On the island of Majorca, nestled among the hills in the village of Alpich is a small farm. Your farm. Island life is calm and peaceful, but don’t be fooled; the competitive spirit is alive and well in this sleepy Spanish town.
So you farm. You tend the pigs. You sow the fields. You hawk your wares. It’s hard work, but you’ve never been afraid of getting your hands dirty. In fact, if hard work were all that it took to be successful you’d be the best farmer there ever was. Unfortunately, Lady Luck is also against you and it’s up to you to tame her, because ward work isn’t enough on La Granja.
How it Plays
Victory points. You want them. Whomever has the most at game’s end is the victor.
La Granja is played over the course of six rounds which are broken down into four phases, the first of which is the Farm Phase.
In the Farm phase, you’ll play a card to your board and draw new cards, collect income, add goods to your empty fields, and your pigs will procreate if able. You’ll also have an opportunity, in turn order, to purchase a roof tile which grants a one-time ability, and potentially some points.
Next comes the Revenue Phase in which a handful of dice are rolled and arranged near their matching actions on the board. In turn order, players will select a die, place it on their farm board, and carry out the associated action. Some of these actions include gaining a pig or farm good, gaining money, and making a delivery. After all players have selected 2 dice, there will be a single die leftover. All players will take this remaining action.
The dice are rolled and lined up alongside the board that dictate the actions available to the players this round.
Hopefully you’ve collected some goods by now because it’s time to deliver them in the Transportation Phase. In secret, all players will select one of their available donkey markers, then reveal them once everyone is ready. These markers have a combination of donkey and siesta symbols on them. 50
Donkeys dictate how many deliveries you can carry out, while siesta symbols move you up the siesta track. Turn order is evaluated based on who is highest on the siesta track and the new order goes into effect immediately.
Deliveries consist of you sending a good to one of the craft buildings on the board or a market barrow card that you placed in your farm board earlier in the game. If you fulfill the needs of a craft building, you will be rewarded with a craft marker that grants you a bonus, such as additional income or extra deliveries. If you fulfill the need of a market barrow card you will place a marker in a corresponding numbered market stall on the main board. The number grants you victory points, and you can remove adjacent stalls that belong to an opponent if they have a lower value.
The round concludes with the Scoring Phase. You receive a number of points equal to the number of market stalls you have on the board. Additionally, if you’ve met certain thresholds on the siesta track you will get points. The players are then reset back to zero on the siesta track, and a new round begins.
Setup for 2 players includes a farm board, a hand of cards, a coin, a trade good, and a victory point.
On the Shoulders of Giants
Nothing is created in a vacuum. We are influenced by our experiences and formed by our surroundings. Likewise, the games we play today are only possible because of the groundwork laid by games past. One game will build on the concepts of another, refine away the impurities of staid motifs in order to create something new and exciting. Only rarely are there innovations that seemingly come out of nowhere to forge a new paradigm in the gaming landscape.
La Granja is no great innovator. It borrows ideas and concepts liberally from games that have come before it, and if you’ve played some of the great Euro games of the recent past, you will surely recognize elements of them here. Designers <PERSON> and <PERSON> are quick to point out their influences and give due respect to the games which guided their development process with a thank you note in the rulebook to <PERSON>, <PERSON>, and <PERSON> for their respective creations.
Whereas Trains took the basic structure of Dominion and built upon it to make something new, La Granja is an amalgamation of systems from disparate influences framed under a single cardboard roof. It’s an homage to the games of the designer’s leisure time, a remix of the greatest hits. But taking inspiration does not guarantee success. Mixing so many ideas into a single experience is a perilous endeavor. Is La Granja successful?
Yes. 84