Pocket Farm: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Drafting, Currency Management, Tile/Card Placement, Set Collection
Player Age: 10+ Player Count: 1 - 4 PlayersTime to Play: 15 - 30 Minutes
Game Designer: Eric HongGame Artist: DODAM, Boram JungPublisher: Mandoo GamesYear Published: 2023BGG Weight: 1.50Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Player Age: 10+
Game Designer: Eric Hong
Introduction:
The life of a farmer can be an unpredictable one. This game has you living 12 months as a farmer while players build their crops and harvest their goods. They will also be slowly building the market demand for the end of the year. When players draft, there will always be one card leftover to determine how much the fruit will score at the end of the game. Due to this, the game comes down to effective planning and ultimate timing in order for the the right crops to get the maximum market yield.
Game Anatomy:
Cards:
Each card will be cut into four quadrants that may hold;
- a depiction a fruit (either avocado, pineapple, raspberries or apple).
- A possible fruit basket valued at 1-3
- Suns or clouds which act as game currency.
Each card also has its cost in the middle of the card and an amount of dots to denote what player count it should be used in.
Currency System:
Each card has a cost that has to be paid when playing the card. This payment comes from the suns and clouds that the card covers when being played. Each individual sun starts as one currency. When connected to one or two more suns, horizontally or vertically, the currency per sun will go up to be worth 2 per sun and then a maximum of 3 per sun. The cloud works in reverse as it starts being worth 3 individually, but then drops to 2 points and then one point as it connects to other clouds.
Setup:
Based on the player count, keep only the cards with dots matching the player count or a lower number. For example, a three-player game will have the cards with denoted dots of one, two and three. The first player will gain the avocado token.
How to Play:
The game will consist of 12 months (turns), where on each turn there will be a drafting and a placement phase. Then the avocado token will pass to the next player clockwise until 12 turns have been played.
Draft Phase:
Cards from the centre deck will be revealed in the middle of the table equal to the player count plus one. Starting with the first player, everyone will choose one card for their hand. The last card will go to the market to determine the value that fruit has at the end of the game (more in scoring).
Placement Phase:
Every turn players can place down 0-2 cards, keeping the remaining cards in their hand. When a card is played it has to overlap on sun and cloud quadrants to pay for the card (as explained in the currency section). The cards can cover valued fruit and baskets but there isn't really a reason to do so, except for optimal placement.
Scoring:
This scoring will now occur for every fruit but this example will focus on one fruit more thoroughly.
The value of all baskets adjacent to the fruit (an avocado) will be tallied. Baskets are only scored once and secondary instances of avocados do not score off the same basket. This value will be multiplied by the amount of avocados in the market. i.e if there are baskets of 9 total points and four avocados, the score for avocado will be 36.
Final Thoughts:
- Colourful aesthetic but challenging gameplay.
- Interesting currency system, where you have to not only build for scoring but also build for currency.
- Great drafting for two players as the first player gets the best pick but the second player manipulates the market.
- Memorable rules that can be challenging to teach.
Due to the compact box, colourful aesthetics, and quick play time Pocket Farm appears to be a filler/family game but this game packs a lot of punch. You have to focus on building the right placement for points while also considering the optimal currency connections. This is particulary hard and needs a combination of both currencies (suns and clouds) when trying to build the higher cost cards. For this reason this is a lightning fast game that is a challenging puzzle to master. If you like thinky games in fast timeframes then this is a perfect game for you, and it is easily travelled with as a special bonus.
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