A Fairy Ring is what happens when mushrooms naturally grow in a circle due to the way mycelium absorb nutrients from the ground. Long ago, people believed that these rings were created by fairies, and were even the homes to them! And with that inspiration the board game Fairy Ring was created!

In this review we’ll be taking a look at Fairy Ring by Laurence Grenier and Fabien Tanguy and seeing what it has in store for both families and adults, and if this is worth adding to your board game collection.

Massive thanks to Asmodee UK for sending us over a copy to review. If you would like to support the site then why not use our affiliate Element Games for your gaming supplies?

So without further ado, lets head to the mushroom village and check out Fairy Ring!

Fairy Ring Review

I have to admit, I didn’t know what to expect when I cracked this one open. I’m a big fan of games that can be played by 2 players in a short space of time, and this one looked to be a little different lacking a board and being card and token heavy. Was this going to be something like Jaipur or Lost Cities? Was this going to be something very different?

The game is for 2-4 players and can be played in around 40 mins (in practice a lot quicker) and works very well for 2 players for those who like to play games with their partner.

From an aesthetics point of view this one is gorgeous, with bright and colourful artwork and some really nice pieces

Just check out the printed player markers – These fairies are full of characters and lend a lot to the card of the game! Kids will certainly be a fan of the bright colours too, through it might take them a couple of games and some help to work out what they need to do.

Set up is quite simple with each player being given a play area to arrange their cards along with a matching fairy and score dial

Each player then gets a deck of 7 cards with the game continuing over 6 turns across each of the 2 rounds.

So how does it work?

Each turn, the players simultaneously pick a card and place it face down under their “village” with the rest of the deck being also put face down ready to pass to the next player

Once the players have both put down their cards, then starting with the first player they reveal their mushroom and place it in their village. There’s 6 different types of mushroom with each having a different effect when landed on (and one that triggers when you move over them).

What’s really cool here is that you are able to stack the cards in order to create higher scoring mushrooms or instead have multiple low scoring mushrooms by placing your mushrooms “wide” over your playing surface.

There will be some deliberations about which you do, because each card that you play also has a movement value on it – after you place your mushroom, your fairy will move clockwise around the fairy ring that number of spaces. Once it has moved across all your mushrooms it will continue travelling around the other player’s mushrooms – if you land on another players mushroom then they will get the points based on that type of mushroom – so for example if they had a Luminarium, and 2 visible fireflies then they would get 2 mana.

The big twist here however is that if you have the same type of mushroom then you will be able to claim that bonus too – so if in the above example you might have a Luminarium too, but 5 visible fireflies in your village – and your Luminarum might be 3 mushrooms high, so you get 3 points for each visible firefly granting you a total of 15 mana

After a practice game you’ll quickly realise its not always a bad thing to land on your opponent’s mushrooms, and that there’s a lot you can do in your turn by picking a card that maximises your points or even a cunning mushroom placement that makes the opponent land on a mushroom that is much more beneficial to you than them.

After each player has made their turn they each pass the card deck to the next person – meaning that the other players will start to know what cards you have, and also be able to set things up to make sure you don’t get the card you need next turn! There’s a nice balance here between picking the cards that are best for your turn, and stopping the other players from doing what they need to do on theirs.

Scores are also secret – you’ll gain mana as you score cards, but each 20 mana is converted to a point, which is secretly tracked on your dial, which is kept face down while playing. This means that you never really know how many points the other players have, and means you really have to weigh up the pros and cons of landing on each mushroom and managing your own mushroom village.

This makes games really quite tactical and fun as you try and catch out the other players with some cunning mushroom placement – this works really well with two players too, as just a single mushroom placement can really affect the other person’s game plan and throw them off victory at the last moment.

The game is split over 2 rounds, with a second deck used for the 2nd round with some much higher scoring cards with bigger movement values – again, after a couple of games you’ll start to learn how you want to set things up to get ready for the 2nd round and maximise the “better” mushrooms that you will be playing.

To make games more interesting and give players a way of catching up when they get behind there’s also an objective deck – 3 cards are placed at the start of the game, and these give players bonus points for doing various tasks. This could include having a mushroom of a specific height, having a specific number of mushrooms or by having a specific number of fireflies in your village.

Summary

So what do I think of Fairy Ring and is it worth picking up? First and foremost dont make the same mistake as me on first impressions and think this is a kids game! While younger players will still have fun here, this is very much still a deep and tactical game that players of all ages will enjoy. It’s really accessible too, while some games sometimes feel like they need a massive rulebook studying before you are able to jump in, Fairy Ring is simple enough to teach someone, but has lots to master too!

For £28.99 I feel this is an excellent addition to your board game collection and is really good value. If you’re a board game player that wants to introduce someone to board games, then this is a great way of doing it too.

I’m looking forward to playing this more and introducing more people to it!

Fairy Ring is available for purchase now for £28.99

Asmodee UK sent Sprues & Brews a free copy for review purposes.