Valerie Putman:  Game Review, Eine Frage der Ahre

I have been a big fan of Jeff Allers’ series here on Boardgamenews—Postcards from Berlin.  When I was the Geek of the Week on BGG a few months ago, I picked Jeff Allers to be my successor.  It was only natural, then, to make plans to meet up with him for dinner one evening while I was in Berlin for the announcement of the Spiel des Jahres.  I’m sure glad I did, because otherwise I might not have been successful in my quest to track down a copy of his game, Eine Frage der Ahre.

Jay Bloodworth first played the game at the 2009 Gathering of Friends and liked it enough to do something I rarely bother with—he made an overseas order.  Jay brought the game to the Oasis of Fun and that’s where I got the chance to play it.  Since I very much liked it, I immediately planned to pick up a copy while I was in Berlin the next week.  Much to my dismay, not a single game store or department store that we checked out had EFdA or any other Pegasus Spiele games, for that matter (though the lack of Pandemie may have been because it was sold out).  Luckily, the café Jeff introduced us to where he regularly plays games had a copy for sale and I immediately snagged a copy (and asked Jeff to sign it for me).  I’ve since played the game 2 more times at my regular game night (CABS).

The game is described as “a tile-laying game for 2-5 farmers ages 8 and up.” I know what you’re thinking—finally a good game about farming!  OK, so it’s no Agricola, but nothing is.  It is a very engaging tile laying game that plays in about an hour and offers many interesting decisions about how to maximize your own score and how to avoid setting up the players after you to score more.  It has elements that remind me of Einfach Genial, Taluva, Dominos, and Rat Hot but in an enjoyably different package.

Players have a hand of 3 domino-like tiles that represent different crops.  They are placed on a board where each side is then scored for either victory points (1 point for every connected crop of the same type) or “farm points” (0, 1, or 2 depending on the symbols on the tile itself) which are tracked on s separate chart for each crop type.  Once all of your markers on the “farm points” track reach a certain point you can place a barn on the domino-like tile playing area.  You then score victory points for that crop field at the end of every turn, in addition to the points earned from your normal tile laying.  You can earn a second barn if you move all of your “farm point” markers up further and there is also a victory point reward for being the first to the top of the track for each individual crop on the “farm point” track.  The game ends when the tiles are nearly all gone.

Turns are relatively quick as all you do is play a tile and draw a tile.  But deciding where to play the tile to score the most points, deciding how to score the tile that you’ve played (victory/farm/or a combination of the two), and making sure that you haven’t set up the player behind you while trying to set up your future plays introduces interesting and sometimes agonizing game moments.  The game was a hit at Oasis and CABS with everyone I’ve talked to thinking that the game was really great or at the least, deserved more attention that it has received so far.  I’d be just as happy to play this as any other of my recent Essen favorites (Diamonds Club, Royal Palace, etc.).  Now if only the people who wanted a copy had an easier time finding it!

I’d rather be gaming,
Valerie Putman

Comments:

< Back Home