After a successful Kickstarter campaign, 2018 Golden Geek Best Print & Play Board Game-winner Orchard has now been released.
The game is played with nine cards (there are eighteen in the box, so you can play two games in succession). There are apple, pear and plum trees pictured on them. Every turn, you try to let your trees grow (by placing the same picture on top) - this will give you fruit. One fruit for the first time you overlap, three for the second time, six for the third time. The custom scoring dice in the published version even go up to ten. The more fruit you produce, the better your harvest (end score). Whenever you put the wrong trees on top of each other, you'll have to place a rotten fruit token and subtract three from your score.
It is surprising how much fun this puzzle is. And how - like with all card games - it pays to memorize, or at least start recognizing the cards, so you can plan ahead. I'm not there yet. My scores are low.
The production is very nice. A small Tuck-box to take with you anywhere. The game is great for lunch breaks and traveling. I played a few sessions today. It was very relaxing, I found myself softly humming:
...apples and pears are me
So I'm tending my fruit, tending my fruit
Ah - you've got to have a hobby
A man must have a shed to keep him sane
To keep him sane
To keep him sane
To keep him sane
Orchard is also still available as free print and play on Boardgamegeek. It's an easy print, so do try it. If you like it, you may even want to enter the monthly challenge.
I'm playing it in the French version but the different scoring tiers have been re-made (obviously) and instead of puns, these are snarky commentaries that tell you how bad you are. On my second play, instead of getting the "Tre-mendous" tier, I got "Beware or you'll become applesauce!" which didn't feel very encouraging.