One of the holy grails for any board game company is the gateway game: a strategic title that a more casual player can pickup and learn quickly that will get them hooked on more complicated, more dense titles (which often are much more big ticket items for publishers). Classic examples include CATAN and Carcassone, which have been the entry point for many board game hobbyists into the deeply addicting world of Euro gaming. With Gen Con release Gnome Hollow, The op has made their entry into this genre. The game, designed by Ammon Anderson (T.A.C.O, Twinkle Twinkle) was a low grade coup for the company since competition for the design was high when Anderson debuted it late last year. It was the theme of this year’s Gen Con booth and represents the newfound dedication by Hasbro’s licensed gaming giant to the hobbyist side of gaming.
What’s In The Box?
- 92 Garden Tiles
- 1 Stump Tile
- 8 Wildflower Tiles
- 32 Flower Tokens
- 1 Sunset Tile
- 110 Mushroom Tokens
- 57 Treasure Tokens
- 1 Pinwheel Market Board
- 1 Garden Tile Board
- 1 Mushroom Trade Board
- 21 Pinwheel Market Tokens
- 1 First Player Token
- 4 Magnetic Player Boards
- 4 Player Aid Cards
- 32 Wood Round Ring Markers
- 7 Wood Signposts
- 8 Wood Gnomes
- 1 Drawstring Bag
- Rules
This game is obviously super adorable, from the designs of the gnomes to the soft-watercolor depictions of real-life flowers and mushrooms. The cool thing about the book is it’s written as a sort of natural guide to gnomes filled with observations and very cute asides. Even the different colors for players have a pair of gnomes attached to each of them that have their own little character and backstory. A game like this normally would just coast on the cute but it’s nice to see some dedication to immersion without getting too bogged down with it.
How’s It Play?
As I said, Gnome Hollow is going to be a solid option for gateway Euros going forward. Of course that’s a moving target, but the basic gameplay combines a few concepts: tile placement, worker placement, and set collection. From my experience, all a Euro does is take some of these classic strategic mechanics and staple them together into a game. Luckily, Gnome Hollow stays on the lighter side with just those three and a pretty simple set of choices.
Players all are working to lay down tiles and create mushroom rings (like a fairy ring but with about 12% less whimsy). These rings are how you earn Mushrooms and, bonuses, and set off the game’s surprisingly deep cascading effects. After you’ve placed a tile, you then place one of your gnomes down. Gnomes let you either A. gain a mushroom, B. Visit the flower market, C. Visit a sign post, or D. Visit the pinwheel market. Signposts are placed in rings and give different benefits based on which one is chosen, like earning extra shrooms. This is the easiest method for your gnomes, but if you’re smart you can instead go to one of the markets to get something special.
The Flower Market is where you can get the harder to earn but more valuable Flower sets, which turn into victory points at the end of the game. The Pinwheel market is where you spend those Mushroom sets you’ve earned, getting you treasures and trinkets (all gnome-sized of course) that turn into yet more victory points. Ideally, you’ll set up your rings to get you an item that will let your gnome do an action that gets you more and more collectibles each time. It’s not easy to pull it off, but when you do there’s an impressive amount of ways to set off these cascading effects.
The Verdict?
The op has been hyped about this game for a while and I fully think it lives up to the excitement. The gateway game is something that can become and stay a hit for a company for years. Gnome Hollow is one of the more impressive entries to this genre in a while thanks to the adorable theming and strategic depth that reveals itself quite naturally as you play. Kids can have a lot of fun figuring out the basic set collection while adults can easily dig into just how deep the strategy goes through different variable playstyles and the ingenious shifting hex board that will have totally different outcomes each time you play it. Altogether a fantastic, whimsical experience that won’t be leaving my rotation any time soon.
You can grab Gnome Hollow from The op, Barnes & Noble, and your FLGS at an MSRP of $49.99
Images via The op