Seasons [Micro] – What’s Eric Playing?

Base price: $58? It’s really hard to tell, sometimes.
2 – 4 players.
play time: ~60 minutes.
BGG Link
Buy on Amazon (via What’s Eric Playing?)
Logged plays: 5

Sometimes there are games that I’m surprised I haven’t gotten around to reviewing. Just an odd combination of what gets played, what attracts interest, and what I remember to write up, eventually, I suppose. As you might guess from the title, one of these missed opportunities is the classic drafting game Seasons. I played it a lot in my early introduction to modern board gaming, and then it fell off a bit for me. I don’t think I particularly loved drafting when I was getting started (and there’s good reasons for that; drafting is a lot harder when you’re less familiar with gaming or even just the specific game). Now, with a bit more experience under my belt, I’m both visiting (and revisiting) some classic games to see how my tastes have changed over time. I’ve definitely gotten more positive on Seasons, for instance, so I’ll elaborate on that in the future. Let’s get into it!

In Seasons, players spend twelve seasons crafting Power cards from various elements and using their effects to gain crystals and thwart their opponents. The particularly interesting thing about this game is that you’ve got a bit of dice drafting and some more strategic card drafting. At the start of the game, each player drafts nine cards and then splits them into groups of three: three go in Year 1, three in Year 2, and three in Year 3. At the start of each year, those cards are added to your hand along with any other cards you’ve accrued, and then dice are rolled each round to give players some kind of bonus. You may get extra elements, some crystals, or even more Power cards. The cards are the crux of Seasons’ gameplay, though: some give you a one-time effect, some give you an effect that’s activated each turn, and others still are activated through various other circumstances, like the change of seasons. Will you play aggressively, using your powers to steal from your opponents? Or will you build up an impenetrable engine that just keeps giving you more power and crystals? Only one way to find out!

Overall: 8 / 10

I’ve owned Seasons for a literal decade and only just now been able to take the time to dig into it, and I think it’s great! It’s got a very classic feel since it’s just card drafting, dice drafting, and a bit of resource management. I think it just took me a bit to warm up to it because, like I said, when I first got into gaming I didn’t really have as broad of an experience set as I do now, so it was harder for me to come up with strategies based on the cards. I couldn’t see the synergies between them, and now that I’m more familiar with how this whole thing works, I’m really able to more coherently play the game. That said, this is something to watch out for with new players: drafting is normally one of the trickier gameplay mechanics specifically because it benefits players who are more familiar with the cards. If you want to subvert that, you can just shuffle them and deal each player three at the start of each year (random is, in a pinch, a decent substitute for drafting), but then you’re introducing a lot of luck. You may end up with cards that don’t work well together, which also feels bad. It may not be a bad idea to start off with a simpler drafting game (Hokkaido, Sushi Go Party, something like that) to introduce the mechanic before you go into the extra complexity that is Seasons. For players who want a bit more complexity, though, you’ll find it here!

One thing that I appreciated about Seasons is that even the take-that is relatively hands-off. This game is pretty interactive, in that you can thwart other players’ schemes or force the seasons to change depending on what cards you play or what dice you draft, but even in the base game it’s challenging to specifically target one player. I appreciate that, personally; I think attacks levied against all players feel less personal than just picking on one player the entire game. I’m talking about Middle Ages this week, too, so that definitely comes up there, as well. It’s still not going to make you any friends, but it also pretty actively prevents dogpiling, which I hate. The game has a nicer flow, as a result; you don’t see players agonizing or counting other players’ points as regularly because if they’re gonna attack they’re just going to hit everyone anyways. There will still be some frustration, but that’s largely the name of the game. Can’t steal an omelet without frustrating a few eggs, I think the saying goes. It makes it harder to target the leader, but that’s a small price to pay for preventing players aggressively dogpiling one player. It’s a fair compromise, overall.

The last point I’d make with Seasons is that the art and color schemes are generally fun, with one overwhelming exception. Why is Air red and Fire yellow? This is not a color choice that people generally associate with fire. You would not believe how many times I’ve seen players mix these up in-game, as a result, and it’s quite frustrating for players all around. I find it inexplicable, personally, and genuinely frustrating, to boot. Beyond that, though, I do appreciate the whimsy of the cards overall. They feel like they portray a world where magic is fun and wild and still a little dangerous, but exciting and colorful nonetheless. I keep seeing this whole “dark and gritty” thing worm its way into every genre, so I’m relieved that they decided to err on the side of colorful and fun. I’m glad I got to this after a decade of ownership. If you’re looking for a fairly classic card drafting game with some more complexity around resource management, you enjoy big clunky dice and think they’re fun, or you just want to have some wizard shenanigans, I’d definitely recommend Seasons! It’s a classic for a reason.

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