Dorfromantik

 

The Game

I kept thinking of Dorfromantik as Dorf Romantik (two words), and had trouble finding it on BoardGameGeek.com. It is the 2023 German Game of the Year (Spiel des Jahres) winner. It is originally a computer game, and I purchased the computer version when it first came out. Back then I felt it was very much like a boardgame. It is a solo game, and you do tile placement. I guess it is not surprising that it has now been turned into a real boardgame. The boardgame publisher sells this as a boardgame for 1 to 6 players. I see it is essentially a solo game. Technically it is called a cooperative game, but it is actually a solo game with turns divided among the players. 

When you play Dorfromantik, you draw hexagonal tiles from face-down stacks and use them to build a landscape. This is very much like Carcassonne. You play until you run out of tiles to place. There are rules to tile placement, and also ways of scoring points. You score points when the game ends. Everyone plays as a team, and there are no individual scores. There is only one team score. The terrain types on the tiles include villages, forests, wheatfields, rivers and train tracks. The only restrictions on placement are the rivers and the train tracks. Rivers must connect to rivers, and likewise the train tracks. A tile edge with a village can be immediately next to a tile edge with a forest. It just means the villagers are living right next to a forest.  

Mission tokens are placed on some tiles - those speech bubble tokens with a number. The number indicates how big a terrain needs to be (stretching over how many tiles) for the mission to be completed. For example in the photo above there is a train track mission with 6. The train track is currently length 2. You will need to grow it to length 6 in order to complete this mission. One important rule is when you add a mission token to a matching terrain, that existing terrain must not already meet the criteria. You can't add a value-6 mission to a track of length 9. If you do that, you are considered to have failed the mission. The mission token is discarded. 

There are two types of tiles with different backs. Those on the left are the mission tiles. When you draw one, you flip it over to see what kind of mission comes with it. You must then draw a mission token for the tile. The other tiles, on the right, are just regular tiles. On your turn you can choose to draw either type. There is a rule that there must always be at least three active missions in play if possible. The first three tile draws in a game must be mission tiles, in order to fulfil this condition. 

When setting up a game, the mission tokens are arranged face-down. There are five types, corresponding to the five terrain types in the game. 

The number on a mission token is the criteria to be met and also the score value. 

When the game ends, the longest river and the longer train track score points too. Some terrains feature flags. These terrains score points based on how big they are. There is generally a tendency for similar terrains to group together. 

If you compare this photo and the previous one, you can see how the landscape has grown. 

This village is size 7 at the moment (covering 7 tiles). It can still further expand, from the open edge at the top left. 

When a game ends, you use this score pad to do scoring. If it is your first time playing, you will only use the first two rows. The other scoring conditions can only be used after you have unlocked them. Dorfromantik is a legacy game. You play through a campaign - a series of games, and as you play, the game itself changes. Game components and rules are added, based on decisions you make and your achievements. There are five mystery boxes in the game which contain game components. As you play through the campaign you get to open them and add new elements to the game. The new elements give you more ways to score points, and more to think about. 

This is a legacy game with no destruction aspect. You don't tear up cards or mark anything permanently. When you feel you've played the game enough, you can reset everything. You return all the game components to the right boxes, and you can let a new group of players experience the game from scratch. 

This is the legacy campaign chart. The table on the left tells you how many ticks you can make depending on how high you score at the end of a game. You tick path sections in the central area to make progress along the paths. When you reach specific stations, you unlock new game elements. You can use them in your next game. 

So far younger daughter Chen Rui and I have played five games, and we have now opened all five boxes. However we have not yet unlocked all game components and scoring conditions. We still need to play more to unlock them and to be able to use them. 

The Play

Dorfromantik is a peaceful and relaxing game. For seasoned gamers the first few games will feel easy and simplistic. The strategy is straight-forward, and it is easy to complete all missions. However as the campaign progresses you will unlock more game components, scoring criteria and missions. The game will become more challenging. It will no longer be easy to balance your priorities between the many missions and ways of scoring. There will be more to think about. There will be trade-offs to consider. For non gamers and casual gamers, the early campaign is a gentle introduction to the game system. It is welcoming and pleasant. 

There is no clear definition of when a campaign ends. You can play as many games as you want. Eventually you will unlock all rules and components. You can consider that the end, but you can still keep playing the game in its complete form. I sound like I'm talking about a Super Saiyan. After you reach the final form, you probably won't want to reset to start over, because it would be dull. The only reason you want to reset the game is to let a new group of players experience it for themselves.  

The speech bubble icons are mission icons. All mission tiles have such an icon at the back. When you decide to draw a mission tile, you flip it over to see what type of mission it is. You then draw a mission token of the specified type to place onto the tile, before you add the tile to the landscape. Whenever you complete a mission, you move it off the landscape to an area for scoring. If you fail a mission, you also remove it, but you put it somewhere else. If a mission tile on the map no longer has a mission token (like in the photo above), it means the mission has been completed or it has failed. Only missions still in progress, i.e. still having a chance to be completed, remain on the map. 

You want to make one very long train track and one very long river, because only the longest ones will score points. 

If you compare this photo and the previous one, you can see how the map has developed. 

This is another game. Wheatfields, forests and villages which have flags will score points. You will try to make them as big as possible. However they will score only if by game end they are completed, i.e. have no open edges. In the lower section of this map you can see a wheatfield (yellow) of size 14. It is worth 14 points now. However it still has an open edge, at the bottom right. You can still expand from here to hopefully score more points. However you must remember to close this open edge off before you run out of tiles. Else this wheatfield will score nothing. 

The Thoughts

Dorfromantik is a good family game. And that's what the Spiel des Jahres is all about. They recognise great family games. It is cooperative, so it works well as something parents can play together with children. The game is refreshing and a little different, which is nice. It being originally a computer game may attract non boardgame players to dip their toes in our wonderful hobby. That's certainly a plus.