Works well with just 2: Yes!
Solo quality: Okay
Age: 12+
Playtime: 50-140 min
A farming game (again!?) where the main focus is on gathering the necessary materials to upgrade a variety of small craft buildings in order to clear the way for your “community center,” which drives both the number of workers you get to use each turn and the number of basic victory points you score when the whole thing is over.
Yes, Uwe Rosenberg (of Agricola fame) is giving us another heavy farming game; but once again, it’s quite different from what came before and provides its own set of challenges and opportunities. There’s an array of available actions, but costs are incremental: the more people have used the action before you, the more expensive—in quantity of workers—your go at it will be.
You’ll end up drawing a bunch of cards from various decks and trying to tweak your timing so they combine in a cascade of bonuses and kickbacks. But keep an eye on your resources! Some of them you can grow, others you’ll have to trade for. Come the end of each turn, you’d better be sure you’ve stocked up on what you need to upgrade those craft buildings, so your operation can keep expanding.
Solo mode is a beat-your-own-score kind of deal, so your mileage may vary. But multiplayer? It’s one hell of a ride on the swing-plough.
Most easily forgotten rule: You can play a card AT ANY MOMENT, including right in the middle of an action—yours or an opponent’s. This goes counter to so many other games of its kind that I need to keep repeating that rule.
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