There’s one thing in regards to the thought of farming and rising crops—not less than for the suburban/urbanites like myself who solely go to farms throughout the Halloween season—that’s innately charming and comforting. Maybe that’s why FarmVille has seen over 800 million installs, and there are over 1400 distinctive farm-themed board video games on the market.
And but when a farming theme is combined with a Eurogame construction, the designers incessantly discover methods to carry hardship to the expertise, together with that of compelled crop rotation lest your fields lose productiveness; depreciating costs resulting from over-production; occasional slaughtering of animals for sustenance; and, my favourite, having to often feed your folks lest they starve/go begging.
Enter Harvest, a family-weight plus aggressive farming Eurogame that actually channels the allure of farming by the plowful. Accommodating 1-4 gamers over 30-60 minutes, Harvest options employee placement and drafting as a method to develop particular person fields into bustling farms full of colourful crops and buildings.
Gameplay Overview:
Harvest is performed over 4 rounds, every of which begins with a draft for “dawn” tiles that present distinctive assets/skills in addition to a flip order precedence for the present spherical.
The primary actions of every spherical are executed by putting 1 of three wheelbarrows worker-placement-style in numerous areas of the central board to do the next:
- Normal Retailer: buy seeds and fertilizer.
- Fields: plant, have a tendency, and/or harvest crops
- Workshop: assemble buildings and clear bushes from the land
- Buying and selling Put up: commerce items for companies or different items
- Farmer’s market: take distinctive actions that change every spherical
Every area of the central board is subdivided into 3 or fewer spots, which permits its actions to be taken at powers of three, 2, or 1, correlated to what number of actions/purchases/trades could be executed in that spot. So whereas a number of gamers can go to every area, gamers can block one another from the higher-powered spots.
Factors are in the end obtained by harvesting crops of various worth and developing buildings.
Highest rating wins.
Recreation Expertise:
Whereas Harvest undoubtedly delivers on the family-weight plus (i.e., medium-light) ranking, this heavy-gamer was stunned to search out it a surprisingly thinky, resource-tight, and multi-stepped expertise. For instance, to take advantage of a harvest, you will need to first (1) clear land, (2) purchase as much as 4 distinctive seed varieties, (3) acquire adequate water and fertilizer assets, (4) plant seeds, (5) have a tendency/broaden your crops, after which (6) harvest. Six steps!
That’s greater than it takes to get your grain stepping into Agricola. But I guarantee you, Harvest is the a lot much less punishing recreation. These steps above are for maximizing a harvest. There are nonetheless loads of factors and different advantages available from working a small plot, specializing in one or only a few crop varieties, and/or probably skipping the crop growth step altogether. Heck, in a single recreation, an opponent barely planted any crops in any respect and as an alternative crammed his fields with high-scoring buildings. The sport encourages gamers to have not less than a couple of areas of focus, nevertheless it does present gamers the flexibleness to attempt numerous methods. And no person ever starves.
Nonetheless, there could be some rigidity within the recreation, as you actually can’t do the whole lot you need. Visiting these 3-value worker-placement spots can allow you to get a LOT executed—ex. planting, tending, and harvesting multi functional flip! Nevertheless, it’s a race to go to since they’re restricted, and it’s essential to ensure you have sufficient assets (cash, fertilizer, seeds, water) earlier than visiting to maximise the spot’s worth. Thus, flip order issues, which makes the dawn draft so thrilling; notably, the trade-off for early turn-order is a weaker bonus. This recreation consistently has gamers making trade-offs, whether or not it’s within the selection of draft, the employee placement spot, or the price of seeds/buildings to buy.
In the end, the sport will likely be as stress-free or worrying as you need it to be. In case you’re making an attempt to undergo 4 full, bountiful harvest cycles throughout every of the 4 rounds, your tolerance for blocking will likely be low. In case you’re okay with simply two huge harvests and a few good end-game buildings, your play might really feel extra zen. To additional encourage diversification of technique, gamers will begin with one among eight uneven characters and one among eight distinctive farmhouse dawn incomes. The sport additionally comes with 32 distinctive constructing tiles offering totally different prompt and end-game skills that seem in numerous orders. Harvest has fairly nice replay worth general.
Harvest additionally adapts properly from 2-4 gamers (haven’t tried solo). Further employee placement spots open up at 4 gamers, so it’s not too tight. Additionally, a minimal-maintenance dummy participant is used with 2 gamers, which works fairly properly.
Fall Pageant Growth
For these looking for additional variability, the Fall Pageant growth provides two new uneven characters in addition to a brand new sideboard that includes 30 playing cards that may be bought with a brand new fourth employee (a picnic basket) that completely visits this growth board. The growth does elongate the sport from 12 to 16 turns per participant. The playing cards are divided by half into two basic varieties: (1) pies of varied varieties that may be collected for set variety factors and (2) coupons for advantages or reductions later within the recreation when visiting sure areas (ex: acquire a free blueberry and wheat seed subsequent time you go to the overall retailer).
Personally, I actually get pleasure from these coupons as they assist me get extra executed within the recreation, they usually add a small additional layer of technique, incentivizing me to take an motion I’ll not in any other case prioritize. I’m extra impartial on the pie set assortment, largely as a result of set assortment doesn’t typically excite me, it provides a luck ingredient, and with solely 3 playing cards accessible at a time, they’ll block the extra thrilling coupons. General, it’s a pleasant growth, however not important to the gameplay.
Last Ideas:
Harvest delivers an adorably illustrated, fantastically produced farming-themed recreation in a family-weight plus technique design. It represents the proper stepping stone for gamers prepping for the transition from gateway to extra superior video games, and on the identical time, it’s a thinky sufficient effectivity puzzle that even heavier players ought to get pleasure from their performs, presumably discovering it a comfortable time.
The employee placement and drafting components might not symbolize something mechanically novel, however they make the sport intrinsically interactive with out being imply. Eight uneven beginning characters and 32 buildings with distinctive skills assist hold every recreation contemporary. The Fall Pageant growth provides some good concepts and a bit extra recreation size; it’s a nice-to-have slightly than important. Harvest in the end lets gamers sow quite a lot of methods, reaping colourful crops, prodigious factors, and improbable enjoyable alongside the way in which.
Last Rating: 4 stars—a medium-light employee placement Eurogame wrapped in an adorably illustrated and immersive farming theme
Hits:
• Shocking quantity of decision-space in a medium-light recreation
• Enjoyable farming theme is totally integrated into gameplay components
• Uneven characters, farm tiles, and constructing selection improve replayability
Misses:
• Nothing mechanically novel
• Solely half of the growth playing cards combine into current gameplay
• Set-up could be fiddly
