Formidable Farm Review: Freaky Fast Farming Fun

[music] [music] Hey everybody, I'm Tom Bassel >> and I'm Camila >> and today we're taking a look at >> formidable well it's it's called formidable farm. Formidable farm I can never pronounce that word right but in German it's just called formidable formidable. >> Yeah. I don't know. Anyway, this is a game.

I don't even know what that means in this game. You're building a farm, but you're not really building a farm. >> This is a This is a game where there's no theme. >> No, it's contract fulfillment. Like, done. >> Do you like the trading in katan uh with with the computer? The tra to one. If you love that, that's what this game is.

Let me show you. In this game, each player has their own little triangle to remember what color you are, a token of your color, and you're also going to get a deck of cards of these farm cards. There's quite a few of them, and as far as I can tell, they're all different. And of this deck, you will draw three of these cards into your hand.

One person chosen to go first, and the game proceeds. On your turn, you put your disc on a spot, and once your disc is on a spot, you can always move to an empty spot, and you'll get whatever it chose there. pig, sheep, two tomatoes, two cucumbers, three grain, or draw a card from your deck. The resources are right here.

You then can fulfill up to three cards. So, let's say, for example, I have two tomatoes. I can spend these two tomatoes. This lets me move my disc and get whatever I move my disc to. And I completed this card. I also maybe I there's cards out here. These don't help me get rid of my cards faster, but maybe I need the reward.

So, let's say I'm blue. I move here, get a pig. I use the pig to take two tomatoes. Then I can play this card from my hand. Two tomatoes to draw another card from my deck. Like I said, you can complete three cards, whether they're from the face up ones or from the ones in your pile. As you complete cards, you keep them to the side because you can spend completed cards to do actions.

To not move your disc and just take the action you're on, to move your disc on top of someone else, to draw another card, or take a wild resource. And like I said, there's all sorts of things. Trade two cucumbers for three wheat, a sheep for a pig. Uh here you can trade two tomatoes and you're going to draw two cards, but then put one on the bottom of your deck.

Five resources of your choice for two cards. And so on and so forth. There's all sorts of different cards that you're going to find in this game. Hey, I want tomatoes. Boom. And 11 resources. Let me draw five cards from my deck. The first person to finish off all the cards from their little deck in front of them, which is 15 in a four-player game, 20 in a two-player game, etc., that person's the winner.

[music] [music] >> For looks, it's okay. >> It's It's nostalgic. It is not one that's going to grab you, but I do find it to have a heartwarming look. Now, do I like the look? Not necessarily, but it actually I had it on my top 10. Um, oh, something of it wasn't art. I didn't do it on one of my top tens of the year.

And I said like it just >> warms you. Like this is a game that my grandma would have on her shelf and when I would go go over there, I'd be like, "Oh, that's cute. That's a grandma game." And I'd play it. Um, so yeah. So, it is kind of nostalgic to me this art style. He's definitely using the components from other games.

The cucumbers are from his five cucumbers game because there's also no reason that the apples are as big as they are compared to the rest of them. Oh, >> they're apples. >> Are they apples? >> Oh, they're tomatoes. >> They are tomatoes. Sorry. >> Yeah. Okay. >> I think we call them apples in my game.

Excuses me. >> Anyway, it's fine. It's There's nothing You're not going to open us up and say table presents. >> No. No. >> Here's another thing you're not going to say about the game in my opinion. You're not going to say strategy. This is one of and I what I mean here is this is one of the most tactical games I've ever played.

>> Yes. >> As in you don't know what's in your deck, >> right? >> You are gonna get different cards every time. So you just say, "Hey, this turn I can turn this to this to this and next turn we'll see what happens." There's not really You might plan ahead by saying, "I hope I can get that." But someone else might go there.

You kind of have to look at the board state each turn and see what's happening. >> I completely agree that there's very little. Well, it's not that it's not a strategic not that you're not going to use strategy in it, but it's not a strategic game where you have that long-term strategy of this is how I'm going to accomplish that.

It's turnbyturn what comes out. I really like the element of that shared those shared again contracts. I don't know what they're actually in. They are in that shared one that the first couple times you play, you're like, why would I ever do that? Because I'm taking more cards on. Why would I not go through what's in my hand?

But as you play more and you start to realize like, oh, I might end up doing those shared goals up there because they're going to get me those resource faster in order to fulfill the ones in my hand. And that's really where you're going to feel kind of clever or more of those strategic moments of if I do that, well, that's a higher resource conversion here, so I can get this faster as opposed to just moving and getting three wheat and then moving again and then moving again, you know?

So, so you're able to, I guess, kind of combo it together with that shared with their shares shared goals up there in order to go through your deck. And I think that that is feels clever, but not necessarily strategic like you're saying. It's not going to be a long-term strategy. >> Well, also getting those cards allows you to spend them to do things.

>> Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. >> The game is very lucky in in some aspects. I'm not saying the game's all luck, but you don't know what cards you're going to draw. And it can occasionally I found for some players you can get into like a three or four turn slog of >> I need to draw cards. >> Yeah. >> So I have to do something to draw because you don't just auto draw cards.

So you have to find things to draw cards and you can >> you can go in the space that draws cards but someone might be there >> and it doesn't feel good either, right? To waste a whole turn to draw that card. And so hopefully you have enough contracts that you can you know the fulfilled ones that you can draw the cards that way.

But it does kind of get a little stuck stuck sometimes it feels. >> I think if you want to play this game or not, you have to kind of get into a mindset. This is not a heavy euro game. Uh this is a engine builder sort of, but you're not really engine building. You're just taking the pieces you have and maggyvering them on your turn.

And you never like say, "Oh, my sheep engine's building." No, I I I've been saving sheep so I can play this card that needs four of them that does this really cool thing. And that's done. So now I need to start over again. >> I like that every card's different. I'm amused by this game. I find it to be fun.

It's similar to his >> some of his other games that he's done. We're changing things. I like every card is different. >> I just don't I can't ever see like a World Series >> thing around this because >> you I think you could lose this game and not have played badly. >> Yes. I think that there is a significant luck factor in it.

And you don't know what that luck factor is because you don't know the state of your deck. >> Yeah. What? But I again, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. If you like changing resources and other resources and doing things and completing tasks, this game is going to be one that is fun, >> right?

>> Because I'm like, oh, every turn I'm doing cool stuff usually. Sometimes there might be a turn where I need some resources, but turns are also so quick. >> They're very quick. Yes. They have a limit of three cards, which is good because sometimes if someone does get uber lucky and they're like, I can keep going.

Oh, I can't, right? >> I can only do three. So, this goes around and around. I'm giving this a seven and a half. I think it's a >> a fun, interesting game. It's it's it's clever more so that it makes me feel clever. It makes me feel like I did a lot of cool things. And I don't if I don't take it that seriously.

I don't think it's short enough to be what we would consider a filler type game. What does it say in the box anyway? It probably doesn't say. Oh, there it is. 30 minutes. >> 30 minutes. >> It's a little longer than 30 minutes. It's Well, four players. It's going to be >> two-player though. You can >> two player.

It's 20 to 25 minutes. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Which might be the best way to play it actually. >> I really enjoy it. Two players. The lower player counts. >> But I like it. What about you? >> Um I was very surprised at how much I like this game. I'm coming in at eight on this. I find it to be clever. Like you were saying, you just feel clever.

I think you don't get bored with the cards either because there's so much variability in the cards. You don't know what is in your deck. As you pull it in your hand, you're looking for those combos. I mean, there's one card, for example, that wants to be the third one that you fulfill on your turn. And if so, you get this this added bonus.

And so, you're really kind of puzzling together your turn without it feeling overwhelming or like a slog of a game. It's very quick. It plays quick. I do think that the luck factor is high enough in this, like you said, it's not quite a filler game. I put it more in like that weekn night category. Um cuz you're going to feel clever without having to exert yourself too much.

>> Almost lunch time, maybe. >> Yeah, even maybe lunchtime game. Yeah, really enjoy it. It's It surprised me because I'm not super drawn to the look. And I enjoy resource conversion as a part of the game, but not like a resource conversion game. So, I was really surprised at how well this worked for me mentally and how much I've been enjoying it.

I want some controversy. >> Oh, >> tell us where this ranks amongst all the Freeman Freeze games. >> Oh, probably number two. No, probably number one because I've only played two. [laughter] So, >> better than Power Grid. That's what Camila said. >> Yes, the other one I've played. I like this better.

>> Well, there you go. That's Formidable Farm. >> I'm Tom. >> I'm Camila. >> We'll see you next time. And we want to say real quick a thank you to some of our backers. We want to say thank you to Gideon and Daniel from Sunny Leiden, the Netherlands. to Jonas as Dusseldorf and the Woolridge family, Julip Peragine, Emily and Nathan.

>> Peragan, what a fantastic name. >> And thank you all for watching. >> Hey everybody, thanks [music] for watching this video. If you like this review or whatever you just watched, wasn't it amazing? Uh, check out our channel, Dice Tower. We have all kinds of things. We review games, we do top 10s, we play games live.

It's all about board games, but especially the people who play them. Check out Dice Tower [music] YouTube channel.