Hallertau - Playthrough & Review (Uwe Rosenberg Series)

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Have you tried Hallertau? Is the farming theme nostalgic for you?

[@youngmin25670]

This is now my favorite Uwe to play solo! 30+ plays in over the past 2 weeks, and I'm still itching to bring it out whenever I have an hour to kill

[@billturner]

I'm very eager to give this a try. Agricola is a top 10 game for me, but I honestly haven't tried all that many of his farming games. I want to give Caverna and A Feast for Odin a try as well. Someday... :)

[@reneeharris5502]

I LOVE it! I have played solo and at 3 and 4 players, and it has been amazing at ALL counts!

[@agametoremember8870]

No but i reeeeeeaally want to! I’ll never grow tired of the farming theme :)

[@KarthikSetty]

Really enjoy this game!

[@diggidydiggidy]

Monique (& Naveen), you've probably heard this before, but your rules explanations are brilliant. Not only are the details you give organised well and clear, but your vocal modulation and additional casual clarifications are superb. Many times rules can become monotonous and almost sleep inducing, but your varied and conversational style is always so engaging. You guys are excellent. Thank you!

[@trenthogan4212]

I absolutely love this game and it's great at 3 player! I also love Reykholt. The boulders represent clearing more land for the town to grow, hence you see more buildings in the background as you move the community centre. The way the boulders are implemented are simply to save having all of these boulders on every space.

[@pclubwon]

At this point, I have to watch every video just to see if Naveen will ever pull one out!! I feel like a Brown’s fan😂. Each one, I’m thinking.... he is taking this one! Rooting for you Hoss.

[@mariepdn9850]

I loved your playthrough. Since I bought the game I couldn't find any good playthrough, neither in English nor in French. Thank you so so much.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@renanmerchedguerreiro6535]

YES! Uwe Series! I can't wait for the Agricola one.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

We're excited too!

[@darrenkearns3171]

Thank you both for such a thorough and thoroughly enjoyable playthrough. I'm a fan of Uwe's games and had been humming and hawing about whether or not I should add Hallertau to my collection but your playthrough has certainly pushed me towards doing so. I'll put in a good word with Uwe for you if and when I do buy it 😉 I've only recently subscribed to your channel and I just want to say that I really enjoy the work that you guys do and I love the dynamic that you both have together. So refreshing and lovely to see. Keep up the great work!

[@christianbank393]

Can't wait for the Uwe ranking list! I have played a lot of his games, so it'll be interesting to compare against you two.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

We are excited to power through his titles. So many excellent games!

[@codyward8554]

Great playthrough guys! Looking forward to the next one. 😀

[@BeforeYouPlay]

More to come! Thanks for the compliment :-)

[@dmi3kno]

Brilliant playthrough! You guys are such a pleasure to watch. Monique mentioned that this is not her favorite Uwe game and I missed that ranking/comparison, but I guess more will come in a couple of months, so looking forward to the Uwe series! Thank you very much for this and good luck on Watch it Played adventure! So excited for you!!

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Yeah, we actually didn't want to speak on our ranking just because we will be doing the Uwe Rosenberg designer series. Thank you for the well wishes!!

[@Salixalba1000]

I ordered this recently and one reason was this play through. Almost all Rosenberg games bring me joy so I have been fighting the purchase for awhile. This pushed me over the edge. Shame on you haha. Love the vids.

[@ethicalzombiegaming]

I really want to see a new playthrough because of the new series! I really enough watching these longer playthroughs and this is one of my favorite Uwe games!

[@StephenRandall]

This is one of my favourite Uwe games and best game from last year :)

[@BeforeYouPlay]

We really enjoyed this from play #2 and on!

[@lorelielomaloma6569]

The label “Expert” is given to games that will be published in German (regardless of the language of your actual copy) so that they can be considered for the Kennerspiel des Jarhres award. The Kennerspiel refers to connoisseur/expert level games. You’ll find the designation given by many European publishers.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Ahhh okay! Thanks for the explanation

[@lukepickles5099]

Coming late to the Hallertau party - this is by far my favourite Uwe game

[@LucasGentry]

I had never heard of this game when I saw this video come up on my feed 40 minutes ago. After watching this game (not even all the way through yet), I so very much want to play. Looks awesome!

[@BeforeYouPlay]

It's a true Euro, a lot of min/maxing. Plays really well with a decent amount of tension.

[@brendonshapiro3741]

Great video of a great game! I really appreciate the hard work you guys put into making these.

[@icypunk880]

Great playthrough and review! Enjoyed the video very much.

[@kovray]

This game is sooooo beauytiful! Cannot wait to try it one day.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Hope you do! Get your min/max math brain ready!

[@p2trivej]

This game looks wonderful. You guys are two gorgeous people.

[@bencheesecake]

43:51 "She's gaming the game." Of all the things to do!! Loved the video, great playthrough and dialogue as always. However, on this one, I feel like the Jewelry should have been explained more in the beginning. Monique kept going up the jewelry track, and I felt like I had no idea why.

[@mikaelhansson9613]

Nice score Monique! This ranks as one of my favourite Uwe Rosenberg games. Probably 4th after A Feast for Odin, Fields of Arle and Caverna.

[@jackchin6927]

Thanks for the video! Really enjoy to see you guys playing game👍👍😊

[@antgerfitz]

First time sheep passaway, but in Agricola you throw them in your oven. My 9 year daughter trades sheep with fairies that live in the fireplace. My wife and I most enjoy A Feast for Odin, and At the Gates of Loyang (however we remove the attack cards and play simultaneously).

[@andrethannhauser6302]

seems like Uwe is right with stating in the rules that 100+pkt is good and 110+pkt is even better. so far I have played Hallertau solo 4x (102, 114, 104, 91). the last match was a test to go heavy on sheep and fulfilling more cards than moving the house to the maximum. that one didnt really work. especially the card draw is too lucky to go heavy on point cards from which about 50% you can never fulfil. the game should be "draw 2, keep 1" especially for the field and point cards. yesterday I had my first 3-player-game which I won 110 to 76 to 68. again it was all about getting the house to the end....with the help of tools and jewelry. I think with the game as it is, it only makes sense to get new cards (other than entry cards), when you want/need to get the start player Marker anyway or you really have a left worker which you definetely dont need to spend to get tools. so the game should get an expansion solving two issues in order to make the game be on top with the big Uwe games: 1.) reduce randomness of cards (e.g. draw two keep one OR let the top cards be shown so you know what you get. 2.) Hallertau is famous for the hop which is needed for BEER. at least every German who sees the box thinks the game is about brewing beer....which then leads at least to a minor disappointment when playing the game. this is not the case. so there should be an expansion which historically might play 50 years later when hop is THE ressource of the region. there needs to be a player board about beer and/or maybe a ressource instead of just delivering hop to the brewery and that's it.

[@gee3161]

Great job guys, just had the game arrive and was looking for a playthrough and you guys did really well

[@seangeraghty]

First time viewer. I like how chill you guys are. Good job.

[@CincyAirshipPirate]

Uwe is one of my favorite designers so I do admit to that bias, but I've really enjoyed my plays of Hallertau so far. The limited number of actions you can take each round adds some of the tenseness of his earlier designs, but its still a relatively open experience where you always have plenty of options, even if an opponent (or card) has blocked that one spot you wanted. It plays quickly and smoothly. Pleased with this one!

[@Shot007]

Great content as usual having tried this one yet. The farming theme is great and I love the changes.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Glad you enjoyed it! It's fun trying to figure out how to plan for the end of the round activities.

[@buddha1062]

Ashamed to say it but bohnanza is the only Uwe game I've played. And i love the idea of them. Everytime I watch a playthrough of one I'm so interested. Just to expensive to buy in New Zealand unfortunately.

[@12345678abracadabra]

Ooh what about boardgame Meetup groups or game cafes? Or online? Agricola has a decent app

[@buddha1062]

@@12345678abracadabra honestly I don't know of any where I am.

[@ElaDivine]

Everytime I look at this game I can't shake the feeling that this huge building as a number tracker is sooo ridiculous. Seems so over the top hah

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Lol it is ridiculous!! We thought it was so silly ;-)

[@aaronfirewing9196]

Woohoo Uwe Rosenberg series!

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Coming soon!

[@mikejoyce1563]

Are you going to do a full Uwe Rosenberg series like? I love watching your reviews and look forward to your views on these. I haven't played any yet and trying to decide a jumping in point, they aren't the most attractive boxes, and some look downright intimidating!

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Hi Mike yes we are! It'll likely start in a month or 2. We are trying to gather the games we still need. :-)

[@andrethannhauser6302]

in your review you say you should keep your jewelry until the end OR when you really need it. even though it might seem that way because in later turns steps cost more ressources that is a wrong conclusion. 1.) every step you can do NOW you dont need to do later for a higher price. 2.) the earlier you get your house that one step further you get that one more worker. 3.) evenly doing constant steps means you dont need to invest that much in tools in the last turn. 4.) the ONLY reason why having few jewelry might make sense is the cards that need you to have or even spend jewelry. BUT after having checked the field decks I would state that you only should save some jewelry when actually playing with the jewelry deck because in that deck there is double that many cards than in the other decks that need you to have/spend jewelry (almost a third of the field cards).

[@ButOneThingIsNeedful]

This is another one I am attracted to. It will be interesting to see your final Uwe Rosenberg rankings. (I don't think you have done that yet, have you?)

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Not yet, we plan on doing it once we wrap up the series. Just a few more games to go.

[@ButOneThingIsNeedful]

@@BeforeYouPlay Great, no pressure. Wasn't sure you had covered Nusfjord (yet another quality Uwe). If you have I've miss that vid somehow.

[@marknadeski7485]

This video really makes me want to see the Uwe series. Especially when you rank his games and anger all his fans.... 😜

[@piotrlekki4087]

Hi Guys!! Watching your gameplays, reviews has been always a pleasure- the best way to spend time during indoor cycling, hehe:) Thanks for this film. I think, Hallertau will expand my collection:) Ps. Have you ever heard of Florenza? It would be cool to see you playing this heavy one:)

[@Rabesandratana]

Great video, like always!

[@chrisjohnphillips6352]

What do you prefer between Agricola, Caverna or Hallertau?

[@sherlockhomeless7138]

3:00 Holy cow. That's so genius.

[@windyhillbomber]

I will be interested in how u guys compare Hallertau with Fields of Arle

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Need to play Fields of Arle a few times. It's a shelf of shame nominee. :-(

[@mikaelhansson9613]

I think this is almost as good as Fields of Arle, which is my 2nd Uwe game after A Feast for Odin! My favourite game of 2020.

[@chimster1234]

I agree that labeling this as Expert level could and likely does create a barrier that isnt justified imho. When I was getting into the hobby these labels absolutely kept me from buying the game. They are like warning labels.

[@chimster1234]

Does anybody know if Expert level refers to the complexity of the rule set or the thinkyness of the gameplay?

[@BlueApe57]

Ive had Agricola, Caverna and Hallertau in my shopping cart of a website for like a month and Im not sure which one to get yet despite all the videos Ive seen on them. Any suggestions?

[@ryangallagher7183]

Great video. I disagree with your advice about saving jewellery until the end because it's worth more at this point. This isn't the case. The jewellery gets you one movement in round 1, and it gets you 1 movement in round 6. Either way it is 1 movement, and one less movement you need to do in the last round, which saves you 6 resources whether or not you used it in round 1 or round 6. You are better off having that movement sooner so that you need fewer tools, and can benefit from more workers sooner. The only reasons to save it would be for certain cards, or to keep options about what to move, but I don't think these outweigh the benefits of having the movement sooner.

[@dblane1989]

While I agree that it is worth using jewelry early to get extra workers and to save on tools, your maths doesn't work regarding the resources saved. It is definitely more resource efficient to save jewelry for later. As an example, imagine there were just three spaces: The first costs 1 resource, the second costs 2 and the third costs 3 and you have one jewelry to spend. Spend jewelry 1st round - total cost to advance - 2+3 = 5 Spend jewelry 2nd round - total cost to advance - 1+3 = 4 Spend jewelry 3rd round - total cost to advance - 1+2 = 3 The idea that you have "one less movement you need to do in the last round" doesn't save you three resources, it only saves you the one it would have taken to use resources in the 1st round. Again, strategically there are plenty of reasons to spend jewelry early, but there is definitely a resource cost to doing so.

[@ryangallagher7183]

@@dblane1989 You're making a faulty assumption in your math. You're assuming that you are spending the jewelry instead of a resource in the early round. Obviously in the early rounds when it's cheap, you will spend the resource before the jewelry. Or another way to think about it in your example is if you have the resource, spend it for movement, then also spend the jewelry for the same or a different movement. What I'm saying is it is a mistake to save a jewelry that instead could have been used to make an early movement you otherwise wouldn't have been able to make. The math would be: Spend jewelry round 1, then spend 2+3 resources round 2 and 3 for 5 total. Spend jewelry round 2, then spend 2 + 3 resources round 2 and 3 for your other two movements for 5 total Spend jewelry round 3, spend 2 + 3 resources for the other 2 movements rounds 2 and 3 for 5 total. As you can see the total is the same either way, so you haven't saved any resources at all, and have only put yourself behind by having the movement benefit later.

[@ryangallagher7183]

@@dblane1989 Another possibly easier way to see the error in your comparison is to look at your 3 scenarios and take the jewelry out of the equation completely. These are three completely different scenarios, where the resources you have to spend each round are completely different (2 of the 3 you have a resource for a round 1 movement, the other you don't). If you want to see the effect of changing one variable (when you spend jewelry in this case), then you need to keep all other variables the same.

[@andrethannhauser6302]

spending jewelry in the first lets say 3 rounds WITHOUT this leadind to a movement of the house OR creating a gap for using the town hall (OR maybe you have tools left to be used) doesnt seem to be a good trade. As discussed, steps get more expensive later so there will be critical "moves" you probably wont be able to pay.

[@ryangallagher7183]

@@andrethannhauser6302 Your reasoning here is flawed (you're not the only one, I've noticed people make this mistake all the time when discussing strategy for this game). If I spend the jewelry in round 1, that building will be 1 further forward at the end of the game, exactly the same as if I save it and spend it in round 6. The only difference is I went 5 rounds without the possible benefits of having the building moved earlier. A good analogy is imagine you had a coupon for a free copy of Hallertau, but you knew that Hallertau was going to cost twice as much in 6 months due to inflation and rising shipping costs. Would you be better off waiting 6 months to use your coupon so that you get more "value" out of it, or would you be better off using it now to get the exact same thing, but 6 months earlier?

[@raymyers700]

Hahaha! I'm with you on the nostogia part. All this game needs is a dude with a coffee filter around his neck made by Alea and I wouldn't be able to resist it! Am I right Naveen? :D

[@BeforeYouPlay]

LOL the coffee filter! Classic...

[@raymyers700]

@@BeforeYouPlay if you are wearing one and have a non functional buckle somewhere on your person : you KNOW you are in for a good time!:D

[@arashgrgsson3841]

i think everytime u get a card its better to take two choose one and put the other in buttom of pile to reduce bad luck ... other than that its an amazing game

[@emmalind4484]

”The sheep shearer is nice and cheap” :)

[@Marky-by4zv]

I love this game and thank you for this video. By the way, I noticed that this video is not in your Uwe Rosenberg series. Not

[@tuesss]

It has hops. It must be the best board game ever :) Seriously though, it looks great, maybe except the moving building. On the one hand, it's probably helpful to have clear feedback on how well you are doing at any point in the game. On the other, I think I prefer player boards in games such as Agricola or Patchwork where the end state tells a story and can be significantly different every time instead of being basically a progress bar. Also, I'm afraid one player taking lead early may discourage other players, which is a concern in more casual/family settings. Still, I will almost certainly buy this game even if just to play solo. It has too many things I like. Including hops.

[@Kunibert1]

Hallertau is actually the biggest contigous hops farming area in the world.

[@MrKeller13]

This game looks great. Can’t wait to try it! Also I feel like with watching this, that playing with 4 players would balance out fairly well, other than the AP aspect, because there will be more cubes being placed each turn, which will fill up the spots quicker and make it so people have to spend more cubes to do the things they want to do each round. This will make each round shorter in theory with each person taking less actions than they normally would if they were playing with less players. Also an odd question....I’m curious at how much you guys had to edit out of this video just from thinking about turns?????. The edits are so seamless that you barely notice but it made me think.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Hi Jacob! Yeah, the spots on the board seem to balance player count very well. We have to edit out thinking from most of our videos so it's a little difficult to say for this one specifically, but from what I remember, we had a good amount of AP lol. So I'm thinking we edited out A LOT.

[@sandrabasel1545]

I never even thought about people editing out their thought processes ... suddenly I feel a lot better at how long I sometimes take to decide 🙃. Thank you for the playthrough I think I will get it for solo play, I don't think anyone in my family would like it (yet, the kids are still growing so maybe one day?).

[@NemoMangelk]

Will you be able to do Capstones re-release of Glass Road?

[@BeforeYouPlay]

We would like to!

[@thomasachhireddy8483]

I really enjoy the game, but getting bad card draws can be rough.

[@OlivierBL]

Yeah I agree. In the booklet they really encourage you to go for cards and I guess the more you get the better the combos will be but I always feel it would be too risky to do so. But also I only played solo. Maybe at 3 or 4 its a better options to focus on card play if they are not to expensive...

[@thomasachhireddy8483]

@@OlivierBL yeah my plan at two going forward is to try and get more cards. I also think I need to play with the beginner decks more since I jumped ahead the next two games with harder decks and they are rough by comparison. I figured it would be like nusfjord's decks but nope, much harder.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Yeah I don't know if there is a true way to remedy the luck of the card draw. We'd be very open to hearing other people's ideas though.

[@thomasachhireddy8483]

@@BeforeYouPlay honestly it probably is just going to have to be a thing. But worth trying is drafting opening hand, also draw two pick one but that may break the game... More plays needed either way :)

[@robertcrist6059]

@@BeforeYouPlay What if there were x cards +1 face up per player count? Everyone has the knowledge to go after the same cards, makes the competition even more intense, may over power first player not sure, but once you complete one of the cards replace it.

[@mariepdn9850]

Hello Monique ! What is your favourite Uwe's game ? !

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Good question, but can't reveal until after we do the series ;-)

[@ovi311286]

Hey guys, great content as always! I'm totally new at Uwe's games and I wanted to know how is this game compared with the classic agricola in therms of farming theme? Is agricola still a must? Or hallertau could be a decent succesor

[@hxjdjdn6236]

Agricola is something very different. Endless fustration you must enjoy to love the game 😅

[@Zrinko_Maloseja]

Looks like a wonderful game

[@SamiPaju]

Are you suggesting that the boulders migrate?

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Lol, I have no idea what's happening thematically.

[@welersoncarvalhodeavila4499]

Time for a farming games rank list

[@jauggy]

It does seem like first player does have an advantage

[@NemoMangelk]

starting the Uwe series - oh ye

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Slightly... hehe

[@doggyaugie]

thanks for this! it looks good, but in all honesty the boulder dynamic really seems like a turnoff. Can't wait for Nusfjord and Fields of Arle... please do one with the Tea&Trade expansion since I'm too intimidated by it lol

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Lol the boulders are kinda weird. We unfortunately don't have the expansion... :-(

[@doggyaugie]

@@BeforeYouPlay k but how bout that new salmon deck for nusfjord? i just got it but haven't played with it yet, would be awesome to see it in action

[@zhivik]

Great playthrough - this game is a brain fry :) I do like the design, though, as it proves very well that you don’t need a complicated set of rules in order to have a deep and strategic game. Don’t take it as a jab, but it’s what I dislike about Vital Lacerda games - they are great in theme and depth, but their rules are too bloated and reduce the fun for me. I don’t think I will be good at Hallertau, but I’d rather give it a try than On Mars, for instance, even though I love the theme of the latter a lot more, as I don’t want to spend several games only to make sure I got the rules right.

[@TheMperor5]

Does this mean the year of Naveen is over? 😱

[@BeforeYouPlay]

I will scratch, I will claw! Never. Back. Down!!

[@doggyaugie]

spoiler alert

[@barbaramazzocca4605]

Is there a solo with this game?

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Yes there is! Though we haven't tried it yet

[@TheLuminousCleric]

I found this game to be really weird with the moving house that doesn't make any sense. Also, too much luck in the cards.

[@kauisurfer13]

Will you be bringing Viticulture to the channel? Uwe helped co-design the Moor Visitors Expansion!

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Unfortunately not anytime soon. We don't own Viticulture/ the expansion :-(

[@kosterix123]

so everybody raves about the solo but all I see is 3 decks of totally random cards. Convince me otherwise.

[@BuddhaScribe]

It really irritated me that he didnt have access to his own pile of resources. lol i dont know why it urked me. Neither of you should have to keep saying "pass me this pass me that." Share the resources, make your own discard piles! lol

[@jchangaus]

I enjoyed watching the playthrough, but that’s just too much maths for me.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

So much min maxing in this one!

[@pipecccpipeccc2754]

You are bouth so cute! ))