Santa’s Workshop (second edition)

Game summary

A game for 2 – 5 players
Play time around 30 – 60 minutes
Publisher is Elf Creek Games

Introduction

Welcome to the North Pole!

Santa is gearing up for the big night. The elves are busy making sure Santa is ready to deliver joy across the world!
But the elves have a lot to do during the last days before Christmas. Toys have to be built and assembled, the reindeers have to be tended in the stables, and the North Pole’s own Christmas tree to has be decorated. It’s a time of unbelievable hustle and bustle!

When the Christmas season is over, Santa always takes his own holiday, somewhere sunny and warm, and he brings along the best team of elves as a reward. Can you lead your Elves to earn a well deserved vacation with Santa?

Let’s get it on the table

Santa’s Workshop can be played in a standard and an advanced game. We will explain both, a bit shorter in both reviews but with this you can definitely get a start and still get a good overview of the game.

The standard edition is played over 6 days (rounds) and the advanced edition over 9 days (rounds). With this last edition you use the other side of the game board and on that you also have some extra possibilities but we will tell more about that during this review.

The cards and resources for the toys are placed on the board in the designated spot.

Then give each player a player board and corresponding elves and each player also receives 2 toy cards.

Standard game

First we will explain the standard game of Santa’s Workshop, this game is played over the course of 6 days.

Each day, starting with the first player and moving clockwise around the table, each player places an elf in a location and takes the matching action. An action may allow you to work on a toy, decorate your tree, or tend to a reindeer. Players take actions like this until each player has placed all of their elves around the workshop.

At the end of each day, players pick up their elves and prepare for the next day. After every third day, Santa performs an inspection, for which the players can score bonus points based on their “Christmas Cheer. “ Christmas Cheer is a combination of completed toys and ornaments hung on their tree.

After two inspections, the game ends. Players then score points for any unfinished gifts as well as for the reindeer they tended during the game.

During the game you will place your elf on a location and take the matching actions. We will explain in short the different locations and the actions.

How to Make Toys

You start with 2 toy cards and can work on up to 5 toy cards at a time. Collect materials and assembly tokens from the workshop and immediately place them on a toy card or in the Donation Center.

Once you grab a token, it must be used immediately. You cannot save or move playing figures later. You can add materials and assembly tokens in any order.

Completing a toy card may take several turns to complete. Once you complete your toy card, immediately score the points and put the card aside, not in the discard pile!

Material Shops

Visit the fabric store, wood store or metal store to collect materials. Each store has 4 stations for elves and later stations yield more materials. Strategically place your elves to collect as many tokens as possible and earn extra points:

1st station: Take 2 materials.
2nd station: Take 3 materials, and the player of the 1st elf scores 1 point.
3rd station: Take 4 materials. The players of the 1st and 2nd elf each get 1 point.
4th station: Take 5 materials. Players of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd elf each get 1 point.

If you have already placed an elf in the same store, you score points when you or other players add elves. If you cannot immediately use a token for one of your toy cards, you may donate it to the Donation Center. You get 1 point for each token you place in the Donation Center. You may not save tokens for future toy cards!

The Assembly Hall

The assembly hall is where the magic of toy assembly happens! There are 4 stations and the elves must fill them in order, from 1st to 4th. When you place your elf in a station you collect the number of assembly tokens shown above the station.

Each player (including you!) gets 1 point for each of their elves already in the assembly hall. If you can’t immediately use an assembly token for one of your toy cards, it goes straight to the Donation Center.

Donation Center

The Donation Center starts the game empty, but soon becomes a treasure trove of tokens. Here you can donate unused tokens for charity – and score 1 point per token!

If you place an elf here, you can take tokens from the Donation Center but only the ones you currently need for your toy cards. Any leftovers stay put, waiting for another elf to claim them.

Mail Room

Ready to expand your to-do list? The Mail Room is where you gather new toy cards to work on. Each elf placed here allows you to pick a toy card: Choose one card at a time, either from the 6 face-up cards or the top card of the deck. If you take a face-up card, immediately replace it with a new one from the deck.

Keep in mind:

You can’t place an elf here if you already have 5 unfinished toys.
No discarding! Once a toy card is yours, it stays with you.
If the toy deck runs out, Santa’s sleigh has backup cards ready to reshuffle into a new deck.

Reindeer Stables

In the Reindeer Stables, the reindeer are ready to help you with Christmas preparations. There are 3 stations here and, as in the Assembly Hall, they must be filled in order. When you place an elf in the stables, you may take any reindeer card from the stable and then take tokens (wood, metal or cloth) from the supply as indicated on the reindeer card.

Reindeer cards are special; they are not immediately replenished. Instead, new cards are added at the end of the day. At the end of the game, you get points for your reindeer collection based on the number of unique reindeer you have collected. Use their names or the numbers in the upper left corner to check if they are different.

During the game, you don’t have to reveal which reindeer you’ve collected, but you should tell how many you have if someone asks.

Christmas Tree

What is Christmas without a beautifully decorated tree? When you place an elf by the Christmas tree, you may randomly take an ornament token from the tree. Reveal your reward by turning over the token to see your prize!

Now you may place the ornament on one of the 6 squares of your personal Christmas tree and claim the bonus on the space that you covered.

Once your tree is fully decorated, you’re done with this location for the game.

End of the Day

When the last elf is placed on the board and has performed the corresponding action, the day is over! Perform the following steps to clean up the workshop and prepare for the next day:

-Give all elves from the workshop back to the players
-Discard all remaining reindeer cards in the reindeer stables and place them on the bottom of the reindeer card deck. Place three new reindeer cards from the reindeer deck, face up, one to each of the three stalls in the reindeer stable.
-Set Santa on the next space of the calendar. When Santa reaches a sled field, Santa performs an inspection.

In a standard game, the first player marker of the current holder is passed to the player to their left (clockwise). They take the first turn of the next day.

In an advanced game, this happens only if a player has placed his elf at the location of Christmas tree and then also at the location of the Christmas tree. Otherwise, the same player remains the starting player.

Santa’s Inspections
During Santa inspections, players show their efforts by scoring points for spreading the most “Christmas Joy.” Christmas Joy is calculated by counting players’ completed toy cards and ornaments in their personal Christmas tree. The player with the highest total of Christmas Joy gets 8 points, second place earns 4 points, third place gets 2 points and fourth place gets 1 point. Equals are celebrated in Christmas cheer, with all players with a tie receiving the full points for their place.

Once the inspection is over, place all the completed toys in Santa’s sleigh. In this way, only the toys from the last 3 days count, but all ornaments hung during the game count towards the Christmas cheer in the following days. Finally, move the Santa figure to the next space on the calendar track.

In a standard game, the game ends immediately after the second inspection.
In the advanced game, the game ends immediately after the third inspection.

After this, go to the score for the final count.

Advanced Game

Below we will explanation the locations and corresponding actions for the advanced game.

An advanced game of Santa’s workshop is played over the course of 9 days.

Each day, starting with the first player and going clockwise, each player places an elf in a location and performs the corresponding action. An action might include working on toys, decorating the tree or taking care of a reindeer. Players perform actions in this way until each player has placed all three of their elves in the workshop. The exception is a 2-player game where each player gets an extra elf.

At the end of each day, players pick up their elves and get ready for the next day. After every third day, Santa performs an inspection, for which players can score bonus points based on their “Christmas Joy.” Christmas joy is a combination of toys completed and the ornaments they hung on the tree.

After three inspections, the game ends. Players then score points for tokens on unfinished gifts, upgrades to the player’s mat and the reindeer they collected during the game.

How to Make Toys

You start with 2 toy cards and can work on up to 5 toy cards at a time. Collect materials and assembly tokens from the workshop and immediately place them on a toy card or in the Donation Center.

Once you grab a token, it must be used immediately. You cannot save or move playing figures later. You can add materials and assembly tokens in any order.

Completing a toy card may take several turns to complete. Once you complete your toy card, immediately score the points and put the card aside, not in the discard pile!

Player Mats
On your player mat, you can also train your elves and upgrade your equipment. These upgrades can give you unique advantages and help you score extra points.

Elf training; Each elf has two slots, the training tokens you can earn in equipment stores or on special reindeer cards. Trained elves perform collect extra materials or score bonus points at the end of the game.

Upgrades; Upgrade your coal wagon, mining tools or reindeer blankets for benefits. Expand the capacity of your coal wagon with wood so you can carry more coal from the mines. Get better tools that allow you to receive extra points while mining coal. Or make reindeer blankets with which you can reduce the coal cost for obtaining reindeer cards.

Coal Mines
The Coal Mine is the fuel for your efforts and provides the coal you need to gather materials, train elves and collect reindeer cards. If you place an elf here, you will fill your coal cart to the maximum capacity available. You receive bonus points for each upgrade of your mining tools.

Material stores
In the fabric, wood and metal stores you collect the essential materials for your toys. If you place an elf here you pay the number of coal to receive material tokens. You can also pay 1 additional coal to receive a training token for your elf.

Trained elves collect more materials on future journeys or score extra points at the end of the game. Each store has one training token available per day and these apply only as a bonus to material stores, not to other locations.

Assembly Hall
In the assembly hall, elves come together to make something magical. If you place an elf here, take assembly tokens based on the order of the station:

1st station: Take 1 token.
2nd station: Take 1 token and optionally get help from the 1st elf for a second token.
3rd+ station: Take 1 token and with help from the 1st and 2nd elves, you can collect up to three tokens.

Each time the elf in the 1st station helps another player, that elf scores 3 points. Each time the elf in the 2nd station helps another player, that elf scores 2 points. Important note; It is possible to get help from your own elves but in that case you do not earn any points!

Mailroom
In the mailroom, take on new toy cards to keep your workshop busy. There are 2 spots, in the left spot you discard the 6 open toy cards and deal out 6 new ones. In the right spot you choose up to 2 cards. Of these you choose cards one at a time from the new open cards or from the deck of toy cards.

Christmas Tree
If you put an elf by the Christmas tree, you can decorate it with an ornament from your stash. Choose a lock on the tree and place your ornament. You get the bonus on the ornament and the bonus from the slot on the tree.
Once all 6 slots on your personal tree are filled, you can no longer visit the Christmas tree.

Reindeer Stables
In the Stables, you can recruit a reindeer to join your team. Spend the cost of coal shown on the reindeer card and choose an open card and receive the instant reward. Do you have Reindeer blanket upgrades? Then the cost of a reindeer card is reduced by 1 coal per blanket

Reindeer cards score at the end of the game based on the number of different reindeer you have collected.

The Game ends

Once Santa’s second or thirt inspection is complete, the game ends immediately!

All players can now score points for tokens on their unfinished toys cards and their reindeer cards. Unfinished Toys Each player counts the material and assembly tokens on their unfinished toy cards and scores 1 point per token. Reindeer Each player counts the number of different reindeer cards they have and scores points based on the following chart. If they have reindeer with the same name, they score 2 points for each extra reindeer.

In the advanced game, you also receive points for training tokens and Equipment upgrades.
Training tokens; Each player gets 2 points for each elf that has 2 training tokens. They also get points for each training token that has the 2-point side face up.
Equipment Upgrades; Each player gets 4 points for each type of equipment they upgraded twice. This includes mining carts, mining tools, and reindeer blankets.

The player with the most points wins, earning a sunny vacation with Santa! In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most points from reindeer cards is the winner. If there is still a tie, then the players share the victory and go together on holiday with Santa.

Final Conclusion & rating