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First Snow
2017
Rules assistance for First Snow
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 2 players
- 40–50 min
- 10+
- Complexity 2.8/5
For 2 players
Rules assistant for First Snow
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
First Snow is a board game released in 2017 for 2 players, 40–50 minutes per game, and ages 10 and up. It was designed by Tomáš Uhlíř and its main mechanics are Secret Unit Deployment, Modular Board, and Worker Placement.
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About the game
First Snow is a free Print&Play game about an Inuit wandering through the changing landscape, hunting for food, gathering wood, building simple tools and looking for the best shelter to keep himself warm. This gets more and more difficult as the winter swiftly approaches. And on top of all that, there’s this big terrifying polar bear… The game uses an innovative worker placement mechanism combined with resource management and a bit of bluffing. It uses dice in a few interesting ways but none of them require you to roll them. ;-) GAMEPLAY Every round players build a new landscape out of the 6 double sided land cards. As they do, they place their two camps along the way. Numbers on the chosen land cards determine the player order for the next round. Every land card is divided in half, so you do not choose a single card, but you have to combine two of them to form the complete location for your camp. At the start of the round, players secretly send their polar bear to one of the land cards and since you try to avoid the bear and want to get the best card at the same time, it brings a small bluffing aspect to the game. After completing the landscape, players resolve their camps. One of the camps serve as a "day camp" and the other as a "night camp" and each of them has a bit different purpose. While resolving a camp you can use all the resources shown on its location, but you have to fit them into your inventory to be able to use them later in the game. You can even build useful tools, but they take up space in your inventory as well. Scoring is resolved every round in your night camp and consists of feeding your Inuit and keeping him warm. The land cards serve also as a timer. One of them is flipped "winter" side up every round and the game ends when all the land cards get flipped. The game was designed for the 2017 9-Card Nanogame P&P Design Contest and it achieved the following awards: 1st place - Best Overall Game 1st Place - Best 2 player Game 1st place - Best Thematic Game 1st place - Best Written Rules 1st place - Best Artwork 2nd place - Most Innovative Mechanic
Categories
Designers
Publishers
- (Web published)
Questions and answers
First Snow supports 2 players according to the catalogue. This is the publisher’s listed player count, so the game is designed for exactly that number of participants. Variants for other group sizes, if any, are described in the rulebook of your edition, so check it before setting up a different configuration.
The listed playing time for First Snow is 40–50 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists First Snow for ages 10 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
First Snow has a complexity rating of 2.8 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
First Snow belongs to these categories: Print & Play. Its main mechanics are Secret Unit Deployment, Modular Board, and Worker Placement. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of First Snow are: Tomáš Uhlíř. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists First Snow as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.