Earth has been very popular this year, and there’s a good reason for that. This game, which revolves around constructing an ecosystem using flora and terrain cards, beautifully combines nature’s charm with clever mechanics to provide an enjoyable experience.
The primary objective of the game is to score the most points, which are earned through playing cards, gaining growth and sprouts tokens, and fulfilling conditions on fauna and ecosystem cards. The game ends when a player fills a 4×4 grid with played cards.
There are four actions in this game: planting, composting, watering, or growing. Planting allows players to add cards to their tableau, while the other three actions provide cards, soil, sprouts, and growth tokens. In Earth, all players are engaged and take turns every round. Besides the active player choosing and getting the full benefit of action, all other players take the weaker version of the same action. This eliminates any waiting for one’s turn, as everyone plays simultaneously.
Most played cards feature abilities that align with one of the four main actions, activating when you take the corresponding action. As the game progresses, your main actions become more powerful because of these additional effects. This can as far as not needing certain main actions as other ones provide similar benefits from card abilities.
Gameplay and Rules
With all players taking actions every round, Earth minimizes downtime, keeping everyone engaged. The only time you might experience a bit of wait is when a player’s ecosystem card encourages them to focus on specific card abilities and they end up having several effects of the same color. However, as everyone becomes more familiar with the game, they will become quicker at activating these effects.
Cardplay in Earth is both enjoyable and exciting. Getting cards is easy, allowing players to have plenty of good cards in their hands. This means strategies can shift from one turn to the next. While the game starts at a relaxed pace, it quickly gains momentum as everyone builds their engines and gains more resources to add cards to their tableau and move closer to triggering the end of the game.
The rules are simple and can be explained easily, especially since there is a beginner version of the game. Some effects on cards could require looking things up in the rulebook, but it’s possible to start to play and look them up as players encounter them. After the first couple of plays, everybody will get used to the iconography and unique effects and will be able to interpret all card abilities. However, the rulebook has unclear wording in some places which prompted us to look things up on BGG forums.
Earth features tons of cards, a huge plus for a card game. There are tens of thousands of possible starting setups and 283 playable cards of which you see only a limited set in every play. So, this game won’t feel repetitive for a long time. The concept is also easily expandable and I hope there will be expansions for this game with even more cards.
Artwork and Components
All cards in Earth feature actual pictures instead of illustrations which is great. Pictures of different plant species are accurate (even though there is a disclaimer in the rulebook about their accuracy) and all cards include a flavour text providing more information about the content of the card would that be a plant species, terrain, ecosystem, or animal. Although the artwork on the player boards could certainly use some improvements, it’s not a major issue for us. Nevertheless, we’d love to see thematic art on both the player boards and the main board.
When it comes to components, the cards that are the main part of the game are of acceptable quality. The player boards are thick and sturdy, and the trunk and canopy pieces are beautiful. The only thing I would improve is the size of the soil and leaf tokens. The smallest soil tokens, the ones representing a value of 1, and the leaf tokens players use for marking objectives are too small and not particularly comfortable to handle. Considering that there is room on the single punchboard that comes with the game, this is something that can easily be improved. Including the full list of components in the rulebook instead of the bottom of the box would also be an improvement.
Overall, Earth has a delightful table presence mostly because of 3D growth and beautiful pictures on cards.
Is Earth similar to Wingspan?
I’ve seen a lot of comparisons between Earth and Wingspan. There are similarities between the two, both are tableau-building card games and both feature cards with abilities that trigger when taking actions. However, they play and feel very differently. You could be a fan of one and not enjoy the other or you could like or dislike both equally. We enjoy both and see them as two different games.
Final Thoughts
We are enjoying Earth and it’s earned a place in our collection. While there’s room for improvement, it’s an excellent game, and we intend to keep playing it. If you enjoy engine-building or nature-themed board games, give Earth a try; you won’t be disappointed.
Disclosure: We received a review copy of this game. Also, there may be an affiliate link in the links included at the end of this article.
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