Another new game?! A Brief Look at Scoville

Clearly, we have some catching up to do. But I am super excited about this game. I've been wanting to get a copy of Scoville for a long time, but it is on the pricier end of things (for good reason, these are quality pieces!). So when I finally buckled down and went to go purchase it, the game was sold out everywhere. Luckily, Tasty Minstrel Games soon launched a Kickstarter for an expansion and preorders for a second printing. Now, savvy shoppers were able to get the second printing and expansion for quite the deal via Kickstarter, and even though I haven't played yet, everything I've seen online has been stellar and really solidified my desire to own this game. I figured the expansion must be great too, and if not I am not out any extra money. So I jumped on board, and TMG is so awesome they shipped all the second printings in advance of the expansion. Now we will (hopefully!) get some plays in before the expansion shows up.

So what is Scoville? For starters, it's a board game for 2-6 players. Gotta love games climbing past that 4/5 player barrier. Also, it's a multi-phased game involving auctions and set collecting. Players bid for turn order each round, move their farmer through the field, collect/plant peppers, compete to be the first to have the hottest peppers, and participate in the chili cook off.

This second edition is top quality. To start off, all the peppers are actual meeples. Depending on their rank, the pepper meeples differ in height as well as color. The most coveted pepper is is a tall, glitter/pearl, clear plastic meeple. Also, the farmer meeples are super cool looking! Beyond that, the board has pepper cutouts that the meeples fit into, which I find very nice as it keeps the pieces in place and makes it less likely they will get knocked around. The board also fits together puzzle-like, another nice way to make sure the board doesn't get messed up during play. Players also have their own cardboard stands to hide their peppers and recipes behind. The printing is great, and all the pieces are sturdy.

So, what about this expansion? In the base game all players use the same farm field to plant and harvest their peppers. Labs gives each player a 3x3 field (or lab) in which they can plant and cross breed on their own. The base game also provides players with 3 special action tokens (which, if unused are worth points at the end of the game): Move 1 extra space, Double back once, Plant 1 extra pepper. With all that extra planting to do in their labs, players get a second "Plant 1 extra pepper" token. On top of that added fun, there are more pepper meeples and recipes, as well as multiplier tokens (which the second printing also includes, but for all you first printing game owners this is good news).

I can't wait to break this game out and get a few plays under our belt before the expansion shows up in a few months. Wakowski loves things spicy, so I think this is right up his alley ;)

Links to check out:
Scoville
Scoville: Labs
Tasty Minstrel Games