Winter approaches and your critters are working hard to prepare for the snow-filled days and blustery nights by adorning their homes with… Creature Comforts. Will you build the coziest home, or will the things you’ve acquired not spark joy?

1-5 Players 45 Mins Age 8+

Designer: Roberta Taylor

Artist: Shawna J.C. Tenney

Publisher: Kids Table BG

The Birds Are Singing

A day in the life of a squirrel, presumably.

I love Winter! Probably due in large part to the fact that I hate leaving my house. Why would I go out when I’ve worked so hard to put everything I enjoy in my living room? Board games, video games, the TV, my computer, board games, a comfy couch, more board games and my family. Everything I love is close at hand, so when Summer eventually rears its blinding, sweaty, outdoorsy head, I can think of nothing I’d rather do than replay the last six months of Autumn and Winter all over again. To this end, Creature Comforts is the kind of game that allows me to dwell in Winter all year around, but what else does this charming, critter-themed game offer? Quite a bit actually!

Putting the Kettle On

Creature Comforts is a dice placement, card drafting, set collection game in which you play a woodland creature acquiring items, referred to as Comforts and upgrades, known as Improvements in order to outfit your little home for the upcoming Winter season. The game takes place over 8 rounds beginning in Spring and moving gradually through the seasons as players roll dice, draft cards, place their animeeples and add to their homes by acquiring complementary items that can benefit each other and increase their score. For example you may choose the muffler and socks which, when paired together in your tableau result in extra points. Having either of these items when adding the sled item results in a further points gain. While it’s not necessary to complete sets to do well, it adds a little extra flavour if you feel you’re achieving small goals. Seeing just the card you need make an appearance in the market gives a brief thrill followed immediately by the sinking feeling that another player may have their eye on that same prize. Thankfully there are multiples of many of the cards, so a missed opportunity in one round won’t necessarily ruin your plans. Maybe the market will have it back in stock next season?

Players begin each turn by rolling their family dice (two dice in their player colour) and using those results along with the four shared community dice to determine which action spaces on the board they can use. Not too different from many other dice placement games, but the twist here is that each players get a number of workers to assign to their chosen action spaces. The workers are place after the players roll their family dice, but before the hared community dice are rolled. This can result in some spaces simply becoming unusable for that round. Of course there are methods to mitigate the die results, but more than one I found myself losing out on a space due to not getting the required results.

While there is a decent amount of luck involved in Creature Comforts, the game never feels punishing. Theres always something you can do during your turn, and even if you find there are one or two workers who weren’t able to produce anything in a given round, for each worker returned unused, you get a token which adjusts a single die result by +1 or -1 so you won’t leave empty handed. Additionally, these tokens can be stacked on a single die, making them a powerful tool. Another example of this game’s friendliness is the action spaces themselves, any number of players can occupy the same space, the only restriction is that no player may place more than one of their workers on a space in a given round. This means you’ll never be locked out of an action unless you don’t get the dice rolls you need.

As the seasons change, certain resources will become unavailable while new ones open up, allowing players to purchase seasonal improvements and comforts. This can result in some cards you’ve previously been holding onto in the hopes of acquiring the necessary components ending up being cycled out of your hand as they no longer become viable. This is a great way to keep the market and the time fresh and avoids the problem becoming fixated on a certain strategy that may not be working out. I liken it to Marie Kondo coming into your home and throwing out all the clutter that no longer brings you joy. Out with the hold, in with the new!

Sitting Down with a Good Book

Creature Comforts is straightforward to set up as welcoming as a Spring breeze to teach. The fundamentals should be instantly recognisable to even moderately experienced gamers, while less seasoned gamers will likely have little trouble coming to grips with the basics within the first round or two. At it’s heart, Creature Comforts goes out of its way to be an accomodating host, easing players into its warm plays space, and allowing them to feel at ease. A perfect game to enjoy on a cold Winter night (yes, I’m well aware its practically Summer here as I write this, but the point still stands), players will soon feel right at home playing with their gaming groups or their kids. It’s a fun, family oriented, and largely non-confrontational experience that can make for a pleasant diversion wrapped in an uplifting 40-50 minutes of dice-rolling, meeple-placing, card flipping action.

Is That Someone at the Door?

While Creature Comforts has mass market appeal, some gamers may feel that they’re playing Everdell-lite and wish for something deeper, if that’s the case then certainly there are other cute, cuddly woodland games our there that provide a more robust experience, the afore mentioned Everdell is certainly one, Meadow and Honey Buzz also Spring to mind (see what I did there… the capitalisation on the word spring indicates I was making a seasonal pun… ahh, explained jokes are the funniest!). Overall, I’m actually hard pressed to find something not to like about this one. I played it with my family and we all enjoyed it, so, what else can I say, other than, your experiences may vary. As with any game, it can be made or broken by those you play it with, so ensure everyone knows what to expect and you should be fine.

My Package Arrived!

When it comes to the art and components, there’s a ton of charm to explore on every card, each image strikes just the right balance of form and function, appealing to those who want to stop and smell the roses as well as the more mechanically minded gamers out there who want to parse the card’s place in the grand scheme. While there are multiples of many of the cards, the artwork avoids becoming repetitive.

The game board is beautifully illustrated and creates a world you want to spend time in. The forests, fields, rivers and valleys all form an inviting escape with soft hues of greens, oranges and yellows evoking the seasons they represent. You can almost feel the shifts in the wind as you move about the board, placing workers and dice in locations that have context with the actions you’re taking.

While I only have the retail edition, the components feel like quality, the animeeples are all screen printed, and the cards have a nice linen finish. If you’re fortunate enough to pick up the deluxe/Kickstarter version, you can expect to fund wooden resource tokens and storage trays, but these aren’t what I’d consider essential here. However the absence of an insert hurt a little, I guess I’ve become spoiled by games that include custom trays and inserts. Having the components rolling around in baggies loose in the box just hurts my soul.

Time for Bed

I really enjoyed my time with Creature Comforts, quite likely because I myself am a creature of comfort and the theme fit my sensibilities of staying home, being cosy and enjoying a quiet life. As a family game it excels by being easy to learn and teach, engaging for all ages and offering a decent level of replay-ability. The fact that the game can be played over either 6 or 8 rounds further enhances its accessibility particularly for beginners or younger players.

If cutesy woodland themes, or light to medium gameplay isn’t your bag, then this probably won’t get your fire going, but if you’ve enjoyed games like Everdell or Meadow in the past and fancy a similar, yet lighter experience, then I highly recommend Creature Comforts! Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s raining outside right now and my coffee machine beckons….

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Creature Comforts Review