Kulkmann's G@mebox - www.boardgame.de

Farm Rescue

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Author:
Harris Tsagas

Publisher:
Brain Games
2019

No. of Players:
2-5

EVALUATION

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G@mebox author Manuel Esser writes about the game:

Imagine you are sitting comfortably in a chair on your farm, your dog leisurely tending the sheep, and all of a sudden a wolf approaches, looking for your animals. Of course, you will do everything in your power to put the wolf to flight.

Farm Rescue is, as the name of the game suggests, a rescue game in which a farmer tries to protect his little farm from the big bad wolf. The wolf, on the other hand, tries to reach the farm and kill the farmer's animals. All players support the farmer as best as they can to keep the wolf away from the farm (or at least make it as difficult as possible for the dangerous animal to reach its goal).

As you can see, Farm Rescue is a cooperative game that you win or lose as a team. That's why you should work together as best as you can. The wolf can only win if it reaches the farm, and the players can't prevent it to attack the cute little farm animals. The farmer / the players have two chances to win: one is to capture the wolf with the farmer, and the other one is to sit the problem out. The latter is reached in the moment all farm tiles have been flipped. But more about that in a moment.

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Let's see what we have: Firstly there is a frame with a track on which the wolf is hunted. The miniatures of the farmer and the wolf (both are very nice to look at) are placed on this track, with the wolf having a comfortable headstart at the beginning. Two different 6 sided dice one with different colours, the second with the farm animals on the sides, are used to determine the current hunt of the wolf. Inside of the frame we place the farm tiles in a 5x5 grid. Each farm tile has its own colour and a single farm animal (a cow, a pig, a chicken or a sheep). And these animals have to be protected from the mean wolf.

At setup, all farm tiles are laid out face-up. During the game they are flipped step-by-step, according to the result of the dice (matching animal type and colour). Every turn you roll the dice, so more and more tiles will be flipped. But, you should never forget what's underneath because victory or defeat depends on it, as you will see.

If, after a roll, the animal matching the dice is no longer visible (both type of animal and colour of the card must be correct), the active player must bring to mind where the matching animal lies. The player may consult the other players, but in the end he or she must choose a farmer tile and have a look underneath. If it is the correct choice, the farmer will move one field towards the wolf on the frame, if the choice is wrong, the wolf will move one step towards the farm. After that the farm tile is flipped again to its backside. The players roll the dice clockwise until either all tiles are covered, the wolf has reached the farm or the farmer has caught the wolf.

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Especially with children, it is very important to work together as a team and help each other. But I also liked to play without children, mainly because of the nice miniatures of the wolf and the farmer and the fast gameplay. Of course you are dependent on luck, but there is a special symbol on each die that makes the game slightly more predictable. For the colour die it is a multi-coloured circle that you can use as a joker for all colours, and for the animal die it is a farm symbol, again a joker for all type of animals.

As said, Farm Rescue is a game for the whole family. Especially when the wolf is about to arrive at the farm, and the luck of the dice is decisive, the game gets very exciting for the smaller ones. Hopefully you make the right decision and keep the bad wolf away from the farm.

In my opinion, the authors of Farm Rescue have designed an interesting variation of pairs, with the big difference that in Farm Rescue no pairs have to be found. But nevertheless it is essential to remember which card lies at which position. Although the game is a children's game, it goes down well with adults, in any case it was equally fun for me. Let's try to save the farm together, because the wolf already looks very hungry again.


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