ORCHARD (2018)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	PUBLISHER
1	5-10 mins	Mark Tuck	Side Room Games

In this colourful nine card game, players grow their orchard and try to produce as much fruit as they can.

This is done by overlapping cards in a way that increases fruit dice played upon them.

Simple as that. A score attack puzzle that plays between 5-10 mins, depending on how thinky you get.

When you first overlap a tree colour, you play a fruit die on top. This gives you 1 fruit. But if you overlay it again it’ll bear 3 fruit, then 6, before maxing out at 10.

However, if you chose to overlay a tree that doesn’t match, you can place a rotten fruit token on it instead. This is a negative 3pts at the end of the game which prevents that tree being used again.

This can put you in a bind, because you’ll see a massive gain potential, but maybe one tree on the card won’t match. From that point you’ll be calculating potential harvest versus points loss.

It can make for some agonizing turns.

I don’t play a lot of solo games, but this one has become a little hideaway of peace and solitude for me. I play it on my lunch breaks at work, or when I’m the first one up on a Sunday morning.

The components are great. From beautiful and high quality cards to custom dice and wooden rot markers, it belies its Print ‘n’ Play roots. And it’s small box means it’s easy to pick up and take with you.

It’s hard to find flaws with this game. It does exactly what it needs to.

Sure, if you don’t like solo games, this definitely isn’t for you.

And the layout of the cards (some have fruit paired orthogonally, others have more paired diagonally), coupled with drawing nine of the eighteen cards, can sometimes just lead to a poor hand to start with.

Overall this is a moment of peace that will get you thinking without breaking your brain. And it’s easy on the eye too.