Endless Winter: Paleoamericans

My first impression was of a crowdfunding box trying rather hard: plenty of shine, plenty of extras, and a silhouette uncomfortably close to familiar worker-placement fare. On the table, though, the production is undeniably splendid, and the friendly iconography lets its prehistoric setting do the work without making a fuss of itself.

At heart, this is straightforward worker placement and resource management. You send workers out, collect what you need, and arrange your position for points in a flow that does not ask you to bring half the office home with you. Player interaction comes from the mild pressure of shared spaces and choices other people take first, rather than from any particularly ruthless confrontation.

Around that core sit three or four smaller scoring systems. They give you the pleasant sense of having several projects on the go without making the game difficult to teach; that is exactly why it works so well as a gateway. The routes to points are rather accommodating, though, and by the end it can feel as if nearly everything has been pushed to its limit.

I would happily keep it for evenings with newer players, because it is attractive, accessible and very good at making a first impression. But for a group that wants the sweet ache of properly difficult euro decisions, Endless Winter is quietly good rather than the great discovery its many lofty rankings imply.