BREW

Brew is a quirky little game with cute artwork, but a surprisingly combative experience behind it.

The main objective of the game is to gather forest cards. But you can also gather animal cards, and you can also brew potions: all three are represented by cards, and are worth points at the end of the game. How you go about getting these things comes down to your forage dice: everyone has four of their own colour, plus two element dice. At the start of each round, everyone simultaneously rolls their dice, and then everyone takes turn assigning them, one by one, to the play area: either the aforementioned forest cards (which show spaces where the dice go) or the central village board. Let’s focus on the forest cards first.

Each space in a forest allows you to place a die there and either collect resources (mushrooms, crystals, flowers) – take the resources from the supply – or train an animal: take any face-up animal card into your possession. All animals come with a special ability you can now use, potentially for the rest of the game. Instead of placing a die into a forest card, you can also place it into a village space and take the action there instead: these are rather good, and some spaces can even be shared, but ideally you want to be putting dice in the forests if possible…

The catch is, at the end of each round the player with the most dice in any forest claims it for themselves, so there is a constant battle for majorities in each forest card. As well as each having their own special power, your element dice can be placed on top of forage dice, meaning you get the action there and also negate an opponent’s presence into the bargain!

Each forest card represents a season (sometimes two) and this can be helpful for your animals. You can only ever have three trained animals, so if you pick up a fourth, one must be released. The animals have seasons too, and if your released animal matches a claimed forest card’s season, you get to flip it over: it’s now worth 3 points instead of a measly one.

Finally, the potions. At any time on your turn you can cash in your resources to brew one of the face-up potions, taking into your hand. It’s now available to be ‘drunk’ (ie activated) by placing it face-up on the table. Each potion gives you a one-off ability that helps you in the various forests; gathering more resources, moving dice around or playing extra dice on the same turn et cetera. When all the forest cards run out, the game is over, and most points wins.