La Granja Board Game

Pretty new to Euro style games and both the theme and mechanics made this attractive. After I first read about it, I knew it was a must have. After I first played it, I felt I may have made a mistake. I'm accustomed to 6-12 pages of rules and saw this one came with a daunting 20 page rulebook and glossary but after browsing online seeing much of it was illustrated I didn't see it as much of an obstacle. I underestimated this. The rulebook is well written and the icons are helpful roadmaps, the variety of mechanics even flow nicely but the flexibility of the anytime moves and modifiers makes it feel messy fast until you get it down. If you don't have a steel trap memory I guarantee you'll mess at least one rule up. Depending on the group, early games can be quite painful. I even started using spare bits to track delivery counts and clumsy combos. Once it clicks and you smooth over any uneasy feelings that you might be playing incorrectly it becomes enjoyable. I love how the dice make the game play differently each time and even sets the mood or season in some games. Overall there isn't a lot of interaction especially in 2 player games but there is also a variant posted on YouTube which increases this and makes the game play out more aggressively. I feel there's still much to explore in this game after a several plays and it flows nicely at a decent pace. The The game length is perfect for me where it doesn't take too long, 45 min - 1.5 hours depending on player count, and by the final round I feel I'm playing out a finale. Like my other euro games, this came with but also requires lots of bags. I also found divided bowls being more important here since there's a lot of exchanges and denominations. Oh, and the components are great quality. Nice thick cards and pieces. The central board took a little reverse flexing to sit flat and you won't want to play your player boards on a smooth surface because you will want some space to slide cards underneath. Overall a very enjoyable game with the right group but can edge your head slate during play execution.

I was very excited to purchase this board game. I love games that include resource management such as Stone Age, etc. Sadly, I was not that thrilled with this game. First, It is overly complicated to learn. There are alot of details. Second, it feels like in order to do your best, you have to spend too much time preplanning. Since the gamers I play with do not want to sit and wait for me to figure out in-depth plans than I am rushed into making hasty decisions which later prove to prevent me from completing the actions I need to complete. The "helper" cards are a make it or break it. If one person gets an amazing helper card at the beginning of the game that may be used throughout the game, it gives a huge advantage. On the other hand, if you are unlucky enough to only draw one time use helper cards then it can really hurt. It does not make sense to waste a whole round to play a card that will only produce one resource, one time. Lastly, it only has 6 rounds. It feels like the first round is worthless because you do not have enough resources to do anything with. The second round is not much better. By time you have built yourself enough to actually start doing something, the game is over. It feels too rushed. I think it has the potential to be a good game but it just misses the mark.

This has become my favorite board game. It didn't start out that way. After my first play through at my weekly game night I just felt like it required too much thinking each turn to be any fun. I put the game away for a week or so and then decided to bring it out and give it another chance with just me and my girlfriend instead of our usual Castles of Burgundy 1v1. We both started really loving it. It has become our new favorite 1v1 game.(but the game is actually even better with more players, keep reading....) I brought the game back to the table at the next game night for a 3 player game again and OMG the 3 player interactions in the center of the board combined with everyone now knowing how to play the game made for one of the best game nights we've ever had. This is now a favorite game for our group and we look forward to playing this many more times. With the versatility of the mechanics in this game I predict this will become one of the top 10 strategy games on Boardgamegeek within a few years. I just find it so satisfying, strategizing to complete orders and knocking other players market stalls off the center board. The game is almost devoid of art or graphics, that's about the only criticism I can level at the game. But if you don't mind that and really it doesn't need it, and you want one of the best strategy games money can buy look no further.

There are so many different things to love about this game. One of my favorite mechanisms is that of multi-use cards and in La Granja that agonizing balance of how to best put your cards to use is exquisite. But that's not all! In addition, there is a light tile laying/area control component in the town marketplace that adds to the care with which one must make decisions in choosing the usage of their cards. For one of the uses of those cards is to fulfill orders which may reward you with a stall in the marketplace. But which order to attempt to fill? The one that will be quick, but only yields a low value (and temporary) stall in the market, or the one that will take time to complete but provides a high value, stable market stall? There is also a great dice drafting variant used for additional resource/action collection and a great method to randomize setup for long term variation in game play. Though it may seem like this is a confusing hodge-podge of game mechanisms, it turns out that they work seamlessly with one another and provide an amazingly tight and tense gameplay experience.

La Granja is a light-medium weight Euro game with a loose farming theme. The game is played over six rounds, each split into 4 phases. In phase 1, you choose a card to play from your hand. These build up your farm and each card has 4 possible uses, a field to grow wheat, olives or grapes; a farm extension to breed pigs, gain money or extra delivery actions, a market barrow you have to fill with goods; or a helper which will give you special abilities throughout the game. Each player has a board representing their farm and it is shaped so that there are slots for each card option that obscure the rest of the card, a really neat design and very functional. Your opening hand can set the tone of the game and focus your strategy depending on what you get. Quite often you will have to decide between two good options on the same card as you can only choose one thing to do. During this phase, you also gain resources for each empty field you have and if you have 2 pigs and an empty barn extension, you will gain a new pig. There is also the chance to buy upgrade tiles. The cost silver equal to the game round and grant you a one time bonus of either goods, deliveries, money of points.Phase two has a dice rolling mechanic where each die face represents a different resource, extra money or extra actions. The players choose one die at a time going round the table and the final die is used by everyone. You can attempt to block players by taking a die for a resource or action they might need.Phase 3 is when you choose how many deliveries to make. Players each choose in secret a tile showing a mix of donkeys and hats ranging from 4 donkeys & no hats to 1 donkey and 3 hats. The donkeys are used to carry goods from your fields and barns to either a market barrow on your farm or one of the 6 special buildings on the central board. The hats mark spaces on the siesta track which is used to mark the first player each turn - the highest up the track becomes first player, and the other players take turns in the order they are on the track so if there is a delivery you want to try and make before someone else, you need to try and be top of the siesta track. Then deliveries are made. If you fill a market barrow with the right amount of goods, then you place a marker on the relevant numbered space on the central board possibly displacing other players tokens, gaining a goods crate and some points. You can also deliver to special buildings. Completing these will give you bonus token that give you bonuses for the rest of the game. Some will grant you money or goods at the start of each round while others will give you free donkeys and siesta hats.The final phase is where points are given - you score points for each market stall counter you have on the main board and how far up the siesta track you are.After the last round, all resources are sold and money is converted into points at 5 silver for 1 point. The player with the most points wins.CONCLUSIONThere are many different ways to play and gain points in La Granja and there is no one clear way to always win. The multi-use cards are great and the way the player boards are designed to only show the relevant section of the cards is really nicely done.The game plays very much like a Stephan Feld game so if you like Castles of Burgundy or Bora Bora, etc. then give this a try. Despite the apparent complexity and amount of things you can do each round, it's very easy to teach and the rules are well laid out and cover everything.There is also a solo ruleset and you can play a quick game on your own in about 40 minutes or so. If you enjoy solo games, I would recommend downloading the card AI from Boargame Geek as it gives a much better challenge.Overall, this is a great Euro and a great addition to any collection. It has become a firm favourite alongside Snowdonia and Castles of Burgundy.

A gamers game. Excellent. The farming theme plays well. Lots of different ways of winning. Replayability good.

I haven't played this yet but I have watched some good reviews. However, my manual was in English but all my cards were in French. Slightly odd but there is a index in English with all the cards pictured. So yeah, keep this in mind when ordering.

great game

The previous reviewer must have just had a misprint, mine is English and has English cards. Excellent, beautiful game, very happy with my purchase.