Z-Man Games "Fields of Arle Board Game

Product Information

At the end of each season, you’ll need to feed your family and animals, so do your best to keep the farm growing! The first empty space above those tiles indicates the number of Victory Points you will get for your Travel Experience at the end of the game.

The game is divided into nine rounds. Each of these rounds represents a season – summer or winter. During the round, beginning with the start player, each player will take turns selecting a single action at a time using their workers. Once an action has been selected, it becomes unavailable for the rest of the round. The players are only able to select actions from the current season – with one exception. Once per round, one user only may select an out-of-season action. If they do so, they forfeit the right to go first in the following round. If a season comes to an end and neither player has selected an out-of-season action, the start player passes to the next player and the season comes to an end.When you place a Travel Destination Tile on a Vehicle, you must use it immediately: sell at least one of the depicted items and receive the given amount of Food. Each item can only be sold once per Travel Destination. Fields of Arle si sviluppa attraverso nove mezze stagioni, da Giugno a Ottobre e da Dicembre ad Aprile, dove ognuna di queste mezze stagioni si conclude con una fase di inventario nei mesi di Novembre (a fine Estate/Autunno) e Maggio (a fine Inverno/Primavera). Another added bonus of the solo game is in easing the teaching process for those hoping to introduce the game before actually getting a chance to play it. The flow of the solo game is nearly identical and it will help you iron out most of the details. Playing a solo game first prevents having to struggle through your first rules explanation without a play under your belt. The final word of Fields of Arle Your first game of Fields of Arle may go a little something like this: Spend 15 minutes setting up the game. Look at all those buildings, there sure are a lot of them. Stare at all of the actions for the summer season and try to formulate a plan. There’s a lot to choose from and you haven’t even gotten to winter yet. Become overwhelmed with the sheer scope of your options. Wing it for the first half of the game based on what actions sound useful (or fun) at the time, later regret those decisions. Start to figure out what you’re doing in the final turns and try to scrap together a decent score based on your earlier ignorance. Don’t worry though, when the game ends the scores are very close as neither you nor your opponent knew what you were doing! Immediately start thinking about what you could have done better. When can we play again?

It is not allowed to make a piece of Clothing with one Vehicle (like the Leather Wear in the illustration) and then sell it for Food via another Vehicle (like here in "Emden") during the same Work Phase. The tiles in the bottom row can only be acquired with their front side facing up. Their reverse sides show upgrades to their front sides. For each missing Food, pay 1 Grain instead. If you run out of Grain, pay 1 Animal per missing Food instead. There are two types of green Buildings. For your first play, use the 4 light green ones. When you are more experienced with the game, use 4 of the 7 dark green Buildings instead. Examples: 6 Sheep, 5 Horses, and 4 Cattle are worth 0+5+8=13 VP. 5 Horses, 4 Cattle and 0 Sheep are worth 0+4+0=4 VP. 3 Horses, 3 Cattle, and 3 Sheep are worth 0+3+6=9 VP. Horses and Cattle you paid when acquiring Plows and Vehicles are not considered in this category - they are not worth any VP.An expression like "Take 1 Cattle/Horse" indicates that you may choose whether to take 1 Cattle or 1 Horse (in this case). Vehicles have Single and Double Spaces in different amounts and distributions. (You can load the spaces of a Vehicle at the same or at different points in time). Wood Trader: Pay 1 Food and either take 4 Wood, or build a Building ( 2) by paying the costs depicted on the Game Board. If you cannot pay the Food because you have none left, you may pay 1 Grain instead. ( 6) During the course of the game, the tiles in the top row can be acquired with either side facing up. Here you can see several different ways to load a Droshky. You cannot load it with two Summer Ware Tiles, since you cannot split the Double Space in the middle to use it for two tiles.

The choices change with the seasons and planning is vital to the long-term success of the farm as it expands and upgrades over time.

Components and Setup

Designer Uwe Rosenberg’s games have been getting more personal and autobiographical until he finally arrived home in Arle, a small village in East Frisia. Fields of Arle is a game about exploring Rosenberg’s heritage, building a village in Arle, and visiting the surrounding regions. Developing a historical village At any time during the Work Phase, you can load your Vehicles (even right after you got them). This is not considered an action - you can do this on top of your actions. Please note, the tiles you put on your Vehicles will only be removed from there at the end of the Work Phase. You can load your Vehicles with... Tanner: Per Fleshing Beam you have (i.e. up to 3, 5, or 6 times), you may con vert 1 Hide to 1 Leather. ( 8)

So where does that leave Fields of Arle? How does it fit into Rosenberg’s body of work? Much like the bulk of his games it follows the principles of being framed in seasons and challenges players with the struggle of scarcity. However, despite the fact that it followed in the trend of having a large scope it successfully returned to the simplicity of function that games like Le Havre and Ora et Labora diverged from. And most surprisingly it followed Glass Road in abandoning expanding complexity in favor of presenting players will all the actions right from the beginning of the game. Simply put, it borrows the design principles that I enjoyed the most from his previous designs while being an innovative step forward. I’ve approached all of Rosenberg’s games since Agricola with a bit of hopeful hesitance and ended up being disappointed that the scope required more effort than I wanted to put into the game (with the exception of Glass Road). Fields of Arle managed to overcome my struggles and deliver a game that is both broad in scope and intuitive in design. More than anything that Rosenberg has done to date I would point to Fields as the culmination of his work. If that sounds like high praise that’s because it is. For me it was well worth the journey it took to get here. Drawing from the past and offering something new The game ends after 9 rounds at the end of the last Summer Half Year, after the November Inventorying. (Your Animals will not breed anymore, because they only do so in May). In Summer, 1 of the 8 Workers may use a Winter Action Space (instead of a Summer one). Similarly, in Winter, 1 Worker may use a Summer Action Space (instead of a Winter one). Dike Builder: Take 1 Sheep or 1 Cattle. Additionally or alternatively, carry out a "Dike Building" action: for each Pair of Shovels you have, move 1 Dike (i.e. 1/2/2/3 Dikes with 3141516 Shovels). ( 8)This type of conversion can be found on the Game Board (Carpenter) and on Buildings (like the Farmer's Inn). Butcher: Per Slaughtering Table you have (i.e. up to 2, 3, or 4 times), you may convert 1 Animal of any type to 3 Food and 2 Hides. You get 1 more Food per Cattle you convert. ( 8) If you have a Depot, double the total number of VP in this category. (You cannot double them more than once even if you had multiple Depots). When moving dikes, they should be moved one at a time such that there is always a straight line of dikes running across the player board. Any empty space behind this line of dikes can have buildings or other upgrades placed into it. Cutting peat requires you to take an action to do so. One tile is available at the beginning of the game which you only have to remove the peat from. When the peat is all cleared away, the tile is removed from the farmstead and the space beneath it becomes available for building. The peat bogs, however, must be flipped over first (drained) before the peat can be removed from them. This is accomplished by using the proper action on the action selection board or by constructing a building which allows you to flip something. A "Land Space" is any space on your Home Board below the Dike Line (including the Moor Spaces). The spaces above the Dike Line are called "Tidal Flat Spaces" and cannot be used.