by RDewsbery
Christianv wrote:
1) A 3rd player: This sounds interesting, but I have yet to try it out. Also, I’m not convinced it will fit on my table. Still, it is a nice option to have and you can always use the 3-player rules to play a quicker 1 or 2-player game.
Don't discount how good the three player game is. No, it won't fit on your table. Unless you are really organised and don't mind siting very, very close to the farm next door. But it is worth that small sacrifice. The third player gives you a bit more tension, someone else to accidentally stumble in the way of your master plan, forcing you to remain a bit more flexible than you can be in a two- or one-player game.
2) The titular Tea: By far the most interesting addition to the game, Tea is a new resource which allows you to perform actions better (you can pretend your tool marker is one space higher on a given tool track for a single action) or even to perform an action twice! The implications here are profound and Tea can become a highly valued resource which must be spent judiciously to achieve maximum effect.
I see tea as much less interesting, but a necessary price to pay in the 3-player game. Tea opens up a few more options, but more importantly it allows for an accelerated start (or an accelerated finish), with extra actions and more one-use tools. Vital to bring the game length down from 9 rounds to 7.
3) The (other) titular Trade: While Tea explodes the number of options you have on a given turn, Trade is perhaps an even more important addition to Fields of Arle. My main complaint about the base game is that you are almost required to get a large wagon or carriage if you want to progress in the game. Trade lets you go a different path by investing in ships. You have small fishing boats which can upgrade 1 to 2 resources, and alternately provide food if left unused. You also have large trading ships which can be used to upgrade goods, but can also be sent on trade missions to gain valuable items such as Wood, Timber or (you’ve guessed it!) Tea. Not only does Trade give you an interesting alternative to vehicles, but it also addresses one of my other complaints about the base game, namely a lack of access to the ever-valuable Wood. But as with all things in Fields of Arle, you can always just ignore Tea and keep raising your sheep.
Like tea really, I see trade (with the fishing cutters and trade ships) as being pretty similar to the travel/wagon game in the base game. Still, as with tea the addition of trade opens up a few more paths to explore.
4) Ditches: Speaking of sheep, don’t you find it annoying that your sheep can only breed in a shed? Or that you can only plow one small field at a time? Or that you need to waste a precious action to drain your marshes? Well my friend, have I got a deal for you! Try out the new & improved Ditch today! Ditches are another great new addition to the game, and as with Trade, Ditches open up a new field of possibilities to explore and give some alternatives to some actions which used to be all but essential, namely ‘colonising’ marshes and building large stables to breed as many sheep as possible. I won’t go into the details here, but trust me when I say that Ditches really give a needed boost to farming and wool strategies.
Really quite dull. But again important to add options - and balance - to animal farming and especially to ploughing. I think that the drainage of bogs into peat bogs is only necessary to stop a thre-player game descending into a fist fight over the "horse plus flip a bog" action space.
5) Buildings: Tea & Trade replaces a few of the old buildings and adds a couple of handfuls of new ones. I can sum up this addition in one word: Variety, variety, variety! (Incidentally, this is the mantra used to judge the longevity of a board game’s popularity).
Ah, this - along with the third player - is what the expansion really adds for me. Extra green/yellow/blue buildings so that every game is a bit different. I'm not bright enough to understand why the orange buildings have to be fixed, but I can live with that knowing that the yellows in particular come from a changing pool that just got a lot bigger.
I have yet to work out whether building a green building is suicide or not. On balance, I'm not building them very often - and would not dream of building two in the same game.
While introducing a 3rd player is a nice idea, I’m not sure I will ever use it. 3 is an awkward number of players, especially for a game that requires so much investment to get over the initial learning curve.
You ought to try. I explained the game to six new players in a week or so, and had good games with all of them. Arle is so logical; the way the various rules for animals, or production, or tools work is just so intuitive to most players. The trickiest bit is helping people understand when and how tiles are loaded during the two main seasons.
In a word, more options!
Yup, this is my favourite part of Tea and Trade. Combined with the other very important thing to watch for in expansions - rules creep. An expansion is of little interest to me if it adds significant new rules or complexity. Arle avoids that.