Game: Key Harvest

Thread: Re: Rules question

verandi — 2008-11-18T15:32:05+00:00

One rule we missed the first time playing is that these two workers DON'T cause field tiles to become harvested, i.e. flipped. In other words you get the goods "for free", and are still able to harvest those fields later.

Thread: Re: Thoughts and concerns, and a rules question

verandi — 2008-11-17T21:46:03+00:00

UhhhClem wrote:

When you're staring at your workers trying to figure out what to do next, the tile that says "Buy a land tile from a store for one more crop" doesn't seem to be especially powerful. It really ought to say "Buy a land tile from your store for one more crop," since (unless I'm seriously misunderstanding something) that's the only way you'd ever use it.

You are seriously misunderstanding something. In the rulebook it says that when using that particular worker the tile you buy must be from an opponent's store, not your own.

I'm amazed at how much discussion there has been in this thread, including an appearance by the designer himself, and this error wasn't noticed.

Thread: Re: Must Be Euro - It's About Farming

Surya — 2008-11-03T15:21:28+00:00

VixenTorGames wrote:
It turns out that Key Harvest is actually made by British people, who I always thought shared our enjoyment of things that blow up. After all, Brits made Warhammer 40K. But I guess there are British people who also like to drink, and when they drink, they get inspired to make really great games.
Yes, there are. Martin Wallace is pretty British

Thread: Must Be Euro - It's About Farming

VixenTorGames — 2008-11-03T02:44:56+00:00

Usually when I get a review copy of a game, I really want to like it. I want to say wonderful things about the game so that I can get the company in question to send me lots more games. Yeah, I'm a whore like that.

But when I got Key Harvest, I wanted to hate it. I wanted it to be really bad so I could mock it. I wanted to say, 'this is a game about farming!' and point and laugh at it like it was a third-grader with mismatched socks.

Because it really is a game about farming. A week or two ago I joked about how Germans made exciting recreations of farming, and here I am getting a game about farming. I'm ecstatic to finally get review copies from Rio Grande without having to weasel them out of Knucklebones, but the first game I got was a game about farming. If the big-voice movie announcer did this one, he would go:

"From the minds who brought you Carcassonne and To Court the King comes an epic game of..."

And then he would stop and turn to the other guys in the sound booth and go, "Is this right? It's a game about farming?"

But then I played it. I read the rules carefully to make sure I could see where it would be bad, and sat down with my family, and we ran through the game. It played out in 90 minutes, just like the box said it would. And after 90 minutes, I couldn't believe it - I had a blast. Key Harvest is a great game. About farming.

Rio Grande Games has this reputation for publishing awesome games. Those two games I mentioned, Carcassonne and To Court the King, are two really great Euro games. I should have known better than to think they were going to make a stinker just so I could mock it.

Each player in Key Harvest has a card representing his or her countryside. Each card is marked off in hexes, and each hex is numbered from A1 to G7. There's a registry in the middle of the table where players will be placing field tiles that they blind-draw from a cloth bag. Every player has a store where they put those field tiles, along with crop markers to indicate how much those tiles are worth to them.

At first glance, this doesn't make any sense at all. Store tiles, country boards, crop markers, workers, events... there's kind of a lot going on here. You can tell Reiner didn't make this one, because there's just too much happening. On your turn, you get two actions, which can be one of four things:

1) Put some field tiles in your store, and put a bid in front of them. This is how much you're willing to pay for those, and how much someone else has to pay if they want them.

2) Buy field tiles, from your store or from someone else's. If you're at an opponent's store, that player gets to keep the crop markers you pay for them. If you're buying from your own store, you just discard your crop markers that you put down as a bid. Then take the field tile you just bought and put it on your country board. Congratulations, you just planted some wheat. Or hops. Or wine (I don't know how you plant wine, but you can sure harvest it).

And to keep people from putting stuff out for free, you can't take tiles from your store on the same turn that you put them there. Everyone else gets a crack at them.

3) Play or remove a worker tile. These helpful little buggers get you a free action that you wouldn't otherwise get - harvest out of turn, buy stuff you couldn't usually afford, and other neat goodies. They're helpful, but they're not always easy to place - a number on each worker describes how many field tiles that worker has to be adjacent to. If you've only got three fields on your board, you can't even put out the four-point worker. But if you could you can do some stuff that's not even fair, like buy fields from someone else's store with the wrong kind of crops.

The real strategy behind the worker tiles comes from the fact that if you play a field tile on top of a worker tile, you can replay the worker immediately and use his ability again, and now it really is a freebie. In fact, if you're good, you can chain these together and get two or three extra actions in a row. And then the other players will hate you, which is unfortunate but often hilarious.

4) Harvest. This is where you get all those crop markers you need for buying field tiles. You just pick one connected series of field tiles, flip them over to their harvested side, and take crop markers.

But wait! There's more! When you place a field tile from the registry onto your store, you draw another tile to replace it. And the bag is full of events, which make some crazy stuff happen like your fields disappear or you get to harvest stuff without flipping it over. They're generally very nice to see - but not always. Sometimes every one else will be giddy, and you'll get hosed.

The game ends when ten events have been drawn. Then everyone counts their field tiles - you get one point for each tile in your largest connected series of tiles, and two points for the second largest. This interesting scoring twist is an incentive to make two balanced fields, rather than one big one. It creates a tricky balancing act where the last thing you want to do is connect your two big farms into one and end up missing out on all those great double points. Other stuff adds to your score, like workers and having lots of crops, but the real determining factor is the size of your farms.

That's basically the game. It's a game about farming. It's not even a game where you could swap out the theme and make it a game about killing stuff - the farming thing is really pretty important to the game, and the game makes a lot of sense in the context of farming. Of course, to make it more interesting to Ameritrash fans like myself, it could have been a game about farming in space, but either way, it's about farming.

But I figured out why I was able to really enjoy a game about farming - the stuff you farm is not carrots and beets. You farm hops, cider apples, wheat and wine barrels (like I said, I don't know how you grow wine barrels). They knew I was going to be playing it, and said, 'OK, if it has to be about farming, how about making it about farming stuff that can be made into booze?'

And that's why I love it, because it's thinly-veiled propaganda trying to get us to drink. And since I just really love to drink, I was bound to like the game. They knew better than to make us farm boring crap like string beans and artichokes. No, we're farming for alcoholic beverages, and I can get behind that theme. I just didn't understand that's why I liked it so much.

See, until I read what all the crops are supposed to be, I thought I liked the game because it's an excellent game. I thought the fantastic decision-making, quick turns and careful pricing mechanics worked together marvelously to create an exciting game... about farming. I thought I loved it because it was magnificently balanced, so that you could never pull far ahead with one brilliant move, or get too buried with one dumb move. Every decision is do-or-die, but somehow not so important that you can't recover if you make a mistake.

It turns out that Key Harvest is actually made by British people, who I always thought shared our enjoyment of things that blow up. After all, Brits made Warhammer 40K. But I guess there are British people who also like to drink, and when they drink, they get inspired to make really great games.

Summary

Pros:
Tautly-balanced game
Great mechanics
Intense decision-making
Lots of pre-planning and strategy
Rewards smart play without over-penalizing mistakes

Cons:
It's about farming

Thread: A very beautifl and very good game (French review)

adamdynris — 2008-09-19T03:04:36+00:00

French review. Original post here ....> http://adamdynris.blogspot.com/2008/09/key-harvest.html

Toujours dans les nouveautés du dernier mois pour moi. Key Harvest, le 2e jeu de cet auteur, Richard Breese que je jouais. Le premier étant un grand succès pour moi Reef Encounter.

Tout d'abord le matériel de Key Harvest est très beau, certains n'aimeront pas les couleurs car ce n'est pas les plus voyantes, mais moi j'aime ce style. C'est sa soeur qui est l'illustratrice de ses jeux.

Dans Key Harvest nous devons gérer nos cultures et tenter d'avoir les plus grands champs possible. Hors le problème est que chaque tuile de champs à une place attitré sur notre plateau et comble de cela elle a la même place sur les plateau de l'adversaire. Identifiée de facon alpha-numérique elles s'appellerons donc A-1, B-2, G-4 etc.

La partie durera jusqu'à ce que 10 évènements soient tirés du sac qui contient les tuiles et 12 évènements. Un évènement peut avoir un effet positif ou négatif sur chacun des plateaux de joueurs, certains ont des effets immédiats et d'autres offrent des possibilités aux joueurs.

Le joueur accumulant le plus de point gagne! Comment accumule-t-on ces points? Simple, notre plus grand champs raportera 1 point par tuile et notre 2e plus grand 2 points par tuile, donc il n'est pas nécessaire d'avoir un immense champs mais 2 très bons champs. Le 3e et les suivants ne rapportent rien donc concentrons nous sur seulement 2. A cela s'ajouterons les points des ouvriers qui seront placé sur notre plateau, nous avons tous 6 ouvriers qu nous pouvons utiliser pour soi et il y a 8 ouvrier sur le plateau central disponible pour tous. Seule condition pour la pose des ouvriers, ils doivent être adjacents à un certains nombre de tuile. Et finalement celui qui aura conservé le plus grand nombre de denrée dans chacun des 5 types ajoutera 1 point.

Nous avons le choix de 2 des 4 actions à chaque tour, soit 1) récolter nos denrées ( 1 fois uniquement par partie par tuile à moins d'exception 2) Placement d'un ouvrier 3) acheter une ou deux tuiles qui sont dans notre magasin ou dans le magasin de notre adversaire 4) placer une ou deux des 6 tuiles du registraire dans notre magasin en y attribuant un coût. On ne peut pas exécuter 3) après 4) i.e. on ne peut pas acheter une tuile que l'on vient de mettre en vente.

Cette 4e action est une belle mécanique. Nous choisissons une tuile et la mettons en vente, si on veut qu'elle demeure là pour notre prochain tour, il faut lui attribuer un prix que seul nous sera capable de payer ou être vraiment certain que personne d'autre la prendra. Mais mettre un prix cher pour une tuile nous enlève également ces denrées. Oui le prix est en denrée, c'est la monnaie d'échange dans le jeu. Donc est-ce que cette tuile qui nous est vraiment utile mais qui pourrait être intéressante pour un autre je lui appose un prix de 1 rouge et 2 orange ou devrais-je y rajouter un vert? Et la question où la stratégie peut s'inverser, on peut mettre en vente une tuile qui pour nous n'est pas plus importante que cela mais que pour l'adversaire elle est un atout. Alors cette tuile la vendrons-nous 3 rouges et 2 oranges ou l'adversaire trouvera-t-il cela trop cher et on devra dans ce cas là laisser la tuile dans le magasin sans pouvoir en disposer à moins d'y mettre le gros prix? Voila des questions intéressantes.

En fin de compte un jeu que j'ai vraiment apprécié, le seul hic c'est que je ne peux pas nommer les denrées pour nous elles ont été tout le long des rouges, oranges, verts, jaunes et bruns! Au lieu de abricot? Vin? Laitue? etc.

La partie c'est terminé 35-27-21 en faveur de Chloé et moi qui termine bon dernier, mais on a le sentiment que l'on est passé à si peu de pouvoir faire beaucoup plus!

Thread: Re: Worthwhile for 2-players?

DSHStratRat2 — 2008-09-05T23:15:21+00:00

chicagometh wrote:
Is this game worthwhile for 2-players? I have played it with 3, and it seems that the reduced competition for tiles would make this game a snoozer for 2...am I wrong in that assumption?

This game is a blast for two players, but there's one important condition required: you have to agree not to "crop count" the crop supply. In a 2-player game, the hidden information aspect of the game is totally wiped out otherwise. By simply counting the red crop counters in the supply and subtracting the ones behind your screen, you can know exactly how many red crop counters your opponent has saved up.

So you have to either agree not to crop-count the supply or else play without the screens that hide your personal crop holdings. The former is vastly preferable to the latter...

Thread: Re: Thoughts and concerns, and a rules question

DSHStratRat2 — 2008-09-05T23:09:29+00:00

UhhhClem wrote:
The second (concern) is that in the two-player information, the hidden information isn't really hidden. I have five green crops in my supply, and there are four in the bank; my opponent must have three. So now I know something that the game's design appears to rest on me not knowing. I can't really think of a good way to randomize that problem away. You could put 2 crop tiles of each color into the bag at the start of the game, have each player draw his starting 3 crops, and remove the remaining 4 from play without looking at them. That way nobody would know exactly how many crops there were of any given color (unless at some point in the game all 12 were visible). But that makes the crop supply too small.
This was the biggest concern I had with the game. With 3-4 players (which I haven't tried yet), it's probably hard enough to remember what crops everyone is collecting--you may be able to see how many crops are still available from the supply, but that doesn't help you to know who has what crops hidden behind his screen unless you have an exceptionally good memory. Unfortunately, I have several friends who DO have such memories, and playing hidden info games with them is far less fun than it should be. Try playing Power Grid where everyone's money is information that's hidden from everyone except the memory expert over there--he'll be very tough to beat!

Anyway, in a 2-player game of Key Harvest, you don't even need to be a memory expert to have this problem. It's just too easy to "crop count" the crop supplies and figure out exactly what's "hidden" behind your opponent's screen. So far, my 2-player foes and I have simply agreed not to crop-count the supply, and that's working for us. I'm not sure how else you could handle this problem, but I think it's a fairly serious one that requires an awful lot of goodwill from opposing players. With these brightly colored crop counters, it's pretty hard NOT to see that there are only four red ones left in the supply when you're reaching over to collect the green, yellow, and two browns you just harvested....
Another concern is the rich-get-richer problem. In the two-player game, it seems very easy to fall behind in the early game.....

....If that happens, there seems to be only one thing I can do to keep the situation from getting worse: refuse to put tiles up for sale. Which raises another concern: is it possible for the game to get into a state where for both players, it's a better move to wait for the other to put a tile up for sale than it is to do it yourself? Where the best thing for both players to do is pass (or, more likely, cycle the workers that gain crops onto and off of the board)? That would make for a pretty long game. There doesn't seem to be a mechanism for breaking that logjam if it occurs, either.
This was the next big problem I discovered as well. A friend and I got into a game with a huge logjam--we both had plenty of crop counters, so neither of us wanted to put field tiles into our stores. First of all, we were both certain that the other guy could match any price we set on a tile that we were both desperate to have. Secondly, neither of us wanted to "re-set" the registry for the other guy by replacing a comparatively lame selection of field tiles with a significantly better one that the other guy would have first crack at! This "first guy to blink loses" situation went on for quite some time before my opponent finally blinked, and I went on to win the game by 3 points.
I'm also troubled by the other 3-cost farmworker (the Supervisor). It seems to me that there's exactly one use for that tile - splitting your solid mass in two on the very last turn of the game. That seems a little unsatisfying, given how frequently you try to use the other workers during play. Why bother making that a worker action at all? Why not just make discarding a tile from your country board one of the actions you can perform on your turn? Or is there some sophisticated use for this guy that I don't know about? (Punching a hole in big mass of tiles so that you can fit a 5 worker somewhere? How often is that going to happen?) Okay, true, playing him is an action you can take that gets you 3 points. But that still seems like a no-brainer, in a game that doesn't have no-brainers.
I agree with this gripe. This last-turn-of-the-game move seems to be the only use for the Supervisor. He seems lame as hell all game long until your last turn, when he suddenly seems way too powerful. I think he'd be a lot more interesting if there were some way to force your opponent to play tiles that cause connections he'd rather not make. For example, if the "Give Away" event forced an opponent to play the tile you give him, then this foe would be desperate to place his Supervisor in order to break the connection you just forced upon him. However, because the Give Away event allows your foe to discard the tile you give him, the Supervisor's utility is pretty much consigned to the endgame...

Thread: Re: 2 Player starting crops..

DSHStratRat2 — 2008-09-05T22:13:03+00:00

A friend and I added a twist to the 2-player starting crops.

In a 2-player game, the starting fields will sometimes ensure that each player starts with "harvesting access" to a different pair of crops. For example, my two starting fields might yield one green and one brown counter while yours will yield one red and one orange counter.

In such a case, we decided that the fifth color is the one we would each start the game with. In this example, we'd each start with a yellow counter. THEN we'd randomly choose our other two crop counters.

It might not make much of a difference, but we like this procedure anyway. If one player could start the game with "extra browns," it would be much easier for him to set bids that the other player couldn't possibly match. While that's probably going to happen sooner or later anyway, we didn't want either of us to start the game with that edge.

In games where our starting fields gave us duplicate access to a crop (we could both produce yellow, for example), then that easily produced crop counter would be the one with which we each started the game.

Just in case the game wasn't already complex enough for you....

Thread: Re: Worthwhile for 2-players?

Kaelistus — 2008-08-09T13:01:03+00:00

Having just played it for both 2 and 4 players, I'd say there's actually MORE competition in the 2 player version.

If you keep in mind that earning a point for yourself is the same as denying a point for your opponent - then it doesn't matter that a tile is useless for you. We had some brutal swings in our game. Very few tiles with 2 or less bids were left unstolen, so in the end we were placing 5 and 6 bids on the tiles we REALLY wanted in order to avoid our enemy's wrath. Compare this with the 4 player where MOST tiles went for 2, and only very rarely did people bid up more than that.

Tasty game.

Thread: Re: Is Demetra, the QWG Master Print Ed., language independent?

fnord23 — 2008-07-31T02:11:14+00:00

There is actually a fair bit of text, and it is all important.

The QWG edition has Dutch on one side of the components, and IIRC, French on the other.

You could get by with a cheatsheet/player aid, but it wouldn't all that fun or easy.

The only difference (aside from language) from Key Harvest (which has English and German) is the box; so unless you are completing a collection, I'd go with Key Harvest.

I own both editions, and wouldn't play the QWG one on a bet.

Thread: Re: Is Demetra, the QWG Master Print Ed., language independent?

EvilTimmy — 2008-07-31T01:44:51+00:00

This picture from funagain.com looks like it has foreign text on the tiles.

FWIW The text on the tiles (and the player aids) is the only text on game components.

Thread: Is Demetra, the QWG Master Print Ed., language independent?

chaschen — 2008-07-31T00:54:48+00:00

Quined Games claim that the QWG Master Print games are all language independent, but I see that there is some text on some tiles (although little) in the Key Harvest ed. Anyone know if there is text in Demetra, and what languages?

Thanks

Image

Surya — 2008-07-15T15:19:00+00:00

The QWG edition

Thread: Re: Spatial awareness!

dcorban — 2008-07-10T04:13:42+00:00

I could definitely use some sort of bingo chips or something to mark off which tiles are owned by which player. The downtime in this game was unbearable for me. Maybe that would shave off enough time to make it playable again.

Thread: Re: How does Worker C work?

jostrand — 2008-06-06T13:06:29+00:00

Ah, thanks for the explanation of the British draw. We seemed to confirm our random idea because the rules explicitly state that the player should show the goods they got to the others before putting it behind their screen.

Thread: Re: How does Worker C work?

tool — 2008-06-06T04:41:54+00:00

Since no mechanism is provided to do a random draw, and it would not be that useful a worker in that case, it seemed clear to me that you chose the goods.

Note that "draw" does not necessarily imply a random draw. It is often used when taking things from a supply, which is the case here. It is more a British than an American usage, but then this is a British game.

Thread: How does Worker C work?

jostrand — 2008-06-06T04:07:24+00:00

Trying to figure out how worker C collects the 2 goods from the supply. The rules and the token both say draw which implies a random draw. It seems the rest of the game implies the player chooses though, since the goods are visible in the 'bank' the entire time, and there is only one draw bag. Again another counterpoint is the rules specify that the player must show the goods drawn to the other players, which again implies random draw.

So after much debate we played with a random draw, but it still didn't seem right. Anyone out there have a definitive answer? Thanks!

Thread: Re: Key Harvest - Review

ropearoni4 — 2008-06-05T16:56:53+00:00

One particular element of this game that I really liked was the fact that you could have those "cool" plays e.g Place a worker in the space you have the tile for that when played could really spark some other actions off, in a chain reaction. Those are those "wow!" plays that I try to find in deeper games. You don't hear too often, "Wow! those dice were perfect tonight, rolling 6's everytime I needed them." as a reason for a game to be considered good by gamers.

Also, very little in the "screw you over cause 'm losing and don't care anymore." chances for the bleh gamers who just want to be doing something other than nothing. They can make high bids on their tiles in their market, but eventually they won't have any goods to bid with if they try to pull that off. Because it doesn't have many chances for that, the bleh gamers don't ask to jump in a game if they see room for one more, thankfully.

I can see room for an expansion set in the future, but I don't think there is any need to "advance" the game. It feels complete. I felt this way about Reef Encounter as well, but low and behold an expansion did arrive, and changed the game to what some liked, others didn't. (Different townfolk/personal personalities/workers - in case you were wondering what I was getting at - like citadels, take out some of same cost to add new ones of same costs, etc.)

Thread: Re: Key harvest first play

drunkenKOALA — 2008-04-24T21:19:12+00:00

It's not a bad game. If nothing else I thought the artwork is really nice.

It may be better with fewer players because reading the opponents' boards and using that information may be strategical but becomes hopelessly complicated and futile with more players as each get their own board and the interaction just grows geometrically.

Thread: Re: Key harvest first play

frankinla — 2008-04-24T16:10:29+00:00

ilovekatusha wrote:
There is also a neat mechanic where after drawing 7 event tiles if a single player does not have seven hexes on their board the first two event tiles are returned to the bag and the game is prolonged. This was incredibly important as we repeatedly drew several events in the same turn and ended up having to do this three times.

This "neat mechanic" contributed to the 3.5-hour snoozefest that was my first try of this game. I also had the same problem of thinking the crops were worth 1vp at the end. It's because the player reference card is wrong. It says something like "Most crops worth 1vp". In reality, most crops are worth zero, and only the color crop(s) which you have more of than any other player are worth 1vp. Some things get a little lost in translation, but at that point I was beyond caring.

I wouldn't call it a "gem", but I might give it another try. Good write-up, anyway.

Thread: Key harvest first play

ilovekatusha — 2008-04-24T12:38:30+00:00

Jimmy has been bringing Key harvest every week for several months now and it finally got on the table last Tuesday. It’s a little dry and can suffer from extended down time but has lots of scope and is by far and away my favourite ‘key’ game and possibly even after one play my favourite Richard Breese game.

Each of the possible 4 players has an identical player mat made up of hexagonal regions, each region has a code made up of A-G and 1-9. Each player starts with two crop hexs on two of these spaces and each player has a different starting position so as to create the same level of conflict and desire for certain crop tiles (each crop tile has its own grid refrence and no grid refrences are repeated). There are 6 workers in your possession that can be placed on the board and if you are tactically aware ‘re-used’ to acquire benefits, there is a limited pool of universal more powerful workers in a central store alongside a pool of crops which are randomly drawn from a bag.

Players have 2 actions and may take crops from the common pool and place them for sale on their market, setting the price with their own crops, players may buy other players crops (though this action can not be done after the acquire crops to prevent you buying your own for one round). When they buy other players crops they need to pay the same goods as the price displayed in quantity and type. The seller then gets this payment and retains the crops they themselves used to set the price. If a player buys there own goods the crops go instead to the bank. You can purchase up to two crops as one action and you may transfer to market up to two crops as one action.

The third action is to remove or place a worker (which are numbered) it is possible to replace a worker with a higher valued worker, and then the original is returned to hand for later use. You use the power of the worker as soon as it is placed. You can only play workers adjacent to land tiles equal to or greater than the workers power, so workers with a power of two can be placed in such a way to be adjacent to two, three or four crops but not placed touching only one crop.

If when buying a crop (its placement is defined by the grid reference on it) forces you to remove a worker this worker is then replaced in any legal position on the board or if this is not possible returned to hand. Again when replacing this displaced worker you use its ability. Thus the purchase of crops to up heave workers can result in a domino effect of benefits. The choice players make for what crops they offer and for what price has a massive impact on the outcome of the game, set a price to low and rivals get bargains, prices too high leaves you struggling with few resources and stagnant markets - or high purchase prices for yourself.

The forth action a player can take is to harvest a connected area, all crops that are adjacent and have previously not been flipped are flipped over and one resource of the same type as the crop is received.

When a crop is taken from the general pool and placed on a players market it is replaced at random from a bag, thus every game has the same crops but drawn in different orders. On rare occasions I can see this causing the game to be lobsided as tiles more beneficial to certain players being drawn earlier or later in a game can impact how people play and who wins, but generally the mixed starting positions helps to lessen this impact.

Inside the bag, mixed with unused crops are event tiles. Which when drawn cause a global effect (most seemed good) some offer a reward others offer the choice of payment for a privilege. The timing of these can be crucial as if they arise when you can not pay the price, you can not gain the benefit. In our game 5 of these tiles came out (curtacy of Ollie) before Kat had her first go so may have been unable to use them. Jimmy chose to put a worker on the board in the first two rounds and was able to use a benefit that no one else could, then near the end after a big spend he had no remaing crops when three event tiles where drawn that he was unable to use. The abilities seem only after one play to be well balanced and helpful and are far more ‘fair’ than previous key games as the benefits are global or open to all. When 10 of these tiles are drawn, the end game begins with each player having two more turns, this was partially drawn out for us as by this time the bag was empty (due to the running of the concurrent event tiles) and action choices where very limited.

There is also a neat mechanic where after drawing 7 event tiles if a single player does not have seven hexes on their board the first two event tiles are returned to the bag and the game is prolonged. This was incredibly important as we repeatedly drew several events in the same turn and ended up having to do this three times.

I missed an important scoring issue regarding workers counting for VPs at game end and also missed out on connecting two regions together (worth 8 VPs) due to the order goods where drawn just in the last round, player A refreshes, Player A puts refreshed crop for sale, Player B purchases crop before players C or D get a chance to interact with crop. Kat was very much in the lead till the mid game when she didn’t diversify into two fields or build on her position, instead repeatedly buying her own stock at high prices. Jimmy managed to connect two small regions to compliment his large region thus scoring good VP at the end 1VP per hex on your largest region and 2VP per hex on your next largest. I had over valued crops worth only 1VP to the player with the most of that type(rather than 1vp per crop) where as a single worker was a guaranteed 1-5 VPs. The final placings where Jimmy on 27, Luke on 25, Ollie & Kat on 23. Though these scores will no doubt change on further plays.

I am looking forward to playing this gem again soon.

Thread: Re: Key Harvest - Review

Friendless — 2008-04-22T02:08:08+00:00

I've only played Key Harvest once, but I was desperate to play because I thought the artwork was GORGEOUS. I loved the tension of choosing a tile for my store that both I and another player wanted, and then setting a price that was a bit higher than he wanted to pay... or else choosing colours I knew he didn't have. I think our 4 player game went 90 minutes or maybe a bit more, but I was engaged the whole time.

We made the mistake of playing events even when they were drawn as the consequence of an event (until nearly the end when we realised and stopped doing it), but we still thought the game went about long enough - almost all of the field tiles were in play.

The only other Breese game I've played is Reef Encounter, and I found Key Harvest slightly easier and quicker, but still seriously hard work.

Thread: Re: Key Harvest - Review

fs1973 — 2008-04-17T16:30:53+00:00

I really didn't like this game, too dry for my taste.
Good review.

Thread: Re: Key Harvest - Review

DarrellKH — 2008-04-17T16:28:09+00:00

I have to agree with you, Greg.

Although it really isn't fair of us, after Keythedral and Reef Encounter, you really expect Richard Breese to continue to keep our skirts up in the air. Designers have ups and downs, too - and don't even necessarily see it the way we do, that's for sure.

I know I felt the same way about some of Martin Wallace's efforts, too. But while we can give our own takes on what such notable designers do, we have to keep in mind what it is they've already done, to make our expectations that high in the first place, but also remember that they're human.

Thread: Re: Key Harvest - Review

sos1 — 2008-04-17T15:50:46+00:00

Interesting, Greg. This is my favorite Breese game, without exception - although, I don't like it with four players. Pricing and good use of workers is everything, and it takes a few games to learn the subtleties of both. Don't just make a blob of a group, for example: deliberately leave some holes so you can take the more powerful - and higher VP - workers.

With four players, though, it's just too slow. Three is the sweet spot for me.

Thread: Key Harvest - Review

gschloesser — 2008-04-17T14:40:03+00:00

Design by: Richard Breese
Published by: R&D Games & Rio Grande Games
2 – 4 Players, 90 minutes
Review by: Greg J. Schloesser

I thoroughly enjoy many of British designer Richard Breese’s creations, and count Reef Encounter and Keythedral amongst my favorite games. I have been quite impressed how he has weaved the “Keydom” story through a series of fine games. The latest in this series is Key Harvest, which has players obtaining fields to grow and harvest crops. It isn’t exactly the most exciting theme, but success depends upon careful planning and clever manipulation.

I must admit that the game’s components and artwork didn’t exactly excite me. There are a lot of cardboard present, as well as wooden cubes representing the crops. The artwork on the player “country” boards is muted gray and very, very bland. The fields do come to life when the crop tiles are placed, but the numbered grids give everything a mathematical feel that will likely primarily appeal to those with a scientific or engineering background. The central “town” board is only slightly more attractive, as it does contain some color. The saving grace, as in all “Key” games, is the characters, which are always appealing.

Each player receives a “country” board, which depicts a hexagonal grid, each with a unique letter / number combination ranging from A1 to G7. Two tiles are placed onto this board to begin a player’s fields. In addition, they each receive a general store, whereupon they can place in reserve up to two tiles. Players begin the game with a set of six farmhand tiles, each with a special ability, as well as three crop counters. More worker tiles are available from the town board, which also displays six field tiles from which players can select during their turn.

The objective of the game is to build fields, and strategically use the workers to maximize crop production and the growth of the fields. Ultimately, points are earned for players’ largest two fields, as well as the farmhand and worker tiles they have employed in their fields.

Each turn, a player may perform two out of four possible actions:

1) Harvest Crops. When initially placed onto a country board, field tiles are placed “un-harvested” side up. When selecting this action, players may harvest all “un-harvested” tiles that are connected in a group. The player receives crop cubes of the appropriate types. These cubes are used to pay for field tiles located in opponents’ general stores, as well as protect tiles in your own store.

2) Play or remove a worker tile. A player may place one of his own farmhand tiles, or one from the central town board. Each tile has a value, which indicates the number of tiles which to which it must be adjacent when placed. This number is also the victory points the tile earns at game’s end. Tiles can be placed on empty spaces, or displace a previously placed worker tile.

Each worker tile has a special ability, which can include the ability to harvest adjacent fields, purchase field tiles, acquire crop cubes, re-plant fields, re-use a previously placed worker, etc. Maximizing the use of these workers is one of the major keys to success in the game.

3) Transfer field tiles from the stores onto the country board. These field tiles can be taken from the player’s own general store, or from the store of opponents. If the opponent has protected the tile in his store with crop cubes, the player must pay the player a matching set of cubes. The tile or tiles are then placed on the appropriate locations on the player’s country board.

If the space where the tile is to be placed is occupied by a worker, the player may immediately reposition that worker to a new location, which once again triggers that worker’s special ability. This is a valuable tactic that can prove extremely profitable. Thus, wise players will attempt to place workers in locations that increase the likelihood of ultimately being repositioned in this fashion.

4) Place tiles from the town board into the general store. The player may place one or two tiles in this fashion, provided he has room in his general store. He may protect these tiles by placing one or more of his crop cubes on the tile. Any opponent wishing to take these tiles must pay the player a matching set of crop cubes.

Players must be judicious when selecting tiles to place in their general store. The only way to remove them from the store and free-up valuable space is to either place them on your own country board, or have an opponent take them. Taking an undesirable tile can clog a player’s general store and severely limit a player’s options.

It is important to note that the above actions can be performed in any order – except that action #4 cannot be performed BEFORE action #3. This prevents a player from taking a tile from the town board and placing into his field on the same turn.

Whenever a tile is taken from the town board, a replacement is immediately drawn from the tile bag. The mix of tiles contains a dozen event tiles, which ultimately trigger the end of the game. When an event tile is drawn, it is resolved immediately, and a new tile is drawn until there are six field tiles on the town board. Event tiles trigger a variety of occurrences, and often provide players with the opportunity to purchase tiles or crop cubes. When the tenth event tile is drawn, the game enters its final stage, with each layer taking two more turns.

There is a potential delay to the game ending, however. When the seventh event tile is drawn, a check is made to see how many field and worker tiles are in play on each player’s boards. If any player has fewer than seven field and worker tiles in play, two event tiles are returned to the bag, thus extending the game a bit more.

The event tile / end game mechanism is bothersome to me. In the games I’ve played, the event tiles have emerged quickly, and the game speeds to what feels like a premature conclusion. There doesn’t seem to be enough time to develop a long-term plan or strategy. When playing with four players, twelve of the fifty-four tiles in the bag are events, which equates to more than 20%. Since tiles are drawn from the bag frequently, the game does go quite fast. Knowing how meticulous Richard Breese is, I am confident that the game has been carefully play-tested and that he is satisfied with the length. For me, though, it just seems to end too quickly.

When the game does end, players score points as follows:

• Each worker / farmhand tile on their board is worth a number of points equal to their value

• Each field tile in the player’s largest field grouping is worth one point

• Each field tile in the player’s second-largest field grouping is worth two points

• For each of the five crop types, the player who has the most cubes of a type scores one point.

Of course, the player with the most points is victorious.

The game certainly provides decent latitude for clever play and tactics. As mentioned, properly utilizing workers is a key, as is collecting tiles so as to grow two fields of approximately the same size so as to maximize points. Players should try to employ as many workers as possible to take advantage of their special abilities and to earn victory points. Being able to subsequently re-position these workers is also important.

While the game does have significant strategic elements, it just fails to sufficiently excite me. It is a good game with interesting challenges, but it just seems to lack that special spark that elevates games to a higher level. I have enjoyed it a bit more with subsequent playings, but not as much as I enjoy others in the “Key” series. That’s not meant to be a condemnation, but rather a compliment on just how high the bar has been set by Breese’s previous designs.

Thread: Re: Key Harvest -- Session Report

gschloesser — 2008-03-28T03:55:21+00:00

Richard Breese wrote:
gschloesser wrote:
The event tile / end game mechanism is bothersome to me. In the games I’ve played, the event tiles have emerged quickly, and the game speeds to what feels like a premature conclusion. There doesn’t seem to be enough time to develop a long-term plan or strategy. Knowing how meticulous Richard Breese is, I am confident that the game has been carefully play-tested and that he is satisfied with the length. For me, though, it just seems to end too quickly.
Hi Greg, thanks for taking the time to post your session report.

Just to check that you are playing the rule correctly regarding the 7th (question mark) event tile space. When the seventh event tiles is drawn you check for the number of tiles players have on their country boards. If one player has fewer than 7 tiles then the first two events are returned to the bag. This prevents a game finishing very quickly. Usually we have found that there are few, if any, field tiles left in the bag when the full two rounds have been played after the tenth field tile is drawn. So whilst the ending may fee premature to you, in reality the game as designed could not last much longer?

Best regards, Richard

Hey, Richard! Yes, we played it correctly. I covered that aspect of the game in my full review, which will be appearing on Boardgame News shortly.

Thread: Re: Key Harvest -- Session Report

Richard Breese — 2008-03-27T21:41:24+00:00

gschloesser wrote:
The event tile / end game mechanism is bothersome to me. In the games I’ve played, the event tiles have emerged quickly, and the game speeds to what feels like a premature conclusion. There doesn’t seem to be enough time to develop a long-term plan or strategy. Knowing how meticulous Richard Breese is, I am confident that the game has been carefully play-tested and that he is satisfied with the length. For me, though, it just seems to end too quickly.
Hi Greg, thanks for taking the time to post your session report.

Just to check that you are playing the rule correctly regarding the 7th (question mark) event tile space. When the seventh event tiles is drawn you check for the number of tiles players have on their country boards. If one player has fewer than 7 tiles then the first two events are returned to the bag. This prevents a game finishing very quickly. Usually we have found that there are few, if any, field tiles left in the bag when the full two rounds have been played after the tenth field tile is drawn. So whilst the ending may fee premature to you, in reality the game as designed could not last much longer?

Best regards, Richard

Thread: Key Harvest -- Session Report

gschloesser — 2008-03-27T14:22:19+00:00

NOTE: My full review of Key Harvest will be published soon. What follows is an abbreviated version.

I thoroughly enjoy many of British designer Richard Breese’s creations, and count Reef Encounter and Keythedral amongst my favorite games. I have been quite impressed how he has weaved the “Keydom” story through a series of fine games. The latest in this series is Key Harvest, which has players obtaining fields to grow and harvest crops. It isn’t exactly the most exciting theme, but success depends upon careful planning and clever manipulation.

I must admit that the game’s components and artwork didn’t exactly excite me. There is a lot of cardboard present, as well as wooden cubes representing the crops. The artwork on the player “country” boards is muted gray and very, very bland. The fields do come to life when the crop tiles are placed, but the numbered grids give everything a mathematical feel that will likely only appeal to those with a scientific or engineering background. The central “town” board is only slightly more attractive, as it does contain some color

The objective of the game is to build fields, and strategically use the workers to maximize crop production and the growth of the fields. Ultimately, points are earned for players’ largest two fields, as well as the farmhand and worker tiles they have employed in their fields.

Each turn, a player may perform two out of four possible actions:

1) Harvest Crops. When selecting this action, players may harvest all “un-harvested” tiles that are connected in a group. The player receives crop cubes of the appropriate types. These cubes are used to pay for field tiles located in opponents’ general stores, as well as protect tiles in your own store.

2) Play or remove a worker tile. A player may place one of his own farmhand tiles, or one from the central town board. Each tile has a value, which indicates the number of tiles which to which it must be adjacent when placed. This number is also the victory points the tile earns at game’s end.

Each worker tile has a special ability, which can be quite beneficial. Maximizing the use of these workers is one of the major keys to success in the game.

3) Transfer field tiles from the stores onto the country board. These field tiles can be taken from the player’s own general store, or from the store of opponents. If the opponent has protected the tile in his store with crop cubes, the player must pay the player a matching set of cubes. The tile or tiles are then placed on the appropriate locations on the player’s country board.

If the space where the tile is to be placed is occupied by a worker, the player may immediately reposition that worker to a new location, which once again triggers that worker’s special ability. This is a valuable tactic that can prove extremely profitable.

4) Place tiles from the town board into the general store. The player may place one or two tiles in this fashion, provided he has room in his general store. He may protect these tiles by placing one or more of his crop cubes on the tile. Any opponent wishing to take these tiles must pay the player a matching set of crop cubes.

It is important to note that the above actions can be performed in any order – except that action #4 cannot be performed BEFORE action #3. This prevents a player from taking a tile from the town board and placing into his field on the same turn.

Whenever a tile is taken from the town board, a replacement is immediately drawn from the tile bag. The mix of tiles contains a dozen event tiles, which ultimately trigger the end of the game. Event tiles trigger a variety of occurrences, and often provide players with the opportunity to purchase tiles or crop cubes. When the tenth event tile is drawn, the game enters its final stage, with each layer taking two more turns.

The event tile / end game mechanism is bothersome to me. In the games I’ve played, the event tiles have emerged quickly, and the game speeds to what feels like a premature conclusion. There doesn’t seem to be enough time to develop a long-term plan or strategy. Knowing how meticulous Richard Breese is, I am confident that the game has been carefully play-tested and that he is satisfied with the length. For me, though, it just seems to end too quickly.

When the game does end, players score points as follows:

• Each worker / farmhand tile on their board is worth a number of points equal to their value

• Each field tile in the player’s largest field grouping is worth one point

• Each field tile in the player’s second-largest field grouping is worth two points

• For each of the five crop types, the player who has the most cubes of a type scores one point.

The game certainly provides decent latitude for clever play and tactics. As mentioned, properly utilizing workers is a key, as is collecting tiles so as to grow two fields of approximately the same size so as to maximize points. Players should try to employ as many workers as possible to take advantage of their special abilities and to earn victory points. Being able to subsequently re-position these workers is also important.

While the game does have significant strategic elements, it just fails to sufficiently excite me. It is a good game with interesting challenges, but it just seems to lack that special spark that elevates games to a higher level. I have enjoyed it a bit more with subsequent playings, but not as much as I enjoy others in the “Key” series. That’s not meant to be a condemnation, but rather a compliment on just how high the bar has been set by Breese’s previous designs.

Sheila was winning through most of the game, with Rhonda and I trailing close behind. Rhonda managed a brilliant move on the final turn of the game, re-positioning one of her workers and splitting one large field into two equal fields. This edged her past Sheila to claim the victory.

Finals: Rhonda 33, Sheila 30, Greg 28

Ratings: Sheila 7.5, Rhonda 7, Greg 6.5

Thread: Re: Key Harvest first play or why the economy sucks.

sbauer9 — 2008-02-24T00:06:51+00:00

I think if anything you were the only one saving the economy.

As far as I can see the only thing that will put money back in the bank is buying your own tiles and as I remember you did that more than any of us. Of course the goods you could not harvest back were quickly sucked up by Rob leaving the bank broke again. I guess we could have harvested less but I don't remember a huge amount of harvesting and you want to get your two regions as big as possible before harvesting.

Thread: Re: Key Harvest first play or why the economy sucks.

troken — 2008-02-23T22:50:47+00:00

I was wondering if I made the economy go bad by taking advantage of the event that came up before my first turn. I think it was I could discard a tile from the country board to take a tile from the registry. I discarded one of my starting tiles to take a tile that put my two tiles next to each other. I then never picked up a second group till near the end. I was planning on making a large group then cutting it in two. Unfortuninly tiles I wanted weren't coming up and I was trying to hold out. I wasn't sure if by doing this, which cut down on the competiveness of tiles in the regestry. I don't remeber that much compation for tiles in the regestry till closer to the end. The only other player that wanted some of the same tiles as me, was able to buy form other people right before me.

Thread: Re: Key Harvest first play or why the economy sucks.

sbauer9 — 2008-02-23T17:12:07+00:00

atholbrose wrote:

I've only played twice, but in both games people were buying from their own stores just as much as other players'. We had a shortfall of goods in one game near the end, but that was because a player was intentionally hoarding them for the five-point bonus at game's end.

The only reason I can see to buy your own goods is if the other players are refusing to place up any tiles you need. Selling to someone else and buying from them takes two actions (assuming the goods for each tile cancel out) buying from your self takes 2 actions and the price of the tile. Given this players were trying to sell goods other people would want and hoping the goos they need would be for sale on their turn. If you placed a tile up that was not wanted you risked it not selling and you had to buy it yourself or be stuck with the occupied space, both things we were trying to avoid. In theory you could vary the price to punish the leader but in practice it didn't work for us. Setting a price a player is able to pay gets exponentially harder with each good added to the price. If you price a tile only good for the leader and extra good higher than everything else and he is able to buy it you get a small gain. If he is not able to buy it is a disaster for you. You know have to overpay for your own tile and it is not a tile you really want.

One thing I noticed was it was rare there were not two or three tiles I wanted in this register. I can see that if their was only one you might price it high and buy it yourself but with several you could afford to be flexible. The bigger your regions got the more flexible your are and the rich get richer.

Thread: Re: Key Harvest first play or why the economy sucks.

sbauer9 — 2008-02-23T17:00:48+00:00

No we didn't play this way.

We played you just spent the cubes you had placed in the store and my comment is illogical but correct as I did not understand that in the first round. Rob and Mathew understood correctly but I believe Jake was also under the same impression for the first round of play. We had figured it out by the second round.

It may have had a small impact in underpricing the goods early on but I do not think it was the issue.

I think it may have led me to the solution. The groupthink in the game was that it was better to place up tiles other people wanted to buy than buy your own tiles. This is what led us to the point where no goods was ever going back to the bank. Once this happens it snowballs as harvesting is not an option and most workers are less valuable so you have no options but buy 2 and place two up for auction.

We may have miss values this, but I don't see it. It is better to buy cubes from your opponents than your own. If tiles are all selling for 3 cubes then buying two from an opponent and the selling two to an opponent (By selecting cubes and opponent will want) will net you two tiles for two actions. Buying your own will net you two tiles for two actions and 6 goods.

The two factors I have not covered is will your opponent use the right mix of goods so you can buy it (not make it cost and orange when you have no orange) and will they place tiles up for auction. As we were playing with the understanding that it is better to buy someone else's we placed tiles that other players would want. It was very difficult to price a more valuable tile higher because of the good mix. Most tiles were only good for one player and if you added one extra good over the going price you greatly reduce the chances that player would have the correct goods mix to buy it from you. As you wanted in worse case to buy it yourself, you did not want to overprice it.

I can see you could play more aggressive and only buy your own tiles but if one player broke this rule and sells tiles that will be bought buy another player he will get a big advantage.

Thread: Re: Key Harvest first play or why the economy sucks.

atholbrose — 2008-02-23T16:25:02+00:00

sbauer9 wrote:
In the first round I started, playing the worker that let me harvest a single tile and placing two tiles in my store. To replace these tiles I ended up drawing 2 events that were completely useless at the point. I priced my tiles at 1 and 2 (The 1 being a cube I had 1 of so I could buy it if it got back to me) . It did not. They both sold and from then until the middle of the game the price for tiles were 2 cubes.
This is one thing I see... you don't have to have matching goods to buy a tile if it stays in your store until the next round, you just pay the goods that you used to set the price for the tile. You can use this to set a price in your store you believe nobody else will want to pay but you can.

I've only played twice, but in both games people were buying from their own stores just as much as other players'. We had a shortfall of goods in one game near the end, but that was because a player was intentionally hoarding them for the five-point bonus at game's end.

Thread: Re: Key Harvest first play or why the economy sucks.

rathstar — 2008-02-23T16:19:42+00:00

You might have missed something but it's not clear from context. When you say the following:

sbauer9 wrote:
In the first round I started, playing the worker that let me harvest a single tile and placing two tiles in my store. To replace these tiles I ended up drawing 2 events that were completely useless at the point. I priced my tiles at 1 and 2 (The 1 being a cube I had 1 of so I could buy it if it got back to me) . It did not. They both sold and from then until the middle of the game the price for tiles were 2 cubes.

...it sounds like you're playing where you need to pay twice for your own goods. Once you price a good in your store, if it comes back to you then you can "buy" it with the goods you have already put out, you don't need to pay again. If you were playing where you have to pay twice, that would keep the prices for all goods pretty low, probably too low, which would lead to other players buying your goods more often than you want them to, and ultimately lead to a shortage of cubes. I could be wrong here but that's the impression I got from reading that paragraph.

Thread: Key Harvest first play or why the economy sucks.

sbauer9 — 2008-02-23T08:51:38+00:00

My first play of Key Harvest and I was very disappointed. I played 4 player at the Arizona Boardgamers Friday night game night. I was excited to try a new game I had heard good things about and I am a fan of Keythedral so I thought it would be fun, but it wasn’t. Either we did something wrong or this is not a game I enjoy.

In the first round I started, playing the worker that let me harvest a single tile and placing two tiles in my store. To replace these tiles I ended up drawing 2 events that were completely useless at the point. I priced my tiles at 1 and 2 (The 1 being a cube I had 1 of so I could buy it if it got back to me) . It did not. They both sold and from then until the middle of the game the price for tiles were 2 cubes.

I managed to build two solid collections of tiles and get several workers out and reposition them for good effect. Rob had also built up two good tile groups and we were close throughout the game. Jake built a single large field which was very big but was not going to score well and was too tight to allow good worker placement. Mathew went last and got in a very bad position quickly, on his turn there was either nothing to buy or he had the wrong good mix to buy it so for most of the first 5 events he had only his 2 starting tiles and the 1 value workers in play.

Just before the 6th event Mathew managed to build to 7 tiles on his board and the price of tiles was raised to 3 cubes (on average). Right after the 6th event several large harvest bleed the goods markets completely dry and the price of tiles went to between 4 and 5 tiles. Mathew ran low on cubes and placed two tiles up for sale for 2 cubes each which I going after him could buy. This gave me a nice edge.

I do not know if are game was in someway unusual but we ran completely out of available goods after the 6th event card was played and were out of goods for the rest of the game. We had very few times people bought there own goods and when they did they were usually able to harvest most of it back. This made some of the events and most of the workers useless. I currently see this as a huge problem in the game and would like to here what other people think.

After a few more rounds of trading with each other the mix of goods for each player started to saturate and everyone was missing something and unable to buy from other players drugs. The game ended in a whimper with few workable actions left everyone was buying from themselves and trying to squeeze out what points were available. I managed to get the 4 point worker that allows you to place a good in your score. As you can then buy it one the same round for 1 good it was a very powerful card.

Final Score
Me: 38 ( 8 for large area, 14 for second area, 16 for workers)
Rob: 31 ( 6 for large area, 10 for second area, 13 for workers, 2 for goods)
Jake: 24
Mathew: 23

Rob and I were playing basically the same game and I just managed to get a few more tiles than he did. Jake was never able to start a large second area and his score suffered from that. Mathew lagged behind most of the game, got some benefit from other players selling tiles he wanted over other tiles but the game does not seem to have a clear cut way to get the person in last place back into the game.

I thought the game had many very interesting mechanism and could have been as good or better than Keythedral but it seems to fall short of its potential. It is possible we missed something or played something wrong. I read the thread on Running out of cubes and I am curious why other players are not having this problem. Did they harvest less, buy more from there own store or am I missing another way to get goods back to general supply?

Thread: Re: Running Out Of Crop Counters

sbauer9 — 2008-02-23T08:05:55+00:00

In my first play (4 players) all the crops ran out after the 6th event tile and were basically never available for the rest of the game (Their was 1 turn when someone bought there own store and could not harvest back all the resources and one turn were an event let you buy a tile so good were available for a few players turns, also at the end people stopped harvesting to get as many VP as possible so there was money at the end but at least 1/3 of the game had no money and I don't see how it would ever play differently.

Any suggestions on what I did wrong.

Thread: Re: fields

swanhills_ca — 2008-02-16T20:21:04+00:00

thank you

Thread: Re: Playing Worker Tiles

fbartolom — 2008-02-14T08:37:26+00:00

Kwyjibo wrote:
fbartolom wrote:
This given, what benefit is there to harvest a whole field when afterwards all its tiles are useless to workers? Or else one should consider it like sort of a money amount in a bank to be reclaimed only when really needed, losing interest paybacks in the process?

The interest is in acquiring currency. Hopefully a heap of it. Harvesting for only 2-3 goods is hardly worth the action.
So harvesting is sort of "an activity for game" to be used at the latest when needing much currency.

Thread: Re: Playing Worker Tiles

Kwyjibo — 2008-02-13T22:19:47+00:00

fbartolom wrote:
This given, what benefit is there to harvest a whole field when afterwards all its tiles are useless to workers? Or else one should consider it like sort of a money amount in a bank to be reclaimed only when really needed, losing interest paybacks in the process?

The interest is in acquiring currency. Hopefully a heap of it. Harvesting for only 2-3 goods is hardly worth the action.

Thread: Re: Playing Worker Tiles

fbartolom — 2008-02-12T10:50:10+00:00

This given, what benefit is there to harvest a whole field when afterwards all its tiles are useless to workers? Or else one should consider it like sort of a money amount in a bank to be reclaimed only when really needed, losing interest paybacks in the process?

Thread: Re: Rules question

chicagometh — 2008-02-11T22:05:34+00:00

Good call. The ability to reposition makes it more valuable than the A tile early in the game.

Thread: Re: Rules question

Rappak — 2008-02-11T21:27:35+00:00

The other thing you should keep in mind is that it is a low number so that another worker can replace it and it can be replayed somewhere else later OR be valid in most places after being bumped by a field. With it being a 2, it becomes a lot less worth while in playing it as the twos are generally much better than it.

Thread: Re: Rules question

Spielfreak — 2008-02-11T21:07:30+00:00

The B worker gives you a nice boost when you reposition it after adding a new field. For example, early in the game you play the B worker on B4 and take one commodity (due to having a field at C4). If you then take possession of the B4 field tile you can then reposition the B worker immediately at C5 and thereby gain a commodity from each field tile (B4 and C4).

To make this worker worth 2pts means that it won't be placed early in the game, when all you have are single unconnected fields.

Thread: Re: Rules question

asmiles — 2008-02-11T20:55:06+00:00

The tile offers flexibility. It can be played early on one tile, or saved for later when it can be played between 2 tiles for a better effect.

No one I have played with has had any problems with understanding how the tile works or should be used.

Thread: Re: Rules question

chicagometh — 2008-02-11T20:44:45+00:00

Well, you have to use it as soon as you play it. So you would want to play it next to two, although it is only worth one point and can be played next to one tile. I just think it is odd. I think they should have just made the B tile worth 2 points. Otherwise, it is confusing, especially for noobs.

Thread: Re: Rules question

ekted — 2008-02-11T19:32:52+00:00

You have to play them next to at least 1 field tile, but more may be played later. So you can put B into play next to 1 (and use it), or you can wait for an opportunity to place it next to 2.

Thread: Rules question

chicagometh — 2008-02-11T16:23:53+00:00

I am having trouble understanding the A and B farmhands. Both have a 1, requiring them to be played adjacent to at least one farm tile. A says it allows you to harvest the goods from one adjacent unharvested field tile, while B says it allows you to harvest the goods from up to two adjacent unharvested field tiles. Well, if B affects two adjacent tiles, why does it have a 1 on it? Sure, it will only be worth one point, but you would never play it next to only one adjacent tile. If it was just to provide flexibility to use the A-type tile twice, why didn't they just provide you with two A tiles? Or make the B a 2. I'm just really confused on the logic here.

Thread: Re: Running Out Of Crop Counters

spellengek — 2008-02-11T09:15:06+00:00

Badger on the move wrote:
Very unusually there may be no counters left at all, in which case your harvest would suffer a shortfall.

Really? In all my games, there were no crop counters left well before the 10th event tile was placed on the board. This was because whenever somebody offered a tile, someone else would buy it before it was that player's turn again. Crop counters never left play after somebody harvested them.

Thread: Re: fields

dkeisen — 2008-02-11T00:06:07+00:00

Yes. Those would be your first and second for a total of 15 VP.

Thread: Re: fields

Palpatine — 2008-02-10T23:48:02+00:00

That's the way we play.

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Odoren — 2008-01-04T10:33:08+00:00

Key Harvest

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Odoren — 2008-01-04T10:31:59+00:00

Key Harvest

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Toynan — 2007-12-29T13:53:27+00:00

Details of the brown folding screen

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Toynan — 2007-12-29T13:50:46+00:00

Close up of the details of the box

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Toynan — 2007-12-29T13:48:57+00:00

Inside the box

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darlok — 2007-11-20T00:41:22+00:00

Key Harvest being played at bgg.con 07 featuring some Rob guy

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ylpatae — 2007-10-26T10:40:25+00:00

Town Board

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ylpatae — 2007-10-26T10:36:35+00:00

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ylpatae — 2007-10-26T10:33:53+00:00