Everdell Silverfrost (Collectors Edition)

• Designers: James Wilson, Clarissa Wilson
• Publisher: Tabletop Tycoon
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 10+
• Time: 30-120 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link:  https://amzn.to/4pRSx57
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Silverfrost is the next standalone edge of the map series of Everdell. Beyond the snow-capped Spirecrest mountains to the south of Everdell Valley, lies the bold country of Silverfrost. It is your task to build and maintain a city in this challenging landscape. You must clear the piling snow, burn the fires to keep your citizens warm and prosperous, and complete important quests for the Ranger’s Guild.

There is a unique relationship here with the Big Critters who dwell in these parts. When a mountaintop Beacon is lit, one of the legendary giants will come to the aid of those who called. In this way, critters have been able to survive hardships and succeed where others would have failed. It is your task to build and maintain a city among this challenging landscape. You must clear the piling snow, burn the fires to keep your citizens warm and prosperous, and complete important quests for the Ranger’s Guild. Light your torch and don your cloak. Winter’s fury is approaching. It is time to kindle the Beacons, call upon the Big Critters, and find a way to thrive in the enchanting land of Silverfrost.

Start by placing the board on the table and then the swanky 3D mountain along the top edge. Big Critter cards are laid out so they stand up on that mountain.  Highland Quest cards are drawn at random and placed next to the board – these quests are public and can be achieved by any player.  The main market is made up of 8 cards from the deck. The Snowstorm deck is shuffled and placed near the top of the board.  Choose one side of the Snow Reward tile to use for this game.

  Each player chooses one type of worker, taking two into their personal supply (marking one of them as their Ranger by putting the Ranger boots on that worker) – with the rest of them going up by the mountain.  Players get a starting hand of cards as well as a starting Lowland Quest; a quest that only the owner can complete.

Each turn, you take 1 of 3 possible actions — Place a worker, Play a card, or Prepare for the next season. In Silverfrost, you send critter workers to various Locations on the board, cards, or the mountain to gather resources and activate unique effects. You use these resources to play cards face up in front of you, forming your own city. 

You may place 1 of your workers on any Basic Location, Red Destination card in your city or opponent’s cities, the Forge, the Hot Springs, or a mountaintop Beacon, so long as it is not blocked by Snow or another worker. Some locations have individual spaces (free) and a group area (which costs a fire to go to).  You then claim the listed resources or perform the action. You could even complete quests which reward you with points when you meet the conditions shown on the Quest card.

If there is Snow at the location, you must first spend a Fire resource to clear the snow pile. If you use your unique Ranger worker, you can visit an occupied location, or gain a Fire resource if visiting a location alone.  This fire can even be used to pay the cost for the location you are currently visiting.

To play a card, you must pay the listed cost of resources. Cards may be played either from your hand, or from the area of face-up cards on the board known as the Valley.  If it is a Critter, you may instead play it for free by using 1 of your 2 Chimneys, so long as you have the necessary Fire to light it. You have a limit of 8 cards in your hand and a limit of 15 card spaces in your city area for built cards.  There are five different colors of cards and each has a slightly different focus:

• Green – production
• Blue – grant bonuses when you play cards or do certain things
• Red – these have action spaces to be used 
• Tan – instant one-time use actions
• Purple – endgame VPs/bonuses

If all of your workers are deployed (and you have no other cards you wish to play), you may prepare for the next season by bringing back all of your workers, gaining a new worker, and performing the action described for the following season, introducing new snowfall to the board and to your city (on the highest valued card generally), as well as other challenges.  A snow covered location (including a Red card) cannot be used unless you use Fire to clear off that space as you are using it. A snow covered card in the  Valley cannot be used until the snow is cleared, and this must be done right as you are using it.  

A snow covered card in your area cannot be activated, cannot be used to complete a quest and is not worth any points until the snow is removed.  Once a turn, you can spend Fire to clear off the snow from any one card in your city.  

A player is finished when they have played through the last season (Spring) and cannot perform any more actions. During the course of the game, it is quite possible that players are in different seasons – you do not have to wait for other players to finish the current season before you take a turn in your next season.  

After all players have finished, the player with the most points is the winner.  Points are scored for:

• VPs for cards in your city
• Bonuses from purple cards
• VPs for finished Quests
• VPs for snow removal (depends on which side of the snow reward tile showing)
• VP tokens gained during play
• VPs from placing workers on the special Journey space on the board

Ties broken in favor of the player who cleared the most snow

My thoughts on the game

Everdell is one of the more enduring franchises in the hobby. I feel like most of the gamers I know have played at least one version of it, and there seems to always be a new version / expansion / extension coming out.   If you are unfamiliar with the series – might I recommend checking out one of our reviews of the base game – https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/07/18/everdell-the-complete-collection-an-extensive-review/

Silverfrost is a riff on the original, now in a snowy setting. And instead of a huge honking tree, we get this 3D mountain.  We played with it for a round, but our group actually found it to be ergonomically painful.  We abandoned the humongous mountain after the first season and reverted back to the flat 2D board which could be seen by all players at all times.

The Collectors’ Edition that I played also has nice upgraded components – which were actually really quite nice with the exception of the moss.  The Moss pieces are actually little green felt pieces, and they are quite thematic, but they are super thin and flimsy.  For my liking, I would have preferred the mossy material to be a felt-y sticker that was then attached to a wood bit.

Anyways, back to game play.  It’s really just Everdell, but more punishing.  The game is still about the cards and figuring out how to cycle through those cards.  The game looks like it wants to be worker placement, but in reality, you just don’t have a lot of workers to place.  In the four seasons of the game, you get 2+3+4+6 workers – so only 15 total placements.  You end up getting more “actions” through card effects and chimney placements.  

The big thing in the game is the snow – which continually blocks up your progress.  There is no snow in the first season (though this is so short given the dearth of workers), and in the autumn – it’s not too bad as it only takes a single fire to remove a snow.  However, once someone gets into Winter – now it’s a beast.  The cost of 2 Fire to remove a snow marker really adds up, and it makes you question how much you want to use a particular action space or card given that high cost.

And while I’m on the whole transitioning between seasons – I really do like the fact that players are free to set their own cadence.  There are definitely some times in the game where it makes sense just to move into the next season – especially moving into winter if you can catch your opponents off guard with uncleared snow!  Because, once the price for snow removal increases, it does so for all players, not just those in Winter.  Likewise, when it’s nearly time for Spring, you could jump ahead a bit early in an attempt to get some early income and possibly claim one of the Journey spaces first.

With the nicer side of the snow tile, you get a small reward for each snow removed and a possible 5VP bonus.  On the mean side – which I’m pretty sure I’ll not play with – you vie for an all or nothing 12VP bonus.  I’m sure there are some gamers that want that sort of cliff in the scoring, but my group is not amongst that population.

Trying to figure out where and when to use your leader meeple is key to the game as they can let you use an occupied space OR possibly grant you a free fire, allowing you to remove snow.  It’s a nice way to ensure that players have a chance to not be locked out of a needed action – but you only get the one free pass per season.

The game moves along at a steady albeit slow pace.  As players have cards in their hand as well as 8-ish cards in the Valley to look at each turn, there is a lot to consider.  When you add in the complication of possibly needing to clear snow off to do things, that adds in a bit more to the thinking time.  As resources can be quite tight in the game, there is always a lot of calculation and re-calculation to make sure that you have enough things to build the cards you want.  In most of my games, the first three seasons take up about half of the playing time and then Spring comes and eats up the rest of the time.  We’re definitely in the 30-35 minute per player range – just like the box suggests.

When the game ends, you’ll definitely want somewhere to write down the scores.  The game doesn’t include a scoresheet, and interestingly, nowhere to track scores.  There certainly aren’t enough score markers to do this.  I sort of wish that they had used the back of the pentagonal board or maybe the back of the mountain board as a place for a scoretrack.  One of the animal meeples could have easily been used to help track points.  In any event, many of our games end up close, and it’s always interesting to see the different ways people are able to score points in the game.

If you’re a fan of Everdell, you’ll probably like this one – and it will be among the more difficult/complex versions.  If you’ve never played a game in the series before – this might be a good introduction.  If you already like more complex games, this is the right choice for you. If you’re more casual about games, I’d probably recommend regular Everdell as a way to ease into the gaming universe.  There’s enough going on in that version without making it harder to do things with all the danged snow.  If you’re a fan of cute meeples made cuter with plastic snowshoe attachments, then, this one is for you.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Doug G.: Shelley and I have loved most of the versions of Everdell that have come out over the years, and this one shines brightly when compared to its brethren. As Dale says, this one is more complex, as the snow forces players to modify their choices and deal with blocked spots on both their own cards and on the board. All of the Everdells have a place on our shelf, but this one comes out when we want something more meaty. We reviewed the game in Episode 1010 of our audio podcast, coupled with a video review back in September on our channel http://www.youtube.com/@garrettsgames

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it! Doug G
• I like it. Dale Y, John P, Steph H
• Neutral.
• Not for me…

Amazon affiliate link:  https://amzn.to/4pRSx57