Sunset over Water

• Designers: Steve Finn, Eduardo Baraf
• Publisher: Pencil First Games
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 14+
• Time: 20 minutes
• Played with game provided by publisher

THE BEAUTIFUL WILDERNESS
Sometimes you need to get off the beaten path to find a beautiful landscape to paint. Wake up early, hike deep into nature, and find your perfect spot. Some paintings sell for commissions, others you’ll keep for yourself, but you’re always going that extra mile to find inspiration.

OBJECTIVE
Over six days, players gain Renown by hiking to beautiful locations to paint landscapes, which they’ll later sell. Each day, players choose a Planning Card, which allows them to travel through the Wilderness and paint (i.e., pick up Landscape Cards). At day’s end, they can sell paintings to earn Renown (i.e., turn in Landscape Cards to gain Commission cards worth Renown). Players also earn Renown by completing Daily Goals and by possessing Landscape Paintings at game’s end.

To setup, shuffle the Landscape cards and then deal a 5×5 grid of face up cards to the table, leaving the remainder as a Landscape Deck.  The Commision cards are shuffled and then a market of N+1 cards is made.  The remainder is placed on the table as a deck, and the top card of this deck is flipped up so that all players can see it (but that card is not part of the market).  Finally, shuffle the Daily Goal deck and reveal one card to be the current Daily Goal. Each player takes the bits in their color (artist token, 8 planning cards and reference card). The Planning cards are shuffled to form a deck.  All player tokens are placed on the central card in the 5×5 Wilderness array.

The game is played over 6 rounds, each corresponding to a Day.   Each day starts with a simultaneous Planning Phase, followed by individual Trek Phases, and ends with a Clean Up Phase. After the sixth day, a final Scoring Phase occurs.

• Planning Phase: Players draw three Planning Cards from their deck and select one for the day – the two unchosen ones are placed on the bottom of the deck in any order. The chosen card sets the time they’ll leave (initiative), how far they can move, and how many paintings they can paint.

• Trek Phase: Based on when players started their hike, each player completes their Trek Phase. During their Trek phase, they’ll hike through the Wilderness by moving as many cards as their Hike value – though they must end on an unoccupied Landscape card.  They may not move through “holes” in the grid (where cards have been removed).  Then, player may paint landscapes by picking up cards that their token traversed over this turn (though they cannot take a card that an opponent currently occupies). Finally, players can sell collected Landscape cards as commissions for Renown. There is also an end of turn check for the Daily Goal.  Multiple players can meet the Daily Goal, and the last person to accomplish it will get to keep the card (and thus keep the card).

• Clean Up Phase: Once all players have taken their Trek Phase, the Wilderness is replenished with new cards being dealt out to every empty spot, the Commission Cards until you have N+1 available, and the Daily Goal are updated, then the next day begins. 

After 6 rounds, the game ends and players calculate their scores:

• Points on collected Commission cards
• Points on collected Daily Goal cards
• 1VP per 2 feature icons on unsold landscape cards

The player with the most VPs wins. Ties broken in favor of the player with the most Daily Goal cards.

There are also rules for a solo game which uses a few different rules and is played over 8 rounds instead of 6. 

My thoughts on the game

So, though I played a lot of Dr Finn’s games in the past, this one seemed to have escaped my attention.  It appears that the game was originally released in 2018, though it reached a larger audience in this 2023 Pencil First version.  I do not know if there were any changes made between the versions.

Though I usually start with comments on gameplay, I must say that I do like the way this one looks. The landscape card art is beautiful, and this game really is a pleasure to look at, especially when you have a full array of beautiful cards on the table.  Functionally, the cards work well as the iconography is clear.  Some of my gaming partners have mentioned that the commission cards are ridiculously plain – but I like the fact that they are easy to read for everyone at the table.

The game provides a bit of choice in the Planning card phase.  Oftentimes you want to go first as you’ll have the best landscapes to choose from as well as likely the largest selection of Commission cards to fulfill.  However, starting later often gives you the ability to move further and/or paint more paintings.  It also gives you the best chance of keeping the daily goal card – and these can provide a significant number of points.

The bulk of the game is an easy going set collection game where you try to get the icons you need to trade in for the Commission cards.  There is no penalty for keeping landscape cards between turns, so even if there are no Commissions left in the current turn, you could strive for an earlier start in the next round and use your larger card collection at that time to get Commissions.

I suppose you could try to obstruct your opponents by choosing the cards that they also want or by leaving your meeple on a desirable card; but in the end, there are generally so many options available to a player that I am fine just taking my turn and only worrying about my own stuff.  Anyways, as commissions are done at the end of each player turn, there isn’t a lot of benefit to trying to stop the next player as your turn is already done.

The game fits in well with the other Pencil First games that I have tried.  It is easily approachable, in both teaching and learning, doesn’t last too long, and gives you some meaningful decisions to be made without overwhelming you with details.  In short, a relaxing filler for gamers and a nice introductory game for beginners.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale Y
• Neutral. Steph H
• Not for me…