Mycelia Review
Advert: this game was gifted by Ravensburger, this has not affected our opinion.
There hasn’t been mushroom for fungi games in the board game market. I won’t spore you with the details, but it has gotten kinda confusing that two games appeared on the market in quick succession, with the same name. Mycelia: a strategic mushroom game was successfully Kickstarted by Split Stone Games, and you can read my preview of that game here.
But, as you’re still reading here and not there, I am presuming you want to find out more about the Ravensburger board game, Mycelia! I appreciate this isn’t my best ever introduction to a board game review – I know there is shroom for improvement! So, I won’t delay you anymore…
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Setup
Before your first play there is a shrine which collects dewdrops to be built, with all the associated punching that went along with it, I would recommend doing this before you sit down with anyone to actually play it.
Once built, this sits in a central location. Give each player a player board setting it to the matching or asymmetric side. Also distribute a starting hand of cards. Place the dewdrop gem tokens on the spaces on your player board according to the setup card you have chosen. Place the leaf tokens and die in easy reach of all players. Shuffle the main deck, including advance cards or not, depending on your whim. Reveal five cards to form the market and decide on a first player and you are good to go.
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Gameplay
Mycelia is a deck-building game where players are racing to clear dewdrops off their player board. All players start with exactly the same cards and will upgrade their hand over the course of the game. Some cards give you more currency to spend on upgrading your hand, but the majority give you abilities to help you clear your board. On your turn you will draw three cards and play three cards, shuffling your discard pile whenever necessary to form a new draw deck.
Unlike some deck-builders, purchased cards go on top of your draw deck so you are guaranteed to get to use them on your next turn.
When you clear dewdrops by moving them to the portal, they go on the shrine and when a certain number are placed (depending on player count) this spins. This causes players to place one or two more dewdrops on their boards, depending on a roll of the die which falls with the dewdrops out of the collector.
The first person to clear their board triggers the end of the game. Play continues until the first player is reached, giving other players in turn order a chance to clear their board too and take it to a tie-break.
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What it’s like
Mycelia is a lovely efficiency puzzle whereby you have to increase your deck in the right way to reap the benefits over the course of the game.
There is a family variant that you can adopt for learning the game, but we added in the advanced cards as quickly as possible and won’t be removing them from the game any time soon. However, I appreciate that this is included for those less accustomed to modern board games.
There is a good variety of cards that work well together. The advance deck introduces some other abilities, such as shedding cards from your deck, which can be valuable to get rid of a few of the chaff starting cards later on. Cards vary from one or two abilities to others which have an either/or option and vary in price. I admire how the cards are nicely balanced with cost vs reward.
The box says that this is a nine plus game, I reckon most eight year olds would be fine with the puzzle solving. There is a tiny bit of downtime between turns and so the focus of attention may be tricky for some.
There is a solo mode I haven’t tried and if ever I do, I will revisit this paragraph in the future, but it has worked nicely at two to four players, as a family of five I wish it would’ve seated one more player as I think it could’ve easily.
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Table Presence
Hot dang, Mycelia is cute! The anthropomorphic mushrooms are delightful and characterful on the cards and really set the tone of the game. I think the iconography could be improved somewhat, especially to aid younger board gamers.
The central shrine adds just a touch more table presence. It’s fun spinning this round to drop the dice and tokens regardless of your age and I kinda begrudge having to let the kids do it when I play with them!
The player boards are a bit flimsy but equally do the job fine. Players of all ages just have to be careful not to jog the dewdrops that are placed on them. Perhaps a dual layer board would’ve been a welcome addition to protect from this, but I realise that would come with a price increase.
The player aids are okay, just enough of a prompt to remind you of certain icons, but could have been improved by including advanced play icons too.
Don’t get your hopes up if you like a good insert, Mycelia adopts the ‘sling it in the box in baggies’ approach to storage. That said it all fits snug enough so I shouldn’t really complain!
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What the kids thought
Max (9): It’s a really great game! The mushroom art is cute and I love it. Spinning the pond round is awesome. I enjoy playing Mycelia and like how there is board and card variants to mix it up. It is definitely in my top ten games!
George (13): It is satisfying to spin the wheel thing, particularly how the dice falls down showing where to place the extra dewdrops. The bugs on the player boards are nice details too. Some of the instant bonuses on the cards are good and really help during the game, like getting an extra portal.
Harrison (16): It’s better than I thought it might be. I think the bonus actions are a bit expensive for what you get, except when you refresh the card market. The dewdrop resources are good. Buying from the market works really well and some of the artworks on the cards, or cardwork as I call it, is really fun!
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Final thoughts on Mycelia
Mycelia is a really good introduction to deck-building, like Little Town is for worker placement. The adorable artwork sets off the interesting puzzle it offers. It doesn’t do anything revolutionary, but it does make the deck-building mechanic accessible and attractive to those that are unfamiliar with it. Those that are familiar with a deck building game will still find interest in Mycelia too.
What I have liked to see is that Max (9) plays competitively, beating both me and his mum on his first two plays. I would like to confess to going easy on him, but sadly I wasn’t! There is plentiful amounts of replayability included in the box with variable set ups and a big deck of cards. Over time, the gameplay may feel a bit repetitive but interspersed with other games this shouldn’t be an issue.
We’ve had fun playing Mycelia and I think as a family we are going to continue having fun with it for some time!
Key Facts
Number of players: 1 to 4
Board Game Review Recommended Age: 8+
Publisher’s Recommended Age: 9+
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Setting Up and Take Down Time: 2 minutes
Designers: Daniel Greiner
Publisher: Ravensburger
RRP: £27.99
Summary
There is a lot to like about Mycelia, obviously its adorable appearance is one of them, but the simple abstract gameplay is equally as attractive. This was an instant hit with our family, particularly with Max (9) who just wants to play again and again!
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Artwork and Components
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Complexity
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Instructions
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Interaction
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Value for Money
Overall
Pros
- All ages can be competitive
- Adorable mushroom characters
- Great introduction to deck-building
- Spinning the dewdrop collector
Cons
- Might become repetitive over time
- Would be nice to play five players
- Player boards are prone to being knocked
- Iconography could be improved
Need more games?
If you already own Mycelia and enjoy it, or are looking for other inspiration, you might also like these similar games:
- The Quest for El Dorado
- Star Realms
- Harmonies
- SpellBook
Buy Mycelia
If you want to buy Mycelia after reading our review click on one of our affiliate links below (note there has been no affiliate links until this point)
Reviewer’s Note
For clarity: we don’t get paid for our reviews. However, we were kindly gifted this game by Ravensburger. We have tried not to let this affect our review in any way.
We may however earn a tincy wincy commission if you buy a game having clicked one of our affiliate links like the one above… this hopefully gives us a bit of pocket money towards hosting costs and new games to review!
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