Loading...
Please wait while we load your content
This site is still under heavy construction
Please wait while we load your content
%2Fpic7704995.png&w=3840&q=85)
<p>After miles of travel with no other noise around you but your own, you see for your own eyes what all the murmurs have been about—the city of Ignis. You thought it would be bigger, based on a...
Everstone: Discovering Ignis offers a promising medium-weight engine builder with solid components, an engaging action-selection loop and satisfying card-chaining. However, the experience is marred by an unclear rulebook — notably prestige track movement — which led to irreversible first-game mistakes at our table. If you enjoy tinkering with engines and don’t mind ironing out rules on play one, it’s worth trying; if you need pristine rules out of the box, proceed cautiously.
Everstone: Discovering Ignis is a medium-weight fantasy card-and-action game designed by Sam McDavitt and published by McDavitt Publishing for 1–4 players. The box promises an engine-building experience where you move a meeple around four action spaces, never repeating the action you just took, and build power by placing cards into action slots to create chains and synergies. The game mixes several familiar mechanics — chaining, contracts, hand management, multi-use cards, open drafting, variable player powers and a solo mode — into a compact 80-minute (our session ran a bit under two hours) package aimed at players aged 14+ who enjoy medium-weight strategy without the grind of very heavy euros.
I played a four-player session at a friend’s house with a quiet, focused table and a group that was new to the game. One person had read the rules in advance and taught the rest, but we still made multiple rule mistakes on our first play; those mistakes were meaningful and, frustratingly, not always reversible once discovered. That experience colored the whole session. Overall I’d call Everstone a game with a promising mechanical core and solid production values, but it suffers from rulebook clarity problems that can reduce enjoyment on a first playthrough. If you like building engines, careful turn planning, and indirect competition, this title will speak to you — but be ready to tolerate a learning curve that isn’t always well-supported by the rules.
Setup was quick and unobtrusive — about 5–10 minutes at our table — and most of the initial work was handled before we sat down to play. The retail copy we played with felt well-made. Components are of good quality: cards shuffle and handle well, the meeples, tokens and player boards are sturdy, and the artwork is functional and attractive without being overwrought. The art supports the fantasy theme adequately; it doesn’t steal the show, but it’s consistent and serviceable.
Iconography is mostly clear, which helped speed up teaching and play, but there are minor issues that require a quick rule lookup. No components were missing or damaged in our set, and tactilely the game felt satisfying to handle. Production value is solid for an indie title. My only nitpick is that some of the icon shorthand used on the prestige track and some cards could use clearer examples in the rulebook to avoid first-game confusion. But physically, Everstone is a pleasure to set up and manipulate — a definite positive for players who enjoy tactile, readable components.
The heart of Everstone is a tight action-selection loop: move your meeple to one of four action spaces (you may not take the action you just took), perform that action and try to place cards into action slots to build an engine that grows more efficient over time. Actions range from gaining resources, drafting cards, moving up tracks, and fulfilling contracts. Multi-use cards and chaining mechanics let a single card serve multiple roles later in the game, which lends satisfying depth to your decisions. The movement restriction — never repeating the previous action — forces variety and planning. On turn three I remember choosing a suboptimal resource gain merely to avoid repeating the previous action and that constraint created a tense, nail-biting moment where everyone had to adapt to the table’s shifting priorities.
Player interaction is present but mostly indirect: you’ll compete for cards, contracts and prestige, and some choices can deny others meaningful tempo, but there’s no direct take-that. That felt right for an engine builder. The game balances luck and skill reasonably well — a few fortunate card draws can accelerate an engine, but skillful chaining and good timing are what win the game. After about 90 minutes we reached a satisfying endgame where scoring felt earned rather than random.
That said, theme integration is adequate rather than immersive. The idea of discovering Ignis and building an engine of artifacts and contracts is serviceable, but the narrative never reached a strong emotional or thematic high point for our group. Mechanically, the game reminded us of the action-selection feel in Scythe (just the selection pattern, not the rest of that game). Several memorable gameplay moments were born out of confusion rather than design: we argued over how prestige track movement works — specifically whether you skip occupied spaces when moving up, and whether moving down follows the same rule. The ambiguity cost us a few tense turns and left some players feeling unsure if their choices were executed correctly.
Everstone: Discovering Ignis left me with mixed feelings. The core gameplay loop is interesting and offers moderate strategic depth: chaining cards into a reliable engine is satisfying, and the forced variety of action selection keeps turns meaningful. Components and art are good, setup is quick, and the play length sits in a comfortable range. Our group had fun, and I even won a game despite the rule goofs; that made the experience enjoyable enough that we’d consider another play. The game has moderate replay value — different card drafts and contract mixes will change strategies — but it isn’t a must-play that’ll live on my table every week.
Where Everstone falters is the rulebook. On a first play it’s easy to make mistakes that materially affect how the game unfolds. The prestige track movement rules in particular are confusing: you shouldn’t have to hunt for clarification about whether skipping occupied spaces applies both going up and going down, or whether skipping applies only on landing as opposed to movement. That moment of ambiguity frustrated the table and lowered our overall rating. For the game to reach its potential I’d like to see a clearer rulebook, an FAQ covering edge cases (like prestige movement), and a few worked examples of common turn sequences.
Recommendation: If you’re a player who enjoys medium-weight engine builders, open drafting and multi-use cards, and you don’t mind a bit of rule ambiguity at first (or enjoy house-ruling until a FAQ appears), Everstone is worth a try. If you require crystal-clear rules on your first play or dislike games where early mistakes can’t be corrected, this one will disappoint. My group had fun, but we’d rate it around a 5/10 on this first outing — promising mechanics and good components, but a rulebook that needs work before the game can truly shine.