Image Courtesy of bpovis
This review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.
If you liked the review please thumb the top of the article so others have a better chance of seeing it and I know you stopped by. If you thumb the bottom as well, I consider that a bonus. Thanks for reading.
Summary
Game Type – Card Game
Play Time: 30-45 minutes
Number of Players: 2
Mechanics – Card Drafting, Set Collection, Hand Management
Difficulty – Pick-Up & Play (Can be learned in under 20 minutes)
Components – Very Good
Release – 2012
Designer –<PERSON> -( Agility)
Overview and Theme
It is fair to say that there are some themes that are so pervasive within our hobby that some gamers may have 10 or 20+ games with the same theme on their shelves. I'm thinking fantasy, zombies, Egypt, Cthulhu, pirates...the list goes on.
But every now and again we are lucky enough to stumble across something rather unique. Morels is one such game. This is a game where two players are looking to walk through a forest, hoping to find many types of Mushrooms. Some they will cook and others they will sell in order to gain some valuable information from locals as to the whereabouts of other Mushrooms in this neck of the woods.
<PERSON>, upon first glance and read, appears to fit into that gaming space occupied by , and . I am eager to see if this can be another hit in that 2-player card game space for games that are easy to learn but have a little depth to them.
I'm also quite happy to be covering another game by a small independent publisher in . For the record the game was released in Europe under the title Fungi before this reprint. I will also look at what the Forays expansion adds to the game before I am done.
Pass me that stick there will you? My legs aren't what they used to be.
The Components
For a smaller publisher, Morels is a very well put together production, should be proud of the quality on offer. In one offering or another the company also provided gorgeous little pan miniatures and hand forged foraging sticks. These look great (check out the image gallery) but I only have the standard release.
Mushroom Cards – Naturally cards are going to be the front and center element of the game. 470
The cards on offer feature two different card backs to represent the Day and the Night Deck. The cards in the Day Deck are sometimes referred to as the Forest Deck as they will be drawn to make up the Forest Row or Ring (depending on how you set out the game).
The cards in the game largely feature a variety of different mushrooms. The cards allow artwork to take center stage. The key information beyond each card's name are the icons and values in the top left corner. The number below the symbol of a pan represents the card's value when cooked. The number below the icon of a stick represents the card's value in Foraging Sticks if sold to the locales. The artwork itself is good but not amazing.
The Night Cards feature the same mushroom types as the Day Deck except they come in a night-time hue and feature different artwork. The only mushroom missing in this deck is the Morels Card.
Image Courtesy of Peterweb
Special Cards – The other cards represent non-mushrooms and include things like Baskets, Pans, Moons, Butter and Cider, all of which I will cover later. In particular the Butter and Cider cards feature a simple criterion that must be met to play them, in the top-left corner.
Image Courtesy of Alice87
Tokens – The game comes with a pair of Pan (as in fry pan) tokens, which are round and each player starts with one of these. Then there are a bunch of round Foraging Stick tokens, largely green in colour. These can be gained during the game to aid the players.
Image Courtesy of Alice87
Rules and Reference Cards – The rules are decent without being brilliant - they get the job done. Oversized reference cards outline to the players how many of each card (mushrooms and specials) are in the main deck. This is important information to have.
Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
Overall I think the production of the game is up there with the quality of many of the games in the 2-Player line. Sure, there isn't a nice matte\linen finish on the cards but from a smaller publisher I can overlook that.
Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
Set-Up
In keeping with the quick playtime, Morels is an easy one to set up. 872