Pocket Farm

• Designer: Eric Hong
• Publisher: Mandoo Games
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Played with Review copy provided by publisher

In Pocket Farm, Players become farmers. For 12 months you should wish for a good harvest, control the weather and prepare the baskets to harvest the most fruits.

The game runs for 12 rounds.

Each player gets a Starting Farm card in front of them and the rest of the deck is shuffled and placed on the table.  Each card has a cost in the center and then is split up into quadrants which depict different crops, a sun, a cloud, or a basket. Each of the 12 rounds has a Draft Phase followed by a Placement Phase.

In the Draft Phase, one card more than the number of players is revealed. Starting from the first player, each player chooses one of the available cards. The last card is set aside as an Offering – this will be important for the scoring at the end of the game.

In the Placement phase, each player may expand their farm; players can place 0 to 2 cards in this phase.  If you choose to place a card, you must pay for the cost of that card by covering up suns or clouds in your existing farm.  Each single sun or cloud has a value of 1.  Suns increase in value when connected. 1/2/3+ suns in a row are worth 1/2/3 points EACH.  Clouds decrease in value when connected. 1/2/3+ clouds in a row are worth 3/2/1 points EACH.  If you play two cards on a turn, the cost of the second card is increased by 2.  

Once all players have placed their card, the round ends. The start player marker is passed one position clockwise and another round is played. Continue this for 12 rounds at which point it is time for scoring.  Before you score, arrange the offerings by type so you can easily see how many of each type of crop were in the offerings.

For each type of crop, count the value of baskets which are directly adjacent to at least one of those icons in your farm.  Multiply the basket value by the number of offerings to get your score for that crop.  Repeat for all 4 crops and total them to get your final score.

My thoughts on the game

I’ve had a number of super simple drafting games in the past year or two, and I’ll admit that I’ve found them intriguing.  This isn’t quite as simple as Vegetable Stock – a six round game from a few years ago; but I’ll say that this game doesn’t take much longer.  However, there is a bit more to it as you not only have to draft well, you also then have a spatial puzzle of figuring out how to play the cards into your farm to best effect.

Early on, it feels like I am trying to concentrate on getting my suns and clouds in a good spot; hoping then to be able to later play a big basket card down.  The 2 and 3 value baskets are the best way to score points, especially if you can get 3 or 4 different types of crops around each.  Each basket can only score once per crop, so ideally you’d like to have multiple crops around each basket; moreso if it’s a double or triple basket.

You have the option of not playing a card to your farm on a turn, though it will cost you two extra points to play it if you double up on a later turn.  But – this allows you to nab a card you think will be useful in the future when it comes up on an early turn.  When you do play two cards on a turn, be sure you figure out the timing as the value of the suns and clouds may change for the placement of the second card once the icons from the first card are taken into effect.

There is a solo game, which is really just putting 2 cards out each round for the draft, and you’re always in control of what goes in your farm and what becomes an offering.  As you would expect, my scores have been a little higher as I’ve been able to control everything. Your goal is to score as much as possible.  It’s a cute diversion and it was a good way to learn the rules.

The components are really nice. I like the kawaii style art on the cards, and the little avocado start player piece is truly adorbs.  The game is honestly dead simple, and though there are a few rules to remember with the sun/cloud values – this is the sort of game you can teach in a minute and get started playing.  Our games have been closer to the 15-20 minute range, and that’s perfect for me.  There’s enough here to make me feel like we’ve really played a game, but at the same point, it’s a nice filler/closer level of complexity.  Similarly to Vegetable Stock from last year, this is a tiny little game that has hit the table a lot this year due to its surprising complexity.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Mark Jackson (one play): This is not my kind of game – but it’s a great example of the puzzle-y gaming genre. For those who like this kind of stuff, it’s very well done.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale Y
• Neutral Mark Jackson
• Not for me…