Embrace your inner farmer, gather up your extra produce, and head to the market to see if you can have a profitable day! Two to four players can try their hand at this farmer’s market business and see how it turns out in My Farm Shop, a 30-45 minute game for 8+ where the luckiest and most strategic player comes away with empty bushels and full pockets!
The game includes two extra modules besides the base mode, so it’s a 3-for-1 bonus! A Market Board is set up in the center of the play area to hold 6 field cards at a time. Each player gets a Player Board where new field cards from the market are stored and used for better trades and benefits.
Players also get a Farm Shop Board to hold the gained goods throughout the game. Players can only have as many goods as will fit on the Farm Shop Board, so don’t hang on to them too long! Goods have to circulate to keep the market strong!
We LOVE games where inactive players get to take actions, and My Farm Shop uses this engaging mechanism, which keeps the game exciting.
The active player takes FOUR STEPS:
- Roll 3 dice
- Choose ONE die and take the card from that numbered Market Stall on the Market Board. (Dice Roll = 5, take Field Card in Market Stall #5)
- Players can pay burlap bags to alter the die roll, one bag for each increase/decrease. (If you roll a 5 but you wanted the card in stall 3, pay 2 burlap bags.)
- Improve your farm
- Activate a field (ALL PLAYERS)
- Take the sum of the other 2 dice and activate the corresponding card from the Farm Player Board
- Players can pay burlap bags to alter the die roll, one bag for each increase/decrease. (If the sum of the dice = 5 but you want to activate the card in field 7, pay 2 burlap bags.)
- Fill the Market with a new Field Card from the deck.
SUNFLOWERS can be gained from certain field cards and placed on the Farm Board. When a field with a sunflower is activated, that player gets to choose/double ONE additional resource.
The game picks up speed as players get more and better field cards to activate. Choosing the right cards and goods requires a good deal of logical thinking, strategic planning, and luck.
Players keep track of their profits on the scoring track around the perimeter of the Market Board. When the Market Board is unable to be 100% full of Field Cards, the game is over. Each player gets to activate any ONE field and then the player with the most coins wins!
One of the things our family loves so much about board games is the exposure to so many different themes that often spark some deep-diving curiosity in one or more of my kids. Playing farmer in this game made one of my children more interested in gardening. Playing games isn’t all about the points and mechanisms, sometimes it can be the catalyst for real life growth, new skills, and life long interests!
My Farm Shop is a fun, educational, competitive board game that is a great transition for kinds into more advanced strategy games. This game isn’t terribly complex, but it has many of the same mechanisms that more complicated games have, so it can help kids learn to think and play in a more complex strategic way.
The game has ultimate replayability tons of gameschooling target skills. There’s probability, reasoning, strategic decision making, and arithmetic so kids can learn through play, develop strong relationships, and have a great time together.
Thanks to Pegasus Spiele for sharing with us!
[Check out Space Dragons, another well-loved game by the same maker.]
