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

[simon848]

Good discussion. To build on what Dethwing has said (he is world no. 1 for a reason!), Strawberries are certainly more flexible in space layout, water usage and cheaper than pumpkins (1 fertiliser and 1 coin vs 3 fertiliser and 3 coins) but they are also very space hungry (1 space per point vs 0.5 point per space for pumpkin).

You can only truly take advantage of this when you have 20 spaces (5 big squares) clear as you can use up to 9 water to tend one strawberry. Pumpkins can therefore be good mid-game while you might still be limited on space and/or water and can score better on the space available. Probably the ideal normal pattern is therefore something like:

Round 1: upgrade bucket, clear, plant stawbs/grain
Round 2: keep upgrading and clearing Tend and harvest strawbs and grain and plant pumpkin (and tend if up to 6 bucket)
Round 3 Keep upgrading and clearing, tend and harvest pumpkin, plant and tend strawbs
Round 4, plant and tend strawbs x2 if possible

Doing this you will generally get in 1 pumpkin harvest of circa 5 pumpkins (30 points) and 3-4 strawberry harvests (circa 40-55 points). A couple of extra building and you'll be consistently scoring 70+ points.

Obviously how you go about all the above tweaks depending on your specific combinations of character, starting action, sunrise actions etc. Higher level play will also take into account what options your opponent has, coin usage and flexibility over what stupid Gairy is doing!

[harald68]

by now i played 5 games (with 5 victories and never planted pumpkins, instead mostly blueberries.

once planted, berries have the big advantage of only two more actions until harvesting.

plus one doesnt need any more

[dethwing]

Blueberries have advantages and disadvantages. They require less room, and fewer planting actions. They're middle on costs and poop.

But their big disadvantage is how hard they are to "spam". In order to get a competitive score, you'll need to tend more to make up for the fact that you can only tend once per plant. A player with 6 water can easily turn that into 12 points with either strawberries or pumpkins, but takes 3 tends with blueberries.

[harald68]

that's no problem, If one has planted 3 bushes already.

but another disadvantage, i just found out:

leftover berries only count 1 point
(not 2 as i thought)

[BonesawisReadyGG]

Nice to see other people are interested in strategy for this game.

Here are some other things I've noticed;

- strawberries, blueberries, and pumpkins all give 2 points per water used
(of course 3 minimum for pumpkin, 2 for blueberry)

- blueberries and pumpkins both give 2 points per space, but strawberries only give 1

- different crops give the most points at different bucket levels

---- at 9 (max) water the pumpkin and strawberry tie at 18 points

---- at 8 water blueberries and strawberries tie at 16, 2 pumpkins and a blueberry can give 16, but that requires an extra 3rd level seed and 2 extra fertilizer, not really viable?
------------- also just to plant 4 blueberries you would need 8 fertilizer, kind of a crazy amount, though with the cow it would only be 4.

---- at 7 only strawberries give 14 points

- I guess the idea is that strawberries will always be "water efficient" as in if you can use a full bucket to tend they will always give the most bang for your buck. And they are the best to leave in your field at the end of the game without any special building or something. The only downside is that they aren't very space efficient. The other thing with strawberries is that they only cost 1 fertilizer, with the cow it would be 0. You would remove a whole aspect of planting and just focus on getting the seeds and clearing space.

I feel like it's important to maximize the amount of points you get from each tend activity, since you only have 12 "placements" in the game. Some of which are dedicated to clearing and bucket upgrades.

Only 2 things can allow for multiple bucket upgrades at once
1) Leland the Frog's special ability
2) The water tower building

Only 1 thing allows for multiple clearing actions at once
1) The 2 action spot at the trading post
*) -- this costs either 1 seed, 2 fertilizer, or 3 water, per action

There are sunrise, farmrise, and building tiles that give bucket upgrades and clearing actions just one at a time.

The only consistent place to refill your bucket is at the general store. The farmer's market and some buildings can let you refill your bucket, as well as farmrise and sunrise tiles. I'm always looking for other ways to refill my bucket. Especially paired with bucket upgrades or farm actions, since you can choose the order to take them in.

Sometimes I find myself at the end of a game feeling like I just can't do anything. Maybe I could buy a building, there's not a way for me to refill my bucket AND tend or I don't have any fertilizer so I can't get anything into my field. And with my final action in those spots, I go to the 1 action at the general store, and take a fertilizer, because that last turn was crap lol.

[Wylie28]

A general strategy only gets you so far. Each of the 3 crops have different time, water, and space advantages. Pumpkins only work if you get the space and water to even use them. Not enough space but enough water? 6 points down the drain. Grow them too slowly and your score just is 45-50 points. Start going for 70 point scores and I think you will find the best crop really comes down to what your opponents do and leave you. Picking the right crop is an easy 6-10 point difference.