The Game Shelf Reviews:- Sierra West

Game: Sierra West

Publisher: Board&Dice

Designer:  Jonny Pac

Year: 2019

 

I remember getting a quick look at Sierra West at UK Games Expo two years ago. At the time, I feel like both the publisher, Board&Dice and the designer, Jonny Pac were both on the verge of becoming a big deal. Jonny Pac is a designer who mainly designs games with a Western theme, and Sierra West is no exception. You are playing as pioneers in the 1840s, who are travelling out West no a trusty wagon over the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The game is not hugely thematic in nature, but the game's setup has you recreating a mountain out of cards, which is just one of the many unique aspects in this card driven euro game for 1-4 players.

 

 

Gameplay

 

Sierra West is a modular game, featuring four modules that each change the game in a dramatic way. Each game mode comes with a unique set of cards that make up the 'mountain' of cards you can collect to deckbuild during the game. It also features a unique mechanic that changes both how you score and how you will approach the main game. Since the separate set of mountain cards interact with the new mechanics; the modules all start similar, and then diverge as the game goes on. 

 

Whichever module you choose to play you'll be playing in the same way. On your turn you'll choose how to place three cards to underneath your player board in order to make a pair of paths. Each path has a single worker that will walk along it, collecting resources and activating actions as they go. Should they reach the end of the path then they can be moved up onto one of the three card's bonus action spaces. These typically grants you the ability to trade in your hard earned resources for advancements on the building tracks, which act as point multipliers at the end of the game. Sierra West has three basic resources: food, wood and stone, which are used to buy many of the point gaining opportunities in the game. You'll also be gaining a large number of boots, these let you move your explorer around the mountain, or advance your wagon along the trail. You'll want to get your explorer in position before gaining shovel actions which let you 'dig out' the card underneath them, moving it from the mountain and adding it to you deck. 

 

This destruction of the mountain is important for a couple of reasons. As cards get taken from the mountain new cards become available, these new cards are typically closer to the base of the mountain meaning your explorer needs less boots to reach them. You'll also reveal the module specific cards, these make the module mechanics more powerful, making them more and more tempting to use as the round goes on. Finally once the mountain is taken apart enough the game will end. 

 

At the end of the game you'll get points for how far your wagon moved along the trail multiplied by each of the three building tracks, and then gain a significant number of points for the cards that you added to your deck during the game. Each module then has its own way to score bonus points before you get a couple of points for left over gold and lose some points for failing to build cabins (and alternative shovel action) or hunt animals (a reactionary action based on your opponent's card choices).

 
Amy's Final Thoughts
 

Sierra West is quite unlike anything I've ever played before. The mechanics in the game might be familiar, but the way the player cards are used to create two unique paths results in a method of action selection that is entirely new. This gets combined with the cabins, which let you rest one worker in order to power up the other worker's travel, before then departing themselves on their path. This allows for a huge amount of tailoring your game experience, especially when combined with the deckbuilding elements. 

 

There isn't a huge amount of player interaction to be had during the game, though what is there is significant in effect. Essentially you get one chance to hunt an animal when a player lays their card down, and a chance to gain a bonus resource when a player upgrades one of their building tracks. Both require a worker to do, this doesn't prevent the worker from going down their path during your turn, but a hunter/scavenger can't go to a hut. This provides a nice balance of deciding if that bonus resource is worth ruining your plan for next turn. The turns can take a little longer when things get more complex, with order of actions getting critical as you gain the more useful huts. While this never became a problem at two players, I don't think I'd play at the full player count of four as there would be too much downtime between turns. 

 

Something that Sierra West does incredibly well is its modular gameplay. Each module manages to keep enough of the base game to feel like the same game, while changing enough that it feels so very different. This provides great replay value, as it almost feels like four games in a box. However this did mean that every game session required a mini rules-learn, including a refresher on setup as each module has new components or a different mountain arrangement. The way the module's new actions cascade in power as the game progresses pairs well with your deck becoming more and more filled with module cards as the game progresses. But this can result in terrible luck, drawing a hand of non module cards towards the end of the game can result in your having a rather dull turn while watching the other players reap massive rewards. 

 

Overall Sierra West succeeds on a lot of counts. The modules help bring the western theme to life as they provide fantastic variety in each game, the cards are played in a fascinating way and each turn provides you with a selection of choices giving a huge amount of player agency. However it is also a game with some noticeable niggles, downtime can be an issue, the layered player boards can be a little clunky to use with your cards and some of the cabins are of questionable use at best. Even with its flaws there's still plenty of game to enjoy, with four modules to try you'll certainly want to play each one at least once. Be honest with yourself, how many games in your collection have you played more than four times?

Fi’s Final Thoughts

 

Sierra West has quite a lot going on. It's got a bit of deck-building, some action programming and some engine building, if you choose to build the different huts that enable you to power up your actions. There's not one mechanism that really stands out and the game is better defined by the way in which these come together, using cards in a way I've never seen before. Initially, I dismissed the player board and the way you have to layer your cards as a pointless gimmick, but it soon became clear that , though a little fiddly, this is hugely necessary as you try and wrap your head around the optimal sequence to move your workers to get the most out of each turn. Some turns are quite low pressure, but on other turns you're really puzzling out the most efficient way to play. 

 

There's a few basic ways to earn points and each has its own merits. Building your deck is definitely a good point-making strategy, but you don't want to dilute your deck for the sake of points and then not be able to execute good turns. Adding huts to your player board is perhaps best done in the early game when you can make the most of your abilities, but you have to make sure to use them well, else they might not pay as high dividends as the deck-building option. Ensuring you're able to hunt whenever an opponent gives you that opportunity is also a strategy I hugely favour, ready to get a windfall of goods when I find that elusive pelt icon in my deck. It's unlikely you'll be able to focus on all three of these options each game, and then you've also got to consider whichever module you've added to the game as well. Some module offer points, whilst others are just a contribution to your engine building, and I've really enjoyed each and every module.

In spite of all of this, the game feels quite refreshing simple to play once you're around the table. I love how each turn is a puzzle to solve as you organise your three cards to try and achieve the right balance of resources to be able to cash in for some progress on a track or add a new card into your deck. In every game we've played I've felt my engine building and/or deck-building really click and it's been  a joy to play. I have, however, noticed that Amy has had a couple of bad shuffles of the deck which have resulted in some inefficient turns that are a real deal-breaker. Perhaps I wouldn't enjoy it so much if the shoe was on the other foot!

Sierra West isn't quite like any game I've played before and I love how it both looks and plays, using its unique card mechanisms as part of the games mechanics as well as to create the impressive look on the table. It plays quickly as a two-player game, and the amount of planning involved in each turns means there is no downtime at all. It's a really smooth game that ticks a lot of boxes for me!

You Might Like...

• Sierra West packs in quite a lot of depth, but still feels like a light experience to play.
  
• There are opportunities to focus your strategy in a few different area, so you can explore different options in each game.
  
• The game has great visual appeal, and there is a gameplay purpose behind all of unique things that are done with the cards in the game.
  

You Might Not Like...

• It's great to have new modules to try each game, but it does make every game a learning game.
  
• A bad shuffle of your deck can really rain on your parade.
  

The Verdict

7/10 Every time we've played Sierra West we've found it hugely enjoyable, but it seems to be missing that one thing that grabs us and makes us want to bring it to the table. Perhaps it's because it uses a few different game mechanisms in a minor way and so doesn't have much of an identity. A couple of years after its release, it is a bargain in many stores right now though, and it's one we'd definitely recommend more people to try.

Sierra West was a review copy kindly provided to us by Board&Dice.