Gnome Hollow from Ammon Anderson and distributed here in the UK by Coiledspring Games. Gnome Hollow sees you take on the role of a Gnome participating in their Hollow Harvest to cultivate mushrooms in order to keep their village hidden for another year. At no point did I feel like I was keeping my village hidden or feeling a sense of threat, It’s just cute magic mushrooms ?
Gnome Hollow takes place over a number of rounds until either;
– Someone gathers their 8th flower token
– Moves their 8th ring
– The bag runs out of tiles
At different player counts, the end game seems to be triggered by different things, e.g., a four players the bag ran out of tiles before someone completed one of the other end game conditions. While at two or three players, we’ve managed to either gather the 8 flowers or move 8 rings.
How does it play?
Gnome Hollow has a simplicity and cuteness that masks its hidden evil undertones. That threat I talked about, that’s going to be the other players scuppering your plans rather than the village being under attack.
On your turn, you:
1) Place a tile
2) Resolve any relevant effects
3) Move a gnome
Placing a tile is relatively simple, almost like Carcassonne, like in that you take a tile and place it. Although you place 2 tiles from the market and then up to 2 from any in your storage. Either extending an existing path or starting a new one. You can add to a path your gnome is on freely and an unclaimed path, too. If you want to add to a path that another players gnome is on, you’ll need their permission (which is rarely ever given).
If you complete a path that your gnome is on, e.g., form a ring. You’ll harvest mushrooms and then move a token on your board to a bonus matching the number of tiles in a ring. Rings that are formed of 5 or more tiles are where the good stuff is! Complete an unoccupied ring. Mushrooms will go into the centre of the ring for claiming later. You’ll still get to move a marker on your player board, too. Complete an opponents ring. Well, why would you ever do that?
The resolve step of the turn almost feels encompassed into the first step. But this is essentially resolving the effect, which can be more mushrooms, additional tiles, flowers, additional ring tokens, or signposts.
Moving a gnome presents you with several options, and you must move a gnome. You could claim a new path, visit the flower market, visit a signpost to gain its reward, or visit the market to sell mushrooms.
Flowers, are sort of unique in that, once a flower is claimed by one player. They become available for all the other players. So when you place your 2nd, 4th and 6th ring you’ll gain a wildflower tile and a new flower. You’ll get one of those flowers, the rest are put into the flower market. A wildflower token, allow you to connect to other players rings without permissions, and close a ring.
Initial Thoughts
Gnome Hollow is appealing to look at, and the magnetic player pieces are super satisfying. Although I can’t help feel that everything could be a few millimetres thicker, I suspect the costs of production have gone into magnetising stuff.
I’m not sure I enjoyed my first few players. I think there’s an evilness here which this cuteness masks. I also think the rulebook interchangeably uses ring and path and we found ourselves getting confused!
I think I’m biggest issue is that it feels like it’s a game of cat and mouse. Or who blinks first is maybe a better description, especially at two players. See, you’ll want to try and anticipate and block connections. Noting that two paths with two different gnomes can’t join and that if a tile is added to a path your gnome is on, the player placing needs your permission. So it creates a weird stalemate of blocking, then moving and then someone else completing the path that was left behind.
More Plays more thoughts
I think I stand by my initial thoughts, as much as the theme is appealing and draws you in. I’m not sure how appealing this game is to me. The rules around needing permission continue to create almost defensive like scenarios and standoffs.
With more plays, I also think this game has the ability to create AP scenarios. In Carcassonne, you’re either drawing a tile and placing it. Which you can do at the end of your tile. Or you’re playing with a hand of 3. Here, you can play up to 4 in theory, two of which come from a market that will change before your next turn. So Gnome Hollow can take well over the estimated 45-60 minutes and grinds along at a snails pace.
However, there is a competition here for mushrooms and selling to the market. As each mushroom can only be sold a certain number of times, so you’ll need to decide between selling early or holding out for a larger prize. This, of course, does mean that you have to move a gnome to the market to sell, which will potentially free up a path.
Scoring for me is a breeze it’s number under the right most flower, plus value under the right most empty ring marker, plus points from treasures. It’s essentially adding up three figures. It’s fast, and there can be a sense of not knowing who’s won until the end. Although it can be fairly easy to work out where everyone is roughly on points at any time in the game.
Final Thoughts
As you know, I rate games on the scale of:
- Buy or Play
- Wait for Sale, Play if You Like Game XYZ
- Avoid
Gnome Hollow is a ultimately a family game and maybe in a similar weight to Carcassonne, although I think that tension and need for permission to place tiles could be a game breaker for some families. With Gamers, Gnome Hollow isn’t terrible, but I can’t help but feel the need for permission to place tiles drags the game down.
The artwork is stunning and lures you in, and the components are generally are top notch.
My biggest issue remains that, the game, depending on the players, becomes either a tug of war. Or a defensive strategy game of minimisation, where players leave a gnome just close enough to a big pathway to never see it completed. And use the other Gnome to complete smaller paths.
You might say, but Aaron that’s a player issue. My response would be that with completely different players the same scenarios have happened, which to me reflects that the game creates these scenarios. You might argue that it’s upto the players to react to. But there’s only a few limited responses, either leave paths and hope your opponent can’t complete them or leave a gnome as a threat that means without your permission it can’t be completed.
Yes Gnome Hollow does create stalemate scenarios, and eventually someone will have to blink first as you can only complete so many smaller rings. And maybe that is the game? The need to be aggressive with tile placement, maximise mushroom collection. Maybe if the permission rule didn’t exist it would be a completely different situation?
I also wonder what the game would be like if players had hand of tiles to choose from and refilled this from the market, this would likely speed the game up I suspect! As it removes the decision from “oh 8 new tiles, which two do I place and where, oh but the board has changed dramatically since my last time, let me just work this out” to “oh right board state and which tiles in my hand that I’ve had for a while work best”.
Overall, Gnome Hollow gets a Wait for Sale. If you like tile placement games, you might enjoy Gnome Hollow, and it might be worth a try if that’s you go to mechanism.
