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Point Salad, designed by Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin and Shawn Stankewich and published by AEG, is a two to six player, quick playing, card drafting game. In Point Salad there are six different vegetables (Lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, onion and cabbage). The cards are double sided with the vegetables on one side and a point scoring opportunity on the other. Taking it in turns players will draft vegetables or point scoring cards to score the most points.
The game is set up with three stacks of cards with the point scoring side face up. Then two rows of cards with the vegetable side up placed below these. On a players turn they can either draft two vegetables from the available vegetables, adding them to their display, or one of the three point scoring cards. Once per turn, as a free action a player can flip one point scoring card to its respective vegetable side.
Play continues this way until all the cards have been drafted. Players count up their points they have gained from their point scoring cards and the player with the most points is the winner.
Final Thoughts
Point Salad is a light, fun drafting game. It is a great game to introduce the drafting mechanism to new players, or players who have not played a drafting game before. The rules are straightforward and easy to understand and you can get the game set up and taught in minutes.
The scoring cards give you some strategy to aim for and help focus players on which vegetables they should draft. Some of the scoring cards can work really well together if you get the right combinations of cards. Certain scoring cards require a player to have the most of a certain vegetable and can cause some competition when drafting that vegetable, especially if another player needs the same vegetable for one of their cards. Other cards will give you points for a certain vegetable but negative points for a different vegetable.
Certain point cards will require players to set collect a combination of vegetables. They are all pretty varied and players are going to see a different combination each game. This game has been an instant hit with my work colleagues and gaming group. The artwork is vibrant and colourful and draws people in. It is the perfect game length for this level of game and sits well as a lunch time game. Or filler game for a games night. There is enough to it to keep experienced gamers entertained. Yet accessible enough that non gamers can get in to it easily.
I have had a lot of fun with Point Salad and I can see this sticking around on my shelf and hitting my gaming tables often. A great addition to the card drafting genre.
