Collect veggie cards to make your salad. Collect point cards to make it worth the fiber. With over 100 ways to score points, it will be.
Matthew Kearns
MeepleGamers
7.4/10
Publisher: AEG
Designer: Molly Johnson
Designer: Robert Melvin
Designer: Shawn Stankewich
Artist: Dylan Mangini
Initial Year of Release: 2019
Age Range: 14+
Expected Playtime: 15-30 min
Number of Players: 2-6
Game Type: Card Draft, Set Collection
Theme and What is it?
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7/10
You’re gonna eat your veggies tonight and like it! Collect veggie cards to make your salad. Collect point cards to make it worth the fiber. With over 100 ways to score points, it will be.
Gameplay Mechanics
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8/10
Goal
Be the player who scores the most points by collecting the best point cards in relation to the collected veggie cards.
Setup
Separate the number of each type of veggie cards based upon the number of players from the deck of cards. Shuffle these cards and distribute into 3 piles as evenly as possible to make the point card decks. Draw two cards from each point card deck and place them veggie side up below each point card deck to create the Marketplace.
Turns
On their turn, players have a choice of two actions: draw a point card or draw 2 veggie cards (1 if 2 aren’t available).
If the player draws the last card of a point card deck, half of the cards in the biggest pile are moved to that position.
When a player takes the veggie cards, they are replaced from the point card deck, turning the top card(s) over to show the veggie side.
Once all of the cards from the point card decks and Marketplace are taken, players then resolve their scores by reviewing their tableau of veggies against each point card.
Initial Impressions
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9/10
I heard the hype at GenCon and saw that it sold out so I thought there must be something to this game. I was encouraged by the game’s look and interesting notion of so many ways to score points.
Game Build Quality
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6/10
The game components solely consist of playing cards. These cards aren’t the quality I was expecting in that it felt like they had no core to them or very thick, making me unsure as to how they’d hold up to a lot of shuffling, sorting, and other manipulation.
The packaging and card tray insert are top quality but the box is too big for its storing.
What the game is missing is a pad or dry erase board and pen for keeping score.
Artistic Direction
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8/10
The art is functional, and easy to recognize — exactly what you need for the game. It is also a little simple but that’s helpful for when playing with young children for recognition purposes. There is no support for color blindness but color isn’t an attribute used in the game to make it necessary.
Fun Factor
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8/10
There’s a bit of “take that” along with point card-to-veggie card strategy that makes the game fun and exciting by taking a point card that would benefit the next player or drafting veggie cards to deny them needed salad components or exposed point cards.
Age Range & Weight
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6/10
The age range shows 14+ but I think it’s more like 10+ or 8+ due to simple rules and lack of complex strategy. Older players might take a long time on turns trying to figure the odds or maximize points but it’s really not necessary.
Conclusions
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7.4/10
Point Salad is a game that you would use for idle time with friends and family (young and old) between other games or casually in other settings. It wasn’t something that I would likely play often because after a couple of rounds I’m ready for something else.
This game most benefits and would see most play from younger players — those who like other card games like Uno but need a bit more thinking and planning to a game. Luck is based upon the cards that happen to be drawn but strategy comes from deciding on either taking a point card to improve your future point taking or taking veggie cards that can help with your current point cards or denying the other players critical cards to their tableau.
Finally, It is a good gateway game to other traditional card games like Solitaire or Rummy-like games or other newer games with trick-taking or set collection.
- All
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