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Before we begin, I promise there won’t be a bunch of jokes about someone being a ‘fun guy’ in this review. There’s simply not mushroom for that sort of thing.
No, wait, don’t go. We’ll start again, shall we?
(Clears throat, deep breath.)
Have you ever dreamt of living life as a cute little mushroom character tasked with shifting some dewdrops off their patch of the forest? No? Me neither. For the purposes of this review, however, we’re going to make it our dream. Today, then you are a mushroom. Not one from our everyday boring world, because that would entail lurking in the moisty gloom of a forest, waiting for a forager to snatch you up, stuff you in a bag and hoist you off to a kitchen where you’ll be slapped down on a wooden board, then chopped up and dropped into a delicious omelette alongside an equally unfortunate onion and a traumatically grated sprinkling of cheese (blimey, I’m hungry). No, today you are an alternate reality mushroom (I don’t advocate that sort of behaviour, mind) wherein you are sentient and quite the busy creature (bear with me, this will all come together, I think).
You’ve got this little plot amongst the trees to take care of, see, and when you wake each day at dawn you find that your territory – of which you are so proud – is littered with a glitter of dewdrops. The Goddess of the Forest is fair fond of these juicy dewdrops, so you gather them up to lay upon the nearby Shrine of Life as an offering. Sounds like hard work, eh? Well, luckily there’s other mushroom folk milling about with less responsibilities than you, and if you can get your mitts on enough leaves (the local currency) then you can hire these errant wanderers to assist you in the harvest. (It’s rather trusting of you to take these characters on-board without suitable CVs or references, but live it your way, pal.) There’s a downside – of course there is. You need to get a shift on. You’re not the only dewdrop collector on the forest floor, and the first one to complete their clear up will receive the blessing of the Goddess of the Forest.
You’re In It Now, Aren’t You? You’re There.
We’ve transported you into a dreamlife you never knew you wanted. How, then, do we achieve these grand aims? Each mushroomer will receive a gameboard (5x4 squares) representing their section of the forest. One of the squares on that board embodies the Shrine of Life. Next, you pick a setup card at random (because these pesky dewdrops don’t form in the same spot every morning), and each player will need to place the twenty acrylic drops on their gameboard exactly as there are on the setup card. If you haven’t yet built your Shrine of Life, get cracking and pop the die on the relevant position for the number of players, then choose a random supply card to leave next to the shrine, which will come into play when the die drops.
Not Much More To Do, My Little Mushrooms, Almost There.
There are forty playing cards which contain those wandering heroic vagabonds we were on about earlier. Shuffle ‘em, then lay out the top five face-up. This is called the showcase and is where you can hire new heroes for your group/cards for your deck (they’re all showing off their best side and striking grand poses to tempt you). You need a pair of little action cards which fit the bottom of your board – these are additional moves that can be taken if you have enough leaves to afford it. Finally there are four sets of six starting cards. Take one set, and make sure all six cards have the same rune in the top corner. Put ‘em face down in a supply pile and take three which you’ll hold in your hand. You will play whichever three cards you’ve drawn to your hand every turn.
Ready?
I’ll make a few points about the initial unboxing and the first time setup before we get into the game itself. (I know, we’re stretching out the tension.) The artwork is vivid and lovely throughout, every piece links thematically to the rest. Even the inside base of the box is nicely decorated – which can hopefully be seen in the accompanying photos. The game comes with a lot of cardboard sheets of game pieces. Popping these out is a particularly pleasant experience (I’ve been in the hobby for approximately five minutes and I’m already hooked on unboxing), and this extends to the assembly of the centrepiece Shrine of Life. This initially looked as if it would be a pain to put together, but turned out to be an easy and fun process, and the final structure is particularly sturdy. I was even pleased to find a bunch of poly bags for safe storage of your game pieces. The overall design comes across as thoughtful and well organised.
You Still Ready?
This isn’t a game of luck. You, my little mushroom, will have to make wise choices as you play if you hope to win. Your primary mission is to shift those dewdrops off your gameboard/plot of forest, but to do that you will need to build a strong deck, and do so quickly. Your six card starter deck is the same as the other players possess – again, no luck involved – and each card allows an action. Basic cards let you move a dewdrop up, down, left or right, or collect a leaf. These leaves are the currency used to buy better cards from the showcase. Better cards provide upgraded abilities, such as four dewdrop moves or even the chance to remove all drops from specific spaces on your board – green is grass, blue is water, and so on. The strategy, then, is buying the right cards for the job and using them effectively. Should you move that drop closest to the shrine so that you can get it off the board, or leave it for the right hero card to deal with and move the drops furthest from the shrine instead?
Those drops are placed upon the gloriously-constructed Shrine of Life – and it really does look cool in the centre of the playing area. There are a number of smaller slots for the drops, and three larger ones for the game’s single die – it doesn’t even have numbers on it, displays foresty-rune symbols instead. The die will sit in the first available slot for a two player game, the middle slot for three players, and I won’t spoil the four player game for you. Once there’s enough drops filling spaces up to the die, the shrine is turned, the dewdrops tumble from the ramp underneath, and the die rolls out. Whichever symbol it lands on will determine where each player must place one or two extra dewdrops, thus spicing up the game. You might have almost cleared your board, only to find that you’ve just been given extra work to do.
Here, Then, Lies The Central Issue With Mycelia.
The shrine is a smashing little construction and the artwork is just as good as on the fantastic cards. It looks great on the table (and in photos, you instagrammers). Functionally, however, it doesn’t do very much, and it’s hard to shake the feeling that it’s a missed opportunity. It would be just as easy to simply remove the dewdrops from the board, and after a set number gone you would roll the die. It’s worth bearing in mind that the shrine is the sole reason why the game box is so big. My other half considered the shrine a disappointment, saying there’s no real reason to spin it as there’s no particular reward for doing so. I think the device brings a lot of presence and aesthetic pleasure to the game, and wonder if there isn’t a better use for it: for example, the spinner gets to dump all of the released dewdrops onto the other players? Also, the action cards didn’t get used once during our initial playthroughs. For example, why spend three leaves on moving a dewdrop once when you can invest those leaves in a new card? Maybe they’d come in handy during an endgame scenario, when you only have one or drops left to move near the shrine.
There’s a solo mode featuring an AI bot with its own cards and pieces that functions almost as well as a two player game does. There’s a fair bit of variety on offer as well, with alternative gameboards, different action cards (a through e), and additional hero cards for the showcase, so you can mix things up a bit on subsequent plays.
It Comes To This Then: Is It Any Good, And Who’s It For?
Personally, I enjoyed it. The deckbuilding is solid and there’s certainly a degree of strategy involved in your decision-making process. I agree with my other half, however, that the shrine promises more than it delivers. The age range on the box is about right, nine and up. Kids will enjoy spinning the shrine, but there are quite a few rules to learn, so those under the recommended age range might struggle. For the rest of us, Mycelia is a relatively lightweight game that offers limited replayability, and as such is priced well for what it offers longevity-wise. I can’t recommend it to those who have been in the hobby a long time, unless they’re die-hard mushroom fans… although I do think it would be a nice game for the start of a longer board gaming session if you’re bringing someone new into the hobby. It might also be a good choice if you’d love your partner to join you for a game, but they’re put off by all the horror/dark fantasy/murder-death-kill games you own. Good for families and newbies looking to ease into the hobby, then, but too shallow for those who wish to delve into deeper, darker woods. From here, I’ll leave it up to you. Ask yourself, is it worth living this dream-life as a hero mushroom, if only for a short time? Yeah, it kinda is. In fact, you might find it’s a bit of fun, guys.
