Farms Race - Kickstarter Playthrough

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Check out the campaign here - www.kickstarter.com/projects/mediumbrowgames/farms-race

[@thebutter5852]

I love how Michael just sits there in the middle like 😀 while you guys do the intro 😂😂

[@ashleymiller4697]

😂😂😂😂😂 i’m dead af

[@BeforeYouPlay]

We fumbled the intro 5-6 times. His jaw was probably aching by this take lol.

[@TheSecondSeven]

😀

[@benleague3115]

He seems like a super patient guy.

[@AmandaShaw1342]

Thank you so much for this! I backed Farms Race when it was on Kickstarted and have played once with my daughters, but being able to watch an entire game played gives me more confidence to bring this to my board game group!

[@zlyntudteam2394]

25:55 Monique: "Hold on! I roll double! I gotta steal!" Meanwhile Naveen on the right just slowly shaking his head. AHHAHAHAH love you guys!! ❤

[@BeforeYouPlay]

We didn't want her of all people to roll doubles hahaha!

[@teejleague3838]

Fun teach! I really enjoy when Michael is able to come over to play with you guys. You have a great dynamic. :)

[@jchangaus]

Monique: I'm going to build a nuke...unfortunately Naveen's face: Yeah right "unfortunately".

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Hahaha 🤣

[@zlyntudteam2394]

I'm really excited for this playthrough!

[@seangalbraith6837]

Just got my deluxe edition in the mail and this video was so helpful!

[@pubbles3229]

I feel like the Radioactive perk is a bit anticlimactic for a game where nukes seem to be a big part of the game. Don't know if it's op but it looks like it's not very fun to play against

[@jacforswear18]

I feel like it's definitely overpowered. The nukes are a way of attacking other players (and potentially wiping out a whole herd) without risk to yourself. So, the radioactive player having that ability, while being immune to it, makes it really easy for them to weaken other herds and then move in and sweep them, and no one can retaliate.

[@Big_Dai]

That is my takeaway from this playthrough as well. You can't have a major mechanic nerfed while other players get devastated by it! Even taking half the damage might be a tad much.

[@joshkable]

Great video! Also, I really like your dice trays. The patterns are really cool!

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Thanks so much! We picked them up from a few conventions at the Steeped Games booth.

[@Cissewis]

Yay hi Michael!

[@TheSecondSeven]

Hello!

[@ericyeung5296]

Thanks for the game play. It is great to see Michael with these fun 3p. After watching so many videos I never seen such a spread. The games are always close. Btw: It is great that is is generating feedback for the game from viewers and developer. That is neat to read to replies.

[@zlyntudteam2394]

38:38 I think Michael should have gotten 1 more wood too since he was adjacent to Naveen's Forest, no?

[@TheSecondSeven]

I agree.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Yeah I think you're right!

[@starbuster0121]

Love watching you guys play it's fun 🤣🤣!!!

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Thank you so much! Thanks for hanging out with us!

[@hunterspader8728]

At the 1:14:00ish minute mark, when Navid said weapons and plutonium, did he have to say that? Meaning, can you say materials that you don't have to play defense, sacrificing getting cards but not allowing the other player to get a free nuke?

[@hunterspader8728]

So the combat phase is similar to risk. I like it.

[@leejames929]

Sweet flamingo shirt michael!

[@BeforeYouPlay]

He got the animal themed game memo. We failed lol!

[@djPtica]

This reminds me so much of Hogs of War back in PS1 days... :D

[@Mr3DPrintWizard]

Radioactive is OP. Instead of immunity have nukes only affect injured troops. It’s like shrink ray in king of Tokyo. Should never have passed play testing.

[@FarmsRace]

In our playtesting, Radioactive wins games about as often as any other mutation. It’s extremely weak in the early and mid-game when many other mutations are at their strongest.

[@Mr3DPrintWizard]

@@FarmsRace still looks very OP. Just looking at it I’d want that over the others only because end game is where the rush for points happens. It can definitely be improved upon but easy enough to house rule or remove. We do the same with the aforementioned Shrink Ray. It’s way too good and ruins the entire game which from watching this video it looked like everyone who wasn’t radioactive looked very frustrated.

[@RebeccaOwen]

@@Mr3DPrintWizardI agree. I could tell Naveen was getting very frustrated because there was literally nothing he could do to stop the radioactive sheep. I hate to say that it did seem they were kind of suffering through the end. This would cause way too many curses and flipped tables in my house.

[@estycki]

My boyfriend and I played the two person version game so far and each mutation has its own amusing advantage, every time we tried a new one we’d say “this was a good one” I suggested we try playing two species at once and he said how would that work… maybe you guys can think of something for that too

[@bluefire700]

Looks like a cool game! Also, you heard about apiary? :)

[@BeforeYouPlay]

We have... perhaps some content in the future...

[@bluefire700]

@BeforeYouPlay niceeeee!!!... I mean perhaps nice ;)

[@DanielRedMoon]

While a tad derivative (and lacking in system innovation), I like the execution and production. There's also the benefit of people knowing Catan and easily jumping in in what seems to be a different-flavor of similar gameplay (although it IS indeed a bit more cruel). With board games, more is always better than less.

[@Eaglry]

This game has been on my radar since its kickstarter phase and looks like lots of fun. My question though is whether or not it’s worth the $125 USD price tag. Would appreciate everyone’s opinions!

[@aarontalbot6506]

Have you played this multiple times? I love everything about this, but the special abilities seem like they could be unbalanced. Monique's ability to not be nuked seemed like quite the advantage.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Yes, we've played at least 3 full games and tried different combinations of mutations. All of the mutations are very strong in their own ways and at different parts of the game, and also depend on what actually happens during the gameplay. Monique played as the same mutation the first time we played the game and was hardly able to use it because the other players did not build many nukes. Her mutation is essentially useless in the first half of the game and depends on a nuke-heavy gameplay to be effective, which is what happened here.

[@susanoerter1419]

good game well played.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Thanks you!

[@RichieDcik]

Is this from the same designer as Catan? So many mechanics are similar it almost feels like it’s infringing on copyright haha. 5 resources, roll to collect, even the costs of settlements/barns and cities/armoires are identical, not to mention the development/spy cards or the longest road/nukiest title. An interesting spin for sure but at what point is it too similar

[@FarmsRace]

Hi Richie! Farms Race is a parody of Eurogames like Catan and therefore intentionally has superficial similarities with them for the sake of critique and humor. We hope you’ll enjoy the experience if you get the chance to play it!

[@cosmos2100]

@@FarmsRace I'd say about half the core rules of this game are straight from Catan, which is more than superficial. A lot of modern board games borrow from past board games, but this is more directly copying rules than most.

[@FarmsRace]

@@cosmos2100 I think "half" is an exaggeration, but that's okay. And Farms Race does indeed borrow rules from Catan more than most board games do from past board games; we did it intentionally in order to parody both Catan and the Eurogame genre as a whole for being too peaceful and idyllic. Parodies naturally draw heavily from the material they critique (and in our case also admire) so that the critique can be understood. So, when I said before that the two games have superficial similarities, I didn't mean in terms of the number of rules that are parallel, as there are several (e.g. hex tiles with 5 matching resources, 4 different things you can build with definitely symmetry to Catan), but rather that the games belong to two different game genres: Eurogame (Catan) and 4X (Farms Race). They look very similar, but they play very differently.

[@pubbles3229]

Also this game seems to have no catch up mechanism right¿ As soon as one player is too far ahead they get so many resources each turn that they can just buy anything to defend. Maybe the limited figure count, but when you can control five back hexes with buildings that doesn't seem to impact toooo much. Maybe I'm wrong tho lol

[@FarmsRace]

There are catch up mechanisms in the Spy Cards, and our playtesting shows that when players start to get ahead it’s also important for their neighbors to apply additional pressure.

[@baschwar]

Monique's radioactivity seems way too powerful...

[@jeffhiatt1682]

yeah...seems if you cant be subject to nukes...you shouldnt be able to use them. OR the resistance is only good for one nuke per turn...

[@BeforeYouPlay]

It’s pretty powerful but all of the mutations have strengths at different points of the game. Radioactive is essentially useless in the first half of the game while other mutations can gain people a big early resource boost. In our gameplay, radioactive ended up being particularly powerful because she started on a plutonium hex AND got SUPER lucky with the early resource rolls. They essentially allowed her to both upgrade to an armory very early AND build the first nuke for the Nukiest title. Then she was able to continue building nukes after more lucky resource rolling, which made her a bit unstoppable lol.

[@mariodumouchel4028]

Could also have it that radioactivity has to roll for nuke damage. 1 per animal, and damage per gun.

[@jurds216]

This one looks fun. The radioactive power seems too strong though. It puts the other players at a strictly chance based win in a battle. Regardless this has a simple rules overhead but very fun interactive play!

[@halloweenlady4073]

Their response to stonemaier put me off this 100%. It really lacked class." I can do it and we have good lawyers" is not the response I wanna hear from someone I am giving $ to.

[@Big_Dai]

What they did was completely idiotic (specially if tied to their kickstarter product).. but as with all legal systems, they might get away with it if able, which puts them in the "right".

[@halloweenlady4073]

@@Big_Dai I get there is "right" legally and there is being a decent human. I mean Weird Al had the right to parody anything he wanted but he always asked permission and respected the decisions of the creators. Their cringy response of " we have lawyers and we should be able to rip off what we want" Is just gross.

[@nobuthatsme9201]

Stonemaier is the most dubious and sinister game maker in existence… so this was a funny comment