General Startegy

[BonesawisReadyGG]

After playing a few games it seems like the general strategy is to prioritize upgrading your water bucket and clearing forest in earlier rounds. Then try to get a pumpkin planted and just tend it multiple times before a big harvest late in round 3 / early round 4. I usually try to get a strawberry seed planted and tended after the big pumpkin harvest too. This usually gets me around 50-60 points by the end of the game depending on what the other players are doing.

Round 4 always has the same 3 farmer's market options, and the middle one that gives you a bucket refill and a farm action is really good. It's so good I've taken a higher turn order with lesser rewards just so I can use that space.

I usually want my bucket upgraded to at least 6, since that can tend exactly 2 pumpkins. I've found going further can be risky since you will have less actions for farming and actually scoring points.

I'll buy anywhere from 0-3 buildings per game, but anymore than that and it feels like I run out of space for tending crops. I almost never use blueberries and I only really use wheat to pay for the trading post.

I really enjoy this game, but am wondering what some other strategies are. I haven't really figured out other strategies and don't want to just do the same thing everytime, or worse get locked out of upgrading my bucket and then have no clue what to do instead. Depending on your character maybe going for a clearing and building strategy could be viable? Curious what some other people have come up with.

[dethwing]

In general I think strawberries are better than pumpkins, but if the opportunity arises, I well grab a pumpkin if I can. Strawberries have the same efficiency as pumpkins (2 points per water) but take more space and are easier to get and plant. I recently played someone who went for the big 1-harvest play for nearly 60 points and I won with 4 different 18-19 point strawberry harvests.


Especially on the last round, any strawberrys remaining are scored full value, while pumpkins are way worse (6 to 1).

I definitely agree the most important resource is water followed by space. How much you are able to do these two things dictates which direction you are going.

The only exceptions, IMHO, are badger and Beaver. Both can play for a different game plan. For badger, you want to maximize your harvests, so you play for less space/water and more small harvests. For beaver, you want to go blueberries because they require much less space, and Beaver wants to be slamming buildings ever turn, especially ones that clear space.

Every one else (except for pig, pig sucks) plays for either pumpkins or strawberries depending on space limitations.

Edit: Here's a recent example of a game where my opponent went for the single-harvest strategy, and got 7 pumpkins on the final turn. I won by 12.
https://boardgamearena.com/3/harvest?table=614898841