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There are a lot of overused themes in board gaming. There is the trope of trading cloth in the Mediterranean. You’ve also got loads of fantasy games about wizards and trolls. Personally, I have a fair few Cthulu games in my collection and there are loads more out there. That’s why it’s always nice and refreshing to see something a bit different. Petrichor by Mighty Boards is definitely different.
Petrichor is an area control/area majority game where players are playing down cards that will influence how clouds behave as they float over tiles with various plants on them. You fill these clouds with your rain drops and get them to fall on the plant tiles you’re aiming for. If there are enough rain drops from all of the players on the tile, the plant grows and everybody gets some points. Generally, the more you watered the plant, the more points you get. Though there are a few exceptions to this to keep you on your toes.
The base game is fun, but variety is the spice of life. Wouldn’t it be nice to give the game a little something else. Well, I’m pleased to say that you can now add some lovely cows to your game of Petrichor! The cows expansion adds not only cows, but a whole new climate tracker board that brings a brand new mechanism to the table.
Udderly Marvellous
It all centres around the adorable cows though. At the beginning of the game, they’ll be placed onto some of the plant tiles. A whole bunch of grazing cards are added to the deck of cards found in the base game. And some clouds are pre-seeded with methane crystals. These crystals sort of take up the space of a raindrop, but they can never be rained onto the plant tiles. You get rid of them in a different way.
Anyways, as you play these grazing tiles you can start moving, (or should that be moo-ving ha ha ha), the cows around. As they move around, they do what cows do and drop fertilizer down on the ground and send methane up into the air. The fertilizer tiles are fairly simple, players get a point boost when the tile containing them is scored, the methane crystals are where the game gets tactical.
You see, the other action you can take when you do a grazing action is to take all of the methane crystals out of any cloud where you have at least one water drop. These crystals allow you to rain more drops down during a rain action, you can proxy them in for a card too. But lastly, at the end of each round the player with the most methane in their supply becomes the climate leader.
It's Getting Hot In Here
This is where that climate tracker I mentioned earlier comes in. Once the end of the round swings by, you adjust the climate board hotter or colder depending on how much methane is left in the clouds. The climate leader then gets to move some water drops about, modify the methane and maybe score some points if the climate is ‘Just Right’.
The new plant tiles also mesh in with this new climate mechanism. Each of the tree tiles included requires the climate to be at a certain value for the tree to grow. This could have you deliberately manipulating the climate to make sure a tree you’re trying to control grows, or you may be making sure it can never grow to keep your opponents from scoring. It’s an extra mechanism to play with and it definitely adds to the strategy.
Lastly, because cows like to eat grass, some of the tiles get pasture tokens on them. These tiles are now worth extra points to the whoever has the with the most raindrops if the tile is scored with a cow on it. Again, it’s another thing to keep an eye on and another way the base game gets mixed up a little bit.
I think that’s probably the best way to sum up the Cows expansion. It’s one of those small expansions that add enough to mix everything up without adding too much in the way of extra rules. Now, I’ve always quite liked Petrichor but I have had some people tell me it was a little too simple for them after a few play throughs. Those people may find that the added complexities that the cows bring may well be enough for them to get a bit more enjoyment out of Petrichor. There is a bit more to keep track of as well as a few more ways to be clever with your strategies. It’s not a massive bump in complexity, but it is definitely there.
Collecting Your Clouds
The other thing we’ve got to talk about here are the Collector’s Edition upgrades. This is a lovely box that comes with a Game Trayz insert. This insert has all the space you need to store all of your base game, Flowers, Bees and Cows expansion bits as well as any promo tiles, (two of which are included here), that you’ve managed to amass. There are also a few token trays to keep everything organised as well as some excellent raindrop shaped player packs that store everything each player needs to play.
There is a brilliant collected rulebook in here as well. This is a really underrated board game component that contains the rules for the base game and each of its expansions. All arranged brilliantly and in a colour coordinated fashion which makes it really easy to get the rules for just the modules you’re playing with.
Lastly, and definitely not least, there are the clouds. Rather than use the boring cardboard clouds that come with the base game, you can swap them out and use these fantastic fluffy clouds on their stands. It really ups the presentation on what was already a stunning looking game. You also get nice plastic lightning bolt clips to put on these new clouds to keep them looking brilliant. I know it is silly, but I really like these new clouds!
Back To Earth
So there we have it. Petrichor Cows Expansion is a good expansion that adds new ways to play and more variety to a game that possibly needed it. The components are great, no surprises there, and the new mechanisms give both deeper strategic options as well as more player interaction. I’m still undecided in my head if this is my favourite expansion for petrichor. I’m torn between this and the honeybee expansion. They both have their pluses but thankfully you can combine them for an epic experience with no need to choose favourites.
With its expansions, Petrichor is probably one of my favourite area control games. The other being Mission: Red Planet. For me, I think Mission is still the stronger game, but with all the variety the expansions offer I think I am quite likely to finish a game of Petrichor then just deal out some new plants and go again. You’d have a fresh experience without much in the way of new rules to go over and that is a nice thing indeed and shouldn’t be overlooked.
