and cannot or do not want to perform any more actions, you have finished the game and must pass. If a player has passed, they can no longer be given cards or resources. Other players continue playing until all players have passed. Once all players have passed, count up the final scores.
You score based on the card values in your city (that don’t have snow on them), bonus purple Prosperity points, Quests achieved, snow points, point tokens and points for any workers you placed on Journey. The player with the most points wins!
If tied, the player who cleared the most Snow is the winner.
Our Opinions on Gameplay
If you enjoy Everdell, you’ll almost definitely enjoy this slightly more challenging alternative. However, if you have no experience with the Everdell world, it may be slightly confusing when first playing. We recommend playing Everdell first to learn the basic mechanics of the gameplay; however, it can still be enjoyed even if you have no previous Everdell experience.
We have found it to be a very replayable game, as each game is different, and a two-player game feels notably different to a 4 player game. There are also some harsher mechanics to play with once you’re more experienced with the game, which make the game more challenging.
Silverfrost has a decent amount of player interaction due to the snow blocking locations and cards, forcing you to keep track of other players' turns. It is also important to be aware of their progress to make sure they don’t achieve the Highland Quests before you do! Some of the quests also care about what other players are doing. So, although you don’t interact much in a traditional sense, it’s important to stay aware of what other players are doing so you can try to hinder their progress and get the best spots on the board.
The game can take a lot of focus as there are quite a few things to keep track of. Particularly if you have cards in your city that get activated when you take certain actions, or if you forget to clear snow on your turn. Once you’ve played the game a couple of times, this gets much easier as you know what to do and what the different cards do.
The game components are beautiful and of great quality, particularly the metal point tokens. We found the Beacons to be a little fiddly when popping them out of the cardboard, but other than this have no complaints about the quality of this game. It’s stunning.
One of the few criticisms we have of the gameplay is that there don’t seem to be enough cards that reward you for playing them. This could be because the designers were trying to offset the power of the Big Critters, but if you’re already behind, you will likely struggle to get them anyway.
The rule book could also do with an index for card abilities (in a similar fashion to the original Everdell) as there are some uncertain interactions that could do with clarification.
Final Thoughts
Silverfrost is a beautiful game that we love to play. We love the cosy winter theming of the game and the addition of the Big Critters. It’s a lot of fun trying to make the best city and filling it with interesting critters and constructions. We would definitely recommend this to others, especially if you already like Everdell or other mid-heavy worker placement games.
