The Hallertau in Bavaria, Germany is the largest continuous hop-producing region in the world. It prides itself upon being the first in Middle Europe to cultivate hops. This game is set around 1850, when the Hallertau became what it is today.
As chief of a small Bavarian village in the Hallertau, your objective is to increase its wealth and prestige in the eyes of the world.
To achieve this, you will need to supply the local crafts folk with goods from agriculture and sheep breeding.
Place your workers, play your cards right, and let your village shine!
Progressive Worker Placement: Action spaces can be used multiple times, becoming more expensive in the process.
Two-Field Rotation System: Fields lose their potency over time so fallowing fields allows them to become increasingly effective.
Card Combos: You can play cards at any time; this timing—and the combination of cards—can be very powerful.
Sheep with an Expiration Date: Breeding sheep early comes with a lot of perks, but, eventually, sheep will die of natural causes.
—description from the back of the box
- Elegant integration of mechanics
- strong production quality
- Steep rulebook, dense for new players
- Agricultural economy and cooperative/competitive farming
- German hops farming region
- Agricola
- Caverna
- Nations
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- economic engine — Develop a balance of production and trade to maximize points
- worker placement — Assign workers to harvest, build, and optimize production
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the snake board is better overall
- my ad revenue has doubled since i added the advertisements into the middle of the videos
- i'm choosing to make this my full-time job
- 2021 will probably have more videos than any other year that i've done
- rules are still overwhelming but the writing is exciting
- i don't really want to flood people's subscription feeds with three or four videos at once
References (from this video)
- unique resource-track mechanic
- UB-like feel
- complex
- Resource manipulation and upgrading a moving house-track
- Medieval Bavarian-inspired village economy
- economic engine with evolving track
- Agricola
- UVE-inspired designs
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Resource management with a moving track — track advances to score points while resources are spent to progress
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a deck deconstruction game where you have a bunch of cards in your hand with differing values
- it's mean but like the funny thing is it's mean but like you don't necessarily get a Target so somebody usually ends up being the punching bag
- we did a video on the new iteration of libertalia Winds of galecrest from stonemeyer games you can go check that out
- this is one of those games where it's like a badge of honor if you win and we've just had such a great time with it
- it's a really cool experience I think that's the best way this is a really cool experience of a game to play
References (from this video)
- unique progressive cost mechanic adds tension
- deep, satisfying engine-building and village development
- rules can be intricate; setup and tracking can be fiddly
- theme is somewhat abstracted from hops/beer concept
- agriculture, craft production, and village growth
- A Bavarian hop-growing village evolving into a prosperous town
- economic/resource management with village-building arc
- Gates of Mara
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- area-based progression — building advancement and track progression impact worker supply
- progressive worker placement — cost to place workers increases over the round sequence
- resource/crop management — manage fields, crops, and livestock to advance buildings
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a fantastic family game
- the endurance deck is the core mechanic
- progressive worker placement