Fields of Arle
I was GROUCHY today, so I went to the game store and saw there was a new Uwe Rosenburg board game that seems especially tuned to a quiet and/or solo experience, so I just bought it, because I am not smart with my money.
So! Took it home, had a really satisfying component-sorting session (so relaxing), and then took a crack at it solo, as the rules for solo play is not that different than two-player play. You just...don't have the other player there. Try to get 110 points. Go for it.
The game has a ton of components, but there seem to be four main selling points. ONE: The game is divided into two seasons, which have completely separate action items, so you can only do certain things during certain rounds. If you want a peat boat, you need to do it in winter; but if you want to clear peat from your territory, you can only do so effectively in summer. Interesting back and forth. TWO: Your home board is very limited at first, but there are plenty of places to drop fields, buildings, and keep animals, you just need to clear your marshes and push back your dike wall to gain more territory. And you better, too, because if you don't, you'll be hit with negative points, up to -16 if you just ignore them completely. Standard Uwe stuff, but I like the dike wall mechanic. THREE: In addition to focusing on resources at home, there's also the nearby area, for which you need to build vehicles and explore. Each vehicles gives you spaces to either upgrade your building resources to be more useful and worth more victory points, or visit nearby towns and sell your resources to gain food. Each town you visit also gives you more travel experience, which is worth victory points. It is very interesting, and managing how much you travel and making sure you can could potentially make or break your game. FOUR: It's a smaller fourth point, but the game also allows you to acquire more tools to make your actions more effective and gain more victory points. Managing your tools is hard though, since there's only a few places that let you upgrade, but it's an interesting mechanic.
Anyway, I slowly stumbled my way through the game, got some animals, built a castle, no big deal. The last three turns flew as I knew exactly what I wanted to do, finally, and dropped a lot of my resources to gain a ton of furs and leathers, but only got as high as 94 points. Pretty good for the first time, I guess, but there are SO many paths to victory here that I'm not even sure what's the right idea. Interesting damn game, I almost wish it could handle more people, but Uwe had a very specific thing going here, a low-tension couple or solo game. I continue to be amazed by Uwe Rosenburg, I cannot imagine what happens in his mind.
I was GROUCHY today, so I went to the game store and saw there was a new Uwe Rosenburg board game that seems especially tuned to a quiet and/or solo experience, so I just bought it, because I am not smart with my money.
So! Took it home, had a really satisfying component-sorting session (so relaxing), and then took a crack at it solo, as the rules for solo play is not that different than two-player play. You just...don't have the other player there. Try to get 110 points. Go for it.
The game has a ton of components, but there seem to be four main selling points. ONE: The game is divided into two seasons, which have completely separate action items, so you can only do certain things during certain rounds. If you want a peat boat, you need to do it in winter; but if you want to clear peat from your territory, you can only do so effectively in summer. Interesting back and forth. TWO: Your home board is very limited at first, but there are plenty of places to drop fields, buildings, and keep animals, you just need to clear your marshes and push back your dike wall to gain more territory. And you better, too, because if you don't, you'll be hit with negative points, up to -16 if you just ignore them completely. Standard Uwe stuff, but I like the dike wall mechanic. THREE: In addition to focusing on resources at home, there's also the nearby area, for which you need to build vehicles and explore. Each vehicles gives you spaces to either upgrade your building resources to be more useful and worth more victory points, or visit nearby towns and sell your resources to gain food. Each town you visit also gives you more travel experience, which is worth victory points. It is very interesting, and managing how much you travel and making sure you can could potentially make or break your game. FOUR: It's a smaller fourth point, but the game also allows you to acquire more tools to make your actions more effective and gain more victory points. Managing your tools is hard though, since there's only a few places that let you upgrade, but it's an interesting mechanic.
Anyway, I slowly stumbled my way through the game, got some animals, built a castle, no big deal. The last three turns flew as I knew exactly what I wanted to do, finally, and dropped a lot of my resources to gain a ton of furs and leathers, but only got as high as 94 points. Pretty good for the first time, I guess, but there are SO many paths to victory here that I'm not even sure what's the right idea. Interesting damn game, I almost wish it could handle more people, but Uwe had a very specific thing going here, a low-tension couple or solo game. I continue to be amazed by Uwe Rosenburg, I cannot imagine what happens in his mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment