Brew is a light-to-midweight game for 2-4 players that utilizes a combination of dice rolling, worker placement, and area control mechanisms into a clever design by Stevo Torres (Head of Graphic Design at Pandasaurus).
Fans will instantly be able to recognize the artistic style of Jake Morrison‘s illustrations, which bring the gameplay to life. Andrew Thompson (Countdown: Action Edition, Manifest) also assisted with the illustrations, including some of the whimsical forest creatures.
Gameplay:
Thematically, you’re trying to restore balance to the forest where all the seasons and times of day are happening concurrently. Players will utilize their dice to gather ingredients for powerful potions or assign them to matching forest spaces to encourage equilibrium.
Each round, all players roll the 6 dice in their dice pools. Then players take turns in clockwise order and continue taking turns until everyone has run out of dice.
At the end of the round, players claim the forests that they control, and then perform cleanup steps to start the next round. Part of this cleanup phase includes flipping over the game board – changing the setting from day to night, or vice versa – which alters gameplay by offering new actions to take in the next round!
Time is broken and shattered. The seasons all exist at once, and day and night have no real cycle—they rotate at the whim of the forest. This enchanted land has been driven into chaos and it’s up to you, the cunning mystics of the forest, to tame extraordinary woodland creatures and use your magic to bring back balance.
In Brew, players must choose how to use element dice—either to take back control of as many seasons as possible in an area control game or to procure goods at the local village in a worker-placement game. Recruiting woodland creatures and brewing potions can help offset chance die-rolls or create an engine to help you tame the lands.
Brew will hit the shelves on June 16, where it will retail for $30.00.
Images via Pandasaurus Games
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