Customer Reviews

Key Harvest

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Excellent game. I looked at it about a year ago and I wasn't convinced. They I read the rules and it pulled me in like quicksand.

The interaction is great. You're trying to grow your crops by placing hexes on your own board, while other players do the same. But you can't just place them right away. First you have to get the right land tiles from the registry and you have to set the price for them in your warehouse, just in case anyone else would be interested. Because other people might snatch it from you, you want to set the prices accordingly. This is not an easy decision. Later, the more tiles you put on your board, the more workers you can send out to collect the crops which will become your payment, as well as money to set the prices of the next tiles. Different workers allow you to perform different things, so choose wisely. You can even employ workers from the city. All this just makes for hard decisions about what to do and what effect your choices will have on other players and vice versa.

At the end you don't just want your board with lots of tiles in one grouping. They have to be in 2 groupings. For the first group you'll get 1 point per tile, for the 2nd, 2 points per tile, so you want to grow your lands (tiles) on an equal level, while others do the same and all of the players compete for the same tiles.

This is an awesome game! Very interactive, great play, easy rules, but hard choices on which move to make and not help the other person win. Lovely colors. Perfect for long autumn evenings when you want to sit down with the family and play.

I recommend this game very much. It teaches players the value of things they aquire, teaches them to be specially alert and teaches them planning of their own resources on many levels, from land (tile) placement, to worker placement, to crops collecting, while being frugal (or not!) with your money.

Put this on your radar if you don't have this game yet. Very much worth the money!! Or better yet, buy it!!

Enjoy the gameing!

We received this game as a Christmas gift and were very excited. Upon opening it and seeing the book of instructions and the hundred little pieces, I was seconds away from closing it back up and putting it up for sale online. However, since it was a gift, I muscled through and learned how to play.

Set up is probably the most difficult part of the game (aside from reading through the rules). There are so many different steps, and a lot of tiny pieces that you have to read. Not to mention the pieces are English on one side and German on the other.

However, once we started playing, I found myself strategizing like I do when playing chess.

Each player has a country board with alpha-numeric hexagons. There are 52 corresponding farm pieces, and each player tries to grow at least two farms of about equal size and strength. This is done by "bidding" on the farm pieces with crop counters (which work similar to money in this game) and placing them on their country board. Players can buy the farm pieces from themselves or from opponents. They receive more crop counters by harvesting (or turning over) their planted farm tiles.

You have to be careful since each player has the same country board, and there is only one of each farm tile. Plus you display your bid for tiles for an entire round, giving your opponents ample opportunity to steal them from you.

Each turn consists of up to four actions, making it possible to get a lot accomplished per turn. During the game, action tiles are played (tiles, both action and farm, are pulled from a black cloth bag, making it impossible to tell which one you're grabbing). Some actions are mandatory, some are optional. They apply to all players, and the game is over when 10 action tiles are pulled.

Scoring is done by giving yourself a point per tile in your largest farm, and two points per tile in your second largest farm. This encourages you to have two farms of about the same size. You also recieve points for worker tiles on your country board, and the players with the most crop counters of a color (red, brown, orange, yellow and green) receives one point.

All in all, this game has a lot of intricacies that might make it unappealing, but it's worth it to learn them. The instructions come with hints for first time players. After that, I think, you figure out your own strategies. The play is not difficult at all, it just takes time to read through the rules.

The first few times playing, I suggest having the instruction manual nearby. We pulled it out almost every time an action or worker tile was played, just to be sure we understood and were doing the right thing.

I recommend Key Harvest to anyone who likes a strategically challenging game. It is worth it to learn how to play, and the price is very reasonable.

This game is HARD to learn to play, but we all love it! It is so fun. We play it together as a family. After playing 5 times, we pretty much have it down pat now. It is a very high quality game. I have never seen a better made game. I really enjoyed the quality of it. My children did not really notice, but it was a pleasure for me to see and feel the board and pieces, NOT made like a game from Walmart(I have many of these).

This game is worth the risk. This game seems to be unique, I have not seen anything else like it. The level of randomness is minimal (you draw tiles from a bag. Your choices in which tiles to buy and which workers to use are the determining factor of whether you win or not. If you like thinking games like chess you would probably like this game even if you are not into euro games.

Although there are games I like more than this game, most of them take several hours to play. After the first time through this game we have been able to complete it in about 45 minutes per game. This is excellent because the strategy does not suffer at all from a quick game.

This is a strategy game where you mainly focus on your own moves and some involvement with other players. About halfway through the game I usually try to mess with other peoples plans.
The game is not too hard to learn (4 basic turn choices) but within each of these choices are a multitude of options.
My children as young as 7 can play this game (although I would suggest with an adult) but my wife and I both find it challenging and entertaining.

We've played this game as a family a couple of times because we like Settlers of Catan so much, and it looked similar. However, the rules of this game are so confusing and difficult to follow and remember, we rarely get it out. It is clever and aesthetically pleasing like other German games, but not a good one for smaller (under 8) at all! It also takes awhile to play!

I agree with the other reviewers that this game takes a long time to learn but is fun to play. After playing it several times it does get easier. Lots of strategy but exciting and a little different each time.