29th May 2022 Sunday gaming on Board Game Arena continued with mancala styled game Fruit Picking. I'm not the fruit picker, I'm the fruit picker's son, I'm only picking fruits 'til the fruit picker comes. Hmm, it doesn't work... Caveat: We've only ever played Fruit Picking digitally. What's in a game?
The boards in Fruit Picking feature a couple rural landscapes depicted with a appealingly stylised illustrations showing idyllic countryside. The fruits are also well illustrated and Fruit Picking has solid art style. Other than the fruit and waterdrop symbols, there's no iconography in the game and it should not prove any problem to players. How's it play? Setup
On to play In Fruit Picking, players take turns moving their resources clockwise around the spaces on their board which allows them to active one space to gain more seeds or buy a card. Play begins with the first player and once their turn is over, proceeds to the left.
Endgame Play continues with players acquiring fruit cards until one player has the cards to meet one of the criteria which triggers the game end. Fruit Picking provides players with 4 ways to do this. A pair and 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, 3 pairs and 1 of each fruit. When this occurs, the current round is completed and if the player who triggered the game is the only one to have met any of the criteria, then they win. In the likelihood that more than one player has met any of the criteria by the end of the last round, then ties are broken by quantities of fruit and seeds on cards. Overall
Fruit Picking is a lightweight games that has a good mix of logic and luck. Logically, it's not hard to think several moves ahead if you want. Once farm cards have been distributed on to the player boards, moving seeds and activating farm cards is entirely predictable and only driven by player decisions. Manipulating the Harvest House action to game more actions is a key tactic, especially as it can be used to quickly fill the Harvest House and used to purchase cards. Fruit Picking is essentially a race to acquire cards before other players. When cards are drafted, everything can change, which neatly brings me to the next facet of the game The game's unpredictability comes into play on the market track. As play progresses, cards will come into play randomly, not only that, their costs will also vary, especially as they move along the track. It means that some times, the cards appearing will play into certain players' strategies and other times, potentially scupper those strategies. Players will have to be prepared to change direction for long term plans when this occurs and adapt their approach according to what is available. It's something I've encountered in other games and found to be irritating, Fruit Picking is no different. I know that this can be an important element of a game because without some randomizer, it can sometimes very quickly become obvious who's going to win. Even so, it irritates me. Fruit Picking also sits in a strange place of feeling a bit overlong for a filler game but definitely a bit too light for a main game. Having said that, it's accessible game that's easy to learn. For people who want something which engages some tactical thinking but is not along time brain burner, Fruit Picking may hit that sweet spot.
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