In The Druids of Edora by Stefan Feld you play a druid travelling around a modular forest board, strategically placing dice to take actions from brewing potions and releasing medicinal herbs to adding gems to your amulet and erecting runestones. 

Each player has 13 dice which are rolled at the start of the game and their values fixed from that point. 4 are your starting dice, the remaining 9 you’ll need to unlock and this will heavily guide your strategy. 

Place a die on a shrine to take an action, paying provisions equal to the pip value. While higher dice cost more to place, the player with the highest value die on each shrine scores extra points, so they will be more powerful in the area control element of the game.

In true Feld style this is a real point salad about a dozen different ways to score points and combining area control, dice placement, tight resource management, track movement and contract fulfilment. Working out your strategy early on and leaning into it will be key, remembering that you’ll have 13 actions to take at most – that’s if you don’t become a Druid in Distress!! 

Scroll to read my full review, or click to skip to the part you’re really interested in!

Salad Ingredients (aka The Actions)

There are many different actions you’ll take over the course of the game, and each of them offers a different way to score points either in game or end of game:

🎲 Gain provisions or more dice – you’ll need these to move around the board and take actions

🧠 Gain knowledge which acts as a point multiplier for end game scoring

🌺 Move your sickle marker forward to release medicinal herbs which will give you ongoing benefits for the rest of the game and can really guide your strategy. You’ll also earn end game points based how far you’ve moved up the sickle track

🗿 Take a stone tablet from the oracle site which will give you end game scoring objectives. You’ll also gain bonuses from the connected oracle stones when taking a tablet

⚗️ Take mistletoe and use it to brew potions. Potions are used immediately to take their depicted action which includes the actions available on the main board, with varying strengths depending on how much mistletoe you use

💎 Add a gem to your amulet. Gain the bonus on the gem using the multiplier on the action space. Completing rows or columns of gems in your amulet will give end game points

🗿 Erect a standing stone to gain the depicted benefit, but also gain again all benefits of previously placed standing stones

🗿 Erect a runestone – this is the only time the value of your die matters when taking an action. You’ll gain bonuses but this time based on the value of the die used to take the action

🎲 Not technically an action but you’ll also want to create paths of dice between matching dolmens on the edge of the board. Do this and you’ll gain 2 points for every dice on the path.

My thoughts

The Druids of Edora is a fantastic game, but there is lots to think about and to get to grips with. On top of all the available actions, there are 24 different potions, 12 medicinal herbs, and 15 different stone tablets all with different effects. In a single game you’re only going to encounter a portion of each of them, so this is a game that is going to require repeat plays before you’re able to understand everything available to you and play a good, strategic game. Just a word of warning if you want to be able to jump in and grasp everything immediately or don’t like to replay games too much. If you’re like me and love to discover new ways to play, perfect strategies and play games on repeat, then you’re in the right place.

With this kind of game I can often feel unsure of where to start, overwhelmed by all the available options and paths to follow, but I’ve not found that to be the case at all here. From your starting objective tablet and dice, to your early medicinal flowers, there is lots to help you pick a strategy and direction for the game. Every turn presents a meaningful decision and there’s never a wrong move (except draining your provisions with no way to get more, as I learned the hard way!) but the skill is working out the best move for your chosen strategy.

I enjoyed the game at 2p but this does really limit player interaction which is a core part of the game with taking action spaces, competing for dolmens and competition for shrine dominance.

I love the theme but it does feel secondary to the mechanisms – something to bear in mind if you want a thematically immersive experience. The mechanisms themselves aren’t necessarily doing anything revolutionary, but it’s the way that everything works together that makes this such a great game, in my opinion. That said, I do love the dice rolling mechanism and how your dice values will inform your entire strategy for the game.

The modular board keeps things fresh and means paths and available actions will shift around each game presenting lots of replayability.

The rulebook leaves a bit to be desired. My edition has a separate rule book for tablets and potion explanations, while flowers are in the main book and there’s also no player aid. Passing rule books around isn’t so bad in a 2p game but this would be a nightmare at a higher player count.

A solo perspective

This doesn’t form part of my review of the game, but for anyone who likes the sound of The Druids of Edora but is put off by the lack of solo mode, there are options available!

I found the Malfurion bot on BGG which adds an automa which is really simple to run. Just flip a card from the automa deck which will tell you what action space it targets, and which dice it places on that action. My game with Malfurion took less than an hour, so this is a really light touch automa.

You can even add in multiple opponents to simulate different player counts, just add an extra automa deck. I’ve only tried one so far, but will be adding a second on my next play. I’m not sure I’ll go for a third though – while it’s easy to run the automa, I can imagine doing 3 of them being a bit onerous!

Also just to note – as I know it’s an important factor for many solo gamers – the automa isn’t scoring, just blocking spaces and claiming area majority, making this a BYOS solo mode.

All this to say, there is an option available for solo gamers!

TL;DR

The 2 player experience was great, but presented limited player interaction. I don’t personally mind this, but certain elements of this game will undeniably shine more at a higher player count.

There are lots of interconnected mechanisms to get to grips with. Don’t expect to understand it all your first game but once you do, making these systems interact is where so much of the joy of the game comes from.

The modular board, variability of dice rolls, and other early elements like medicinal flowers and tablet objectives provide a lot of replayability.

While I love the theme, it does feel secondary to the mechanisms – something to bear in mind if you want a thematically immersive experience.

I would also say the mechanisms aren’t doing anything revolutionary, but it’s the way that everything works together that makes this such a great game, in my opinion. This will be remaining in my collection for anlong time to come, as will the hope for an official solo mode!

Disclaimer: This game was kindly gifted by Ravensburger for review purposes, but all thoughts are my own.