Druids of Edora Components Overview and Impressions
Anytime a game pops up on my radar that has dice, I’m instantly intrigued. And when I saw a few content creators start publishing content around The Druids of Edora, I knew it was a game I had to get my hands on. Thanks to my friends at Ravensburger, our copy arrived last week. Let’s unbox it and see whether the components are up to snuff!
I love a good dual layered board, but the issue is that in the production process, they are made by gluing multiple pieces of cardboard together. As factories work, these items are shuffled along the line until they are ultimately packed into boxes. Over time, and as the glue begins to dry, the boards will begin to warp, and by the time it lands on your table for game night, the edges of your player boards are slightly lifted off the table, which nobody wants. More and more, I’m beginning to appreciate single layer player boards with punched our slots for components. You get the feel of a dual layered board, but your components sit right on your tabletop. This is done in Druids of Edora both for player boards and the central tracker board as well. It’s probably a somewhat cost effective way to get that dual layered feel, and I think it’s perfect. I will admit, though, it doesn’t work well on a neoprene board game table mat though!
There are a ton of wooden dice in the game, and while these aren’t anything to write home about, I absolutely love the player colours chosen for this game. They feel very earthy and “woodsy” to me, which fits the theme perfectly. Uninteresting dice, sure, but what amazing colours. I love it!
Although not coloured, the dolmens, standing stones and rune stones are not play colour specific, but when they begin to be placed out on the board, it creates a really nice aesthetic that will make anyone stop and look, at least for a few minutes. These feel like they are made from recycled materials as I cannot really feel out whether they are plastic or wood. They feel like a mixture, which makes me think they were made to be environmentally conscious. I could be wrong, but I will correct if that is the case!
There are a ton of cardboard components in the game, but they are all detailed beautifully and are adequately thick for what they are suppose to do. I did find that they didn’t punch out from the punchboard as nicely as I would have liked. I did need to be careful with some of the pieces to avoid tearing, so be warned when you begin to punch things yourself. The central tiles you’ll use to create the forest are particularly well detailed, and while it does look really busy at first glance – and even a bit overwhelming – I think the aesthetic nice, albeit dark. Again, when all setup and mid-game, the table appearance is very impressive.
I think the production here is really well done. I think all the player pieces are nicely details – there are a few tracker tokens we didn’t talk about, but they are beautiful as well – and the cardboard artwork is phenomenal. I wish a higher quality punch board had been used, and I do have some concerns about the edges of some of the cardboard pieces beginning to fray. For now, everything is looking great, and we are ready to play Druids of Edora!
Article By Adam
