Downtown Farmers Market Review

One of my favorite things about moonlighting as a board game reviewer is that I have the opportunity to have excellent relationships with other reviewers, designers, publishers, and gamers of all types. One such relationship is with Blue Orange Games. We have always been a fan of their games from as early as the Spot It days. It has been recently, though, that Blue Orange Games has produced some of my favorite games ever and I am so happy to be able to review for them. So I obviously jumped at the chance to tackle another bunch of games that are just now coming out, with Downtown Farmers Market being the first of the batch.

In Downtown Farmers Market players are shoppers at the local farmers market tasked with fulfilling very specific orders (from whom or where I am not exactly sure). Each round players will be drafting food tiles and placing them in their personal tableau grid where each tile creates an intersection of scoring rules from special Challenge tiles. The winner is the player who can best navigate the farmers market and collect the right type and amounts of foods to satisfy the Challenge tiles requirements.

DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS.  -T

To setup, shuffle all the Challenge tiles and deal four to each player. The players then choose which side they wish to place face-up to create one axis of their grid. They are then dealt another four Challenge tiles to create the intersecting axis and delineate the x and y axes of the player’s grid. Shuffle all the food tiles (with the logo on back) and place them in stacks within reach of all players. Reveal an offer row of five food tiles and the game may begin!

On a turn, the active player chooses a food tile and adds it somewhere in their personal grid. With different play counts players may also need to discard a food tile before the next player takes their turn. Once all players have completed this step, one food tile should still be remaining in the offer row. It will stay there for the next round, and be joined by four more tiles. This is literally the entire game. It continues as such until each player’s 4×4 grid is filled and the end scoring takes place.

Herein lies the payoff for the strategic decisions made both at setup and during play. You see, each Challenge tile displays scoring metrics that must be met either downward through the columns or across the rows. These Challenge tiles may show points earned for having specific food icons in the columns, or the absence of food icons. They may show points earned for number of icons in the column or row, or even for sets of specific foods together. Therefore, creating complementary Challenge tiles at setup can certainly help suggest a play strategy.

Components. This game is 109 tiles and a first player tractor marker. I’m not sure why they chose a red Chase IH tractor over my beloved green John Deere, but I will let it slide since the game is just so darn fun anyway. The tiles are all beautifully illustrated and super clear as to what they contain. They are great thickness and quality and I really could not be happier with the overall product. I do wish credit was given to the illustrator, but sadly, I cannot find that information.

This is my family’s type of game! It is cute, very light, colorful, and just so dang fun. Even my 5-year-old can play and have fun, despite the 7+ suggestion on the box. It is not overly strategic, but you need to be thinking every turn and drafting and placing the tiles efficiently. With lower player counts the active player may be drafting a tile for themselves and then immediately discarding a tile from play, thus introducing a splash of take that in a game not really designed for it. However, if you have been to farmers markets before, you know exactly the feeling of seeing something you may like to have, only to pass on it with intentions to buy it on your way out and having some other punk buy it just before you get there again. I suppose that is kind of like having someone discard a food tile from the offer row.

I really cannot find a flaw in Downtown Farmers Market. Now, usually that means the game is a strong 6 from me. I settled on a 5 for one specific reason – I reserve my score of 6 for games I can see reaching my Top 10 Games of All Time list. While I think Downtown Farmers Market is near perfect, I really do not see it reaching my Top 10. Is that unfair of me? I really hope not, because this is a great little game. But, it’s MY Top 10 list, so I should reserve my super high scores for that purpose. Right? Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a family-friendly, used-to-be-from-a-somewhat-farmy-community, super-excited-to-play-it-every-chance-I-get 10 / 12. I know once Laura plays it she will also fall in love with it. Please do yourselves a favor and grab a copy of Downtown Farmers Market from your favorite board and card game retailer. Your stress levels will thank me.

Yet ANOTHER hit from Blue Orange Games! Way to go, my friends!