Stronghold Games Fields of Green Board Game Medium

Fields of Green is an excellent card drafting game where the cards end up serving as tiles you lay down to build a farm. Many "euro" style games such as this often have themes that seem like an afterthought compared to the mechanics of the game, but Fields of Green really gives you the feeling of running a farm while still maintaining interesting and thought provoking play.As a disclaimer, I understand this is basically a re-theme of this designer's earlier game called Among The Stars..which as you can surmise from the title is about building a space station. I have never played that game, so I am unable to compare them and will speak solely on FOG.Players take turns drafting cards that they use to build up their farm. Cards come in four flavors: fields, livestock, constructions, and buildings. Fields give you food, which in turn can feed the livestock that brings the money to expand your farm. Constructions tend to help out your fields and livestock in different ways. Buildings don't really help your farm, but they produce end game victory points based on certain conditions. In this way, you generally start out building fields and livestock, then get constructions to help your production...finally, turning to buildings to help maximize points based on what you have on your farm. Of course, this is just a generalization. If you wish to build some buildings early and work your farm around that feel free, but you won't get anywhere without generating money from food, which comes from your fields!When building your farm you just don't place tiles willy-nilly. You must consider their placement carefully. At the end of every round there is a harvest phase. During harvest, fields require water and must be close to your water towers(within 2 spaces). You can't go crazy building fields because when it comes time to harvest you won't likely have the water they need. Likewise, you have to manage your food production in order to feed your livestock. Silos only hold four food, so as your farm progresses you will have to account for the extra food storage you will need. Furthermore, certain tiles benefit from being placed in special ways. For example, turkeys benefit most if they are further away from other livestock. I guess nobody wants to be around those poor, filthy, obnoxious, turkeys! Yet other livestock types will thrive with other like types...poultry livestock being near other poultry livestock, etc... This is especially true once you start adding constructions to the mix. To top it off, you can earn equipment tiles which can be placed on cards to give them extra benefits. These benefits could be ongoing, such as providing extra space in your silos for additional food or extended range for your water towers. They can be one use tiles that give you a special chance to break the rules. An example is the tile that lets you discard it in order to avoid paying the water/food cost to harvest a certain card. Or, they could contribute to end of game scoring conditions. When you gain equipment tiles you are allowed to pick 3 and choose 1, so it isn't just totally random.I should also mention I have only played this game as a 2 player game. While most card drafting games fall flat with 2 players, FOG implemented a neat mechanism that really makes the drafting work. Each player selects 6 building types from the four available. The 12 cards selected between the two players are shuffled and 6 are turned face up. After each player takes a turn drafting a card, two more are turned up until all 12 have been taken. That signals the end of a round.No matter the player count, at the end of each round is a harvest phase where the players collect whatever their cards provide, but they must be able to supply them the water or food they need. Otherwise the card is turned over, providing no resources. You can, however, revive the card by burning one of your chosen cards and paying a gold in a later round. Also, some cards are not harvested at the end of each round. These cards provide immediate effects when played. They might give you some food or money immediately instead of making you wait to harvest. This makes for some great decisions during the game as you weigh the benefits of taking a card that grants you some much needed resources right then and there vs. taking a card that will provide you with things throughout the game.There are a couple warnings I should give regarding this game, though they will not be applicable to all. First, you will need a decent amount of table space for this game. Once your farm starts expanding it can get pretty big. Not a problem if you have a large gaming table, but those who are gaming on smaller coffee tables should be aware. Second, the game can lead to some downtime between turns if you are playing someone who is prone to overthinking things. There can be a lot of thinking and planning ahead regarding how your going to use a card and how you're going to place it to produce in the harvest phase.Overall we've enjoyed this game a lot. There are tough decisions to make and you get that tension of not being able to do everything you need to do in order to satisfy the requirements of your farm. It's not as punishing as something like Agricola for those that have played that, but you will definitely find yourself having to really think about what you're doing during your turn and how you're going to get everything produced during the harvest phase.In sum, FOG is a very enjoyable game that really makes you feel like you're building a farm. The theme and mechanics go together wonderfully. It's simple enough to teach pretty quickly, but I wouldn't choose it as the first game you introduce to someone who isn't into these types of games. It isn't far off from that though. At the same time there is plenty here for those that are more into these types of modern board games.

1. High quality components2. Wonderful artwork3. Exciting and entertaining4. It offers many choices to think about and creates a uniquely different experience each time you play5. Appropriate time length6. Good to play by yourself with the solo variant on BGG7. Easy to learn8. Straightforward to playI was thinking about buying La Granja, Agricola, or this one. I made the right choice. It “clicks” and checks all the boxes.A fabulous game!

Wow. I heard good things about this game and that it was an improvement of earlier outer-space version. We found it boring and uninteresting. Sold it at a loss and don't have any regrets getting rid of it. Purged.

Pretty cool game. Essentially 7 Wonders, except that it matters where you position the things you buy, so there's an additional strategic aspect to consider when drafting.

Several weeks back, a friend of mine asked me to play a game he just got called Fields of Green. I’m a big fan of card drafting games, so I was happy to give it a try. When we were done, I told him I’d be happy to play it again any time. In fact, I liked it so much I decided to get a copy of my own. So, I thought I’d put together a list of some of my favorite and least favorite things about the game based on my two plays so far (one four player and one two player).1. The main mechanic is card drafting, but here are also resource management (water, food, and money) and engine building components. For example, you need to make sure you have enough water for your fields, food for your livestock, and money to buy the cards you’ll want later in the game. And, the cards you select and how you place them make up the engine that allows you to obtain and maximize these resources.2. On a related note, NOT managing your resources well has consequences. For example, if you cannot pay the harvest cost (usually water or food, but sometimes money) during the harvest phase, you have to turn a previously built card face down (it can be restored later on, but this usually comes with a noticeable opportunity cost). Or, if you don’t have enough money to buy a card you want/need, you’ll either have to sell that card for two money, or use it to buy a sub-optimal card instead.3. I love that you get to pick what TYPE of cards you’ll be drafting (fields, livestock, constructions, or buildings). The actual cards you get are still random (i.e., they are randomly selected from the appropriate pile), but the TYPES or cards are not. This adds a nice strategic element to the game.4. There are lots of interesting decisions to make during the action phase. You can build the location you drafted, build a water tower or silo, go to the market to sell a card (and some food if you’d like) to get money, and restore a location that has been turned face down.5. Equipment. Some cards allow you to acquire equipment, and equipment gives you all sorts of advantages either during or at the end of the game. When you get an equipment tile, you get to draw three and keep one (which adds another nice decision to the game). For example, they might extend the range of your water towers, automatically generate food during the upkeep phase, or allow you to purchase victory points at the end of the game, just to name a few. And, in the rare case you get an equipment you cannot use during the game, each unused equipment tile is worth one point at the end of the game.6. The two player rules. Playing with two players only requires two small changes to the game, and they work very well. Both changes affect how drafting works. That is, when the players are done selecting their six cards, they put them into a single pile and shuffle all 12 together. Then, you reveal six cards face up, and each player picks one. Then, you add two more face up cards and pick again. This continues until all 12 cards have been selected.So, are there any things I didn't like? I think there are a few of things worth mentioning.1. There are lots of opportunities for analysis paralysis. Examples include what cards you draft, where you place them, and what order you resolve them in during the harvest phase. This can make the game a noticeably longer than stated on the box. I expect this will diminish with experience playing the game (but it will likely be an ongoing problem whenever you include a new player).2. In a two player, the same player goes first for an entire round. So, not only do they get to pick first when the initial six cards are revealed, but they also get to pick first each time two new cards are revealed. So, whoever goes first has a noticeable advantage for an entire round. This evens out a bit given there are four rounds and each player will get to go first twice. But, it can still lead to some imbalance if there are much better cards in some rounds vs. others. On a more positive note, this can also add an interesting new strategy element to the game (i.e., if you need a certain type of card on a round where you are not picking first, you can select a lot more of that type of card during the upkeep phase to increase your chances of getting them).3. Not a ton of player interaction. The main way players interact is by drafting cards that others need (i.e., “hate drafting”). To a lesser extent, they types of cards you select during the upkeep phase can also affect other players. But, that’s really it (i.e., none of the cards in your field will influence other players; and vice versa). We still enjoyed the game quite a bit, but my hope is that future expansions increase player interaction.CONCLUSIONAll things considered, I found Fields of Green to be a very fun card drafting game, and I also liked that it includes resource management and engine builder components. If you like games with one or more of these mechanics (especially card drafting), I recommend giving Fields of Green a try.

This is an excellent farming game, which is quite easy to learn and teach. Grand Fair expansion is highly recommended for a wider range of fields and actions. A couple issues that prevent me from giving it 5 stars: all coin denominations look almost identical so it's easy to make a mistake, and the insert in the 2nd edition is badly designed with very little space allowed for the components. Other than that, the game is very thematic and has wonderful game mechanisms. I highly recommend keeping track of how much water and food your fields produce and consume, and simply adjust it each time you add a new tile. This way you won't need to re-calculate your tableau from scratch each time you are picking new tiles and deciding whether you have enough food or water to sustain them.

Fun game my husband and I have played over and over again. We love the mechanics of the game!