Feuerland Spiele | Fields of Arle | Board Game | Ages 14+ | 1-2 Players | 60-120 Minutes Playing Time

Great! I recommend 100%

For those who know Agricola and Caverna, it's easy to describe Fields of Arle. There are similar mechanisms but where Caverna opens up Agricola, Arle takes it to another level, giving a tonne of options from the outset and throughout. For those less familiar with Uwe Rosenberg games, this is a game in which you run a small but expanding farmstead in East Friesia in Germany. The game is played over 9 half years and in each half year you send your four workers out to action spaces where they provide resources to build buildings, purchase vehicles to transport goods and cultivate your land to allow you to grow animals and crops or build your buildings. It's primarily a two player game, which is somewhat unusual for Euro-style games, but the solo play is excellent (for reasons I'll expand on below). It might sound like a bit of a dry topic but every choice matters. Make the wrong choice in where to send your workers and you'll get some benefit immediately but very quickly realise that you're just short of what you require for that one thing you really want. Planning is essential in order to get a big score. There's some variation is set up but not a huge amount: roughly half of the available buildings will be available every game and roughly half are random. Normally, that would in low replayability because there's perfect information (no card drawing, dice rolling or any other surprises). From the beginning of the game, you have all the info you need (other than what your opponent may do). However, there's a tonne of replayability because there are so many options! Do you want to concentrate on growing your land, filling it with buildings, breeding animals, fulfilling deliveries to nearby towns or improving your tools? There are points to be had everywhere you look but the synergies and efficiencies are what you're looking for. There are many options for each turn and often those options lead to another choice, each of which could potentially enable or scupper future plans. This is the board game equivalent of "write a story about absolutely anything". It goes where you want it to go. There's no silo-ing of strategy. Make the farmstead how you want to make it, specialise where you want to specialise, see it grow round by round and feel the satisfaction of having built something unique every game. It's a big game, a heavy game (in the sense that it requires a lot of thought), typically an expensive game but a hugely satisfying game! Warning: you'll need a big table!

El producto llegó dañado de la caja y con el plastico protector rasgado. No creo que hayan sido los de paquetería puesto que la bolsa donde venía estaba en mejores condiciones que la caja del producto.

Great!

I already knew this was a great game. Unfrotunately the english version is hard to find lately.

I play a lot of games with my nephew, and we love Le Havre. I bought this one looking for a great two-player strategy game, and it delivers. Like Le Havre, each player has lots of decisions to make and strategies to choose from. The food requirement is minimal in this game, but the pressure is on from the start, nonetheless. We played a few times, and we will have to play a few more times before I can make really good decisions on my turn. My nephew enjoyed the animal breeding and management aspect of the game. We played this two weeks ago, and he is still talking about the animals. This game has a lot of pieces and requires some setup time. For me, this is an interesting and challenging game but doesn't have the same fun factor as Le Havre. We will probably play Le Havre more but plan to come back to this often. We've hardly scratched the surface of this one. Update May 2016: My nephew and I have played this several more times, and it gets better each time. One thing I enjoy is that I can ship stuff each turn, unlike in LeHavre. I enjoy sending my goods to get upgraded. I can get a decent number of points by using the woolen mills and fleshing beams to get a pile of goods to improve. Whatever strategy you choose, it's another Uwe game that requires you to do a little bit of everything. My nephew enjoys the solo play, too. I liked the solo play but far prefer a head-to-head matchup. I love this game.

Really fun two player euro style worker placement game that thematically makes you feel like you are a farmer. Win or loss, you feel like you've built something in the way you wanted. Want to raise a bunch of cattle? Better clear off a lot of fields and build stables for them. Want to make and deliver goods to market? Better fill your barn with the right vehicles. The first few plays it felt like there wasn't much more than to pick a strategy and hope it works, but there is a fair amount of nuance your choices and management of all the resources can make some of your decisions rather brain burning. Player interaction is limited, but a big part of winning involves paying attention to your opponent's resources and making worker choices to slow down their engine just enough to foil their plans. Those subtle decision points are what makes this so brilliant.