Scoville Review

   Scoville is a game to see who can make the hottest chili by planting and harvesting peppers. It plays two to six players and takes about an hour.

   The board comes in four pieces that fit together like a puzzle. One thing that I really like about this board, is it tells you right on it how many of each type of cards you need according to the number of players. You don't have to flip through the rule book every time you play.

   To set up, place the board in the middle. Take a red, blue and yellow pepper in your hand. Mix them up and randomly draw out two. Place the two peppers in the middle two pepper spots that are outlined in green. Above that, place the morning auction cards. Flip over the number of cards according to the number of players. You will bid for these cards starting in the second round. To bid, place any number of coins in your hand. Everyone reveals the coins at the same time. The highest bidder gets to choose where they want to go in turn order. After turn order is chosen, players will choose one of the cards in the auction and receive the pepper that is shown. It is important to remember that during the harvesting phase, it goes in reverse turn order.

 

   Along the left side, you are going to place market cards, again, according to the number of players. You can buy these with peppers and earn coins, peppers and points.

 

   Place the award plaques on the bottom left. Put them in order so the highest point value is on the top. In a two or three player game, you will take the top plaque off of each pile. When you plant a pepper that matches the color on the plague, take the top plaque and place it behind your screen. These will give you points at the end of the game.

 

   On the bottom right is where you have your turn order. This will change throughout the game. For the first round, place the players turn markers in your hand and mix them up. Randomly place them starting on the 1. This is the turn order for this round. After each round, you will slide the player tokens into the empty circle above the turn order. This order is used if there is a tie.

 

   Place the correct number of recipe cards on the right side of the board. Put the peppers and coins where they can be reached by all players. Your board is now set up and ready to go.

 

   Next, each player chooses a player screen.

   Each player then takes their corresponding screen, their farmer, a blue, red and yellow pepper, a five coin, five one coins and your special move cards. The special move cards let you either plant an extra pepper, move one extra step, or double back once during the harvest stage. You can use them one time per game. Put these behind your screen. Place your turn marker on the turn marker spaces.

   In turn order, you will plant a pepper. (After the first round, the bidding starts the round)

 

   There are four breeding charts. These show you the turn order on one side and the color combos to make new peppers on the other.

   After each player has planted a pepper, you will go in reverse order to harvest. The first time you harvest, you will start your farmer on the star in the middle. Every other turn, your farmer starts where it left off the previous round. You can move up to three spaces, always moving at least one space. You do not get a pepper from your starting space. Each space is indicated by the notches between two peppers. When passing between the two peppers, you gain a pepper according to the breeding chart. Example: moving between a yellow and blue pepper will give you a green pepper. If there is only one pepper, you do not receive a pepper.

   You may not move through another farmer and must go the direction your farmer is facing. You may pivot your farmer before you move him to face the direction you would like to go.

   After the harvesting phase, you can purchase cards with your peppers. In this example, a card is being purchased with a red and purple pepper. In return, they get a brown pepper, three coins and the card is worth one point. Points are indicated on all cards by the fire symbol. You may purchase one card from the market and one recipe per round.

   When there are fewer market cards than the number of players, discard any remaining cards. It is now afternoon. Place the number of afternoon market cards according to the number of players. You will also put the deck of afternoon auction cards up. Leave any remaining morning auction cards. Once those have been taken, place them with the morning deck and flip new cards from the afternoon deck. All morning cards are blue and afternoon is green. This makes it easy to change them out when needed.

   Play continues until there are fewer afternoon market cards or recipe cards than there are players. Once this happens, that round finishes and the game is over.

   Once the game is over, count up your points. You get the points indicated on the market cards, recipe cards and plaques. Each special action card that hasn't been used is worth four points. Every three coins is equal to one point. You can sell peppers after you have purchased your cards. The peppers are worth one coin per two peppers that have been planted. This is a good way to get points for some of those left over peppers or if you need more coins for the auction bidding. Whoever has the most points, wins the game!

   I love this game! It is probably my favorite strategy game so far. There isn't really much luck to this game at all. It's easy to learn and play. The components are awesome. One thing I really like about this game is the more rare the pepper is, the taller it stands.

   I do have to say, if you are color blind, this game may be a bit difficult to play. We aren't color blind and still have a hard time telling the difference between a few of the colors, mainly the black and purple. Some of the peppers aren't cut quite right to fit into the pepper slots on the board.

   Overall, I would highly suggest this game. There isn't really any downtime between turns since you have to pay attention to what others are doing. Every play can change your strategy. This game is definitely going to get a good amount of play time.

Harbour Review

   I received a print on demand game of Harbour by Tasty Minstrel Games. I was rather excited to get a pre-production review copy. Keep in mind, this game hasn't been put up on Kickstarter yet, so the pieces you see here, are most likely not the pieces that will come with the game. 

   To begin, each player chooses a player card. Each card has it's own abilities. This card is where you keep track of which goods you have.

   There is a card to keep track of how much each good is needed to purchase more buildings. This will change throughout the game, which is one thing I really like about the game. Here, two stone is worth two dollars, three lumber is worth three dollars, four fish is worth four dollars and five cattle are worth five dollars.

   To begin, each player will put their player cards in front of them. You lay out cards (number of players plus three, so a two player game has five cards) face up and the rest are in a draw pile. You can start with either one of each good or any combination of three goods. Here we set up for a combination of three goods. After you choose your goods, randomly place one of each goods cube on the cost of goods card. For the first turn, place your player marker next to your building. We found it's easier to sit next to each other so the cards are easier to see.

   On your turn, you can place your player marker on any of the available buildings. The cards in the middle are free for anyone to use. You may use your buildings for free as well. You may use an opponents buildings by giving them any one of your goods. After you place your player marker, do what is on the cards. For example, the first card you can pick any of your goods and double the amount. On the second card, you can pay one cattle for a fish, stone and lumber.

   Once you have some goods saved up, you can purchase a building card. The cost of each building is on the top right of the card. I have enough goods saved up to purchase the seven dollar building. Move your player marker to a building that allows you to purchase a building. Each player card allows you to purchase a building.

    I would put the three dollar lumber and four dollar fish on the ship space.

   Move your tokens on your goods track down to zero. In this game, if you have extra goods (for example, if I had four lumber instead of three) you lose the extra goods. There are ways to be able to keep some goods. We will talk about that in a minute.

   Once a building is purchased, the cost of goods will change. You slide the ramaining goods forward.

   The lower amount that was paid moves first. It will go on the highest available space.

   Keep going until all of the cubes are returned to the cost card. The highest amount that was used, will  now be on the lowest amount.

   Each card has the cost on the top right. There are the number of points the card is worth on the top left. This top card is worth twelve points. Each building also has a symbol on it. There is either a top hat, a coin, an anchor, or a warehouse. These symbols each have their own ability. The top hat allows that user to use other players buildings for free. The coin allows you to purchase a building for one less dollar per coin card. The anchor cards have special abilities on the building cards. Some cards give you the same number of goods as the number of anchors. The warehouse lets you keep one good when purchasing a building.

   Some of the cards have two symbols on it giving you double abilities.

   Whoever purchases the fourth building (fifth if you count the player card) triggers the last round. Each other player gets one turn to try and buy another building. Whoever has the most points from their cards, wins the game!

   I will be honest, I have had mixed feelings about this game. I have played it as a two player game and also as a four player game. I enjoy it as a two player game. It's not too long, there is plenty of room to move around and to get what you need. You can have some sort of strategy. It is also fun trying to race and see who can get the buildings done first. The game is a little different each time you play it since the cards are random and there are a few player cards to choose from.

   I didn't enjoy it as much as a four player game. We had a hard time seeing the cards, it got crowded and wasn't easy getting what you needed. You can't plan in advance because the cost of goods can change multiple times before it gets back around to your turn. That also causes a waste of goods until you are able to get a warehouse or two. As a four player game, I felt it was mostly a game of luck without any strategy.