Harvest Valley: Initial Impressions

Harvest Valley Cover

I recently had the chance to play Harvest Valley for the first time, the new game by Bruno Faidutti released as part of the Pixel Series from Grail Games. One of the extra delightful aspects of this was that not only did my KS copy arrive months earlier than expected, I managed to play it on the very day it arrived. Thank you to Grail Games for surpassing my expectations!

I was interested in the game for two reasons: one it is designed by may favourite designer, and two because I had recently designed a shared space tile laying game myself, and I wanted to see how Bruno handled the design space.

Here are some initial impressions based on my first plays:

Firstly, I've only played the game so far with a full 5 players, and I suspect that the game might be even more fun with 3 or 4 players, though I'm less keen personally on the 2P mode.

COMPONENTS & PRESENTATION

The game comes in a delightfully small box, beautifully presented, and with the specific art style you'd expect from something from the "pixel series". The art style itself is not to my specific tastes, but it is consistent and does a serviceable job, and certainly gives the game a unique and playful charm.

The card quality, and the little wooden farmhouse tokens, are all of good quality, and the box is sturdy. All in all, a very good production.

The card art was a little same-y, and there were some missed opportunities for greater clarity in the visual design. For example, the vegetables score based on how many printed vegetables are on the card (e.g. a card may show 2 cabbages) but the fruits score based on how many TREES there are on the card, regardless of how many fruit they are showing. Which would be fine if some of the trees didn't show one fruit, and some show two more, that just made it confusing, as the specific number of fruit on the tree was irrelevant (or at least that's how we interpreted the rules). The boar and crow could also have included an icon for vegetables and fruit as well (rather than just the arrows).

At least 2 players at the table commented that the clarity of the graphic design could've been better, and one was not a fan of the pixel art.

RULES QUALITY

The rules are mostly pretty clear, though we did experience some confusion as to whether the ponds provided +1 per fruit/vegetable, or a static +1 if next a fruit/vegetable card (the latter of which is the rule).

The other source of confusion was mentioned above, about how the fruits score based on the number of trees.

I managed to learn and teach the game from the rules within about 10ish minutes which was pretty good for a first play and with some not so attentive players.

Overall rulebook quality: adequate with some potential for minor improvements.

GAMEPLAY

The game itself is a simple, and intuitive shared space tile laying game, in the vein of something like Carcassonne. On your turn you play a card to the "valley", choosing either your in-hand Famrhouse card, or one of the 3 available cards in the shared river/market.

You can only play your Farmhouse once per game, and optimising its placement to maximise your score is the key decision point in the game. You want to surround it with good scoring cards, and at the same time nullify the points around your neighbour's farmhouses, by clogging them with the dead cards and the dreaded boar and crow. The shared play space offers significant player interaction, some of it mean in the "I have to get you before you get me" spirit, and its also fun to expand the grid in one direction so a player might get stuck not being able to surround their farmhouse at all. That will elicit a devilish giggle at the table.

So you want to play your farmhouse late, when you get a good sense of the board state and have a bit more knowability of what it will look like, but not too late because someone else will take the ideal spot and claim those juicy points. The timing and brinksmanship in the game is tense and entertaining, though the game it a little flatter after you've placed your farmhouse and are at the whims of the other players. Thankfully its a very short and sessionable game, so it doesn't drag on.

Lastly, the rule that really elevates the game, is that your final score is determined by the value of your farmhouse PLUS the farmhouse of the player on your left. So you're invested in helping one of your neighbours flourish, at the same time as they are really trying to ensure your farmhouse is worthless. Delicious. This rule takes the game from a pleasant diversion to something that feels different and extra special and worth checking out. I can imagine 3 players being the sweet spot for this particular interaction.

OVERALL - 8/10

Harvest Valley is a fun and interactive micro tile laying game, with some interesting twists and pleasing presentation. For a small box filler, this is an easy recommend. With only around 30 cards, it remains to be seen what the replayability and longevity of the game will be like, but it will certainly offer plenty of opportunities for pastoral passive aggressiveness...the best kind of passive aggression.