River Valley Glassworks made its way onto the table at our local club last month. It’s a charming and engaging board game that combines beautiful aesthetics with strategic gameplay and some really tricky decisions! Let’s take a closer look at what makes this game a standout that is worthy of being our final game of the month for 2024…
River Valley Glassworks was designed by Adam Hill, Ben Pinchback, and Matt Riddle, with art by Andrew Bosley. Published by Allplay, this game is perfect for 1-5 players and plays in around 30 minutes. The goal of the game is to fill your glassworks with the most colourful river glass you can find, earning points for completed rows and your two tallest columns.
In River Valley Glassworks, players take turns in clockwise order, choosing between two actions on each turn: Place & Gather or Draw.
- Place & Gather: Players take a glass piece from their pan and place it in a matching tile on the river. They can then gather all the glass from an adjacent river tile and add it to their glassworks.
- Draw: Players choose four pieces from the lake and add them to their pan, giving them new options for future turns.
The game continues until a player gathers at least 17 glass pieces, triggering the end game. Points are scored for completed rows and the two tallest columns, with columns further down the rows being worth more points.
River Valley Glassworks is a delightful surprise in many ways. The game’s aesthetics are stunning, with beautifully designed river tiles and glass pieces that add a whimsical vibe. Y’all know we like our whimsy! The gameplay is smooth and strategic, yet accessible to players of all experience levels. The game neither feels too long nor too short, making it perfect for a quick and enjoyable gaming session.
The player count doesn’t affect the experience, as the game plays well with any number of players. I do have a bias against solo play, so have not tried it in that way, and probably won’t, truth be told. It’s easy to teach to newer gamers, and everyone can quickly catch on and enjoy the game.
River Valley Glassworks is a fantastic addition to any board game collection. Its combination of charming aesthetics, strategic gameplay, and quick playtime makes it a hit for both family game nights and club nights with more seasoned gamers. You may get from this that I really, really like this game. Does that come across? I hope so.
No Rerolls 
If you liked this one, and if you like card games, then you’d love Subastral, by two (I think? Definitely at least one) of the designers. It uses similar scoring and has some great card play.
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Ta, I’ll need to take a look.
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