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Amazon.com Search | |  | Finca Board Game by Rio Grande Games Rio Grande | Home » » » Finca | | | | | | | Description: | | A place of golden beaches and a light-blue sea. The almond harvest is at hand. In addition, juicy oranges, lemons, and figs are ready to be picked and taken to the market. Olive trees bewitch the country with their curled branches and sumptuous vineyards invite passers-by to walk among their warm earth. In the midst of this landscape, your centuries-old natural stone farmhouse provides a home and supports your large windmill: your FINCA. Listen to the wind, which propels your windmill! Then take in the course of the yearly harvest the sweetest and most valuable fruits from the land. Load them on your old donkey cart and travel around the island, selling them everywhere. If you manage this quickly, you will be soon be the richest farmer on the island. | | | Features: | |
• Finca is suitable for 2 to 4 players
• ages 10 and up
• playing time 45 minutes
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 9.0 inches | | Product Width:
| 2.9 inches | | Product Height:
| 12.5 inches | | Product Weight:
| 2.68 pounds | | Package Length:
| 12.5 inches | | Package Width:
| 8.9 inches | | Package Height:
| 3.0 inches | | Package Weight:
| 2.65 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 6 reviews |
| | Charis Games Review: Finca by Rio Grande
Awards:
- Spiel des Jahres Runner-Up 2009
- Nominee "Graf Ludo 2009"
Finca is a fun, light-strategy game published by Rio Grande Games. The fact that Finca is a Spiel des Jahres runner-up for 2009 tells you that this game has substance. We found Finca to be a very enjoyable game that is suitable for most players. The rules are easy to learn (you can begin playing in about 5 minutes), and after a few turns you will have the initial game mechanic down. However, do not let the simplicity of the game play fool you. You will quickly discover that Finca also has built in complexity as well. Since this games plays quickly (in about 30-45 minutes) it requires you to develop a very efficient, strategic system of collecting and delivering fruit. Finca is best played with 3 or 4 players.
The theme of Finca (Spanish for home, specifically a large farm or ranch) centers around harvesting and delivering fruits. Players in the game compete to collect various combinations of fruit, then deliver the fruit to 10 different regions across the game board. On you turn you may take one of three actions: You may move a farmer, deliver fruit, or play an action card.
A large windmill facilitates the movement of farmers and collection of fruit in the game. Essentially, the 12 blades of the windmill form a large wheel which players use to select their desired fruit and collect donkey tiles (or donkey carts). The donkey carts are used to make deliveries to the various regions in the game. The number of farmers currently sitting on a windmill space dictates both how far you are able to move a player and how much fruit you are able to collect (ie. If you land on a windmill space that contains no farmers, then you collect on only one fruit. However, if you land on a space containing 3 farmers, you will collect 4 fruits--one for your farmer, plus three additional fruits). Two spaces on the windmill allow you to collect donkey carts. As you can see, there is a bit of strategy in choosing how and when to move your farmers. Fruit is plentiful in this game, but it can be depleted—and you don't want this to happen. If any one resource is depleted (such as lemons), then all players must return (or dump) their entire stockpile of lemons. This forces players to keep a balance between storing and delivering their fruits.
Donkey carts are used to make deliveries (and collect victory points). Each donkey cart can hold up to 6 fruits and can be used to deliver to multiple regions. For example, you may find yourself delivering 3 figs to one region, 2 lemons to another, and 1 olive to a third region (all in the same turn). As you make deliveries, you collect fruit tiles which provide you with immediate victory points as well as the option to earn bonus points for collecting specific fruit combinations.
Actions cards allow you extras such as moving your farmer to any spot on the windmill, taking an extra turn, or deploying “Super Donkey” (a donkey cart which can deliver 10 bundles of fruit instead of only 6). Each action can only be used once, and players receive a bonus of 2 victory points for each unplaced action card at the end of the game.
Click here to download the game rules for Finca. | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 6 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 A great game for anyone.Jul 15, 2009
By A. Greene
I had the chance to play Finca at Origins Game Fair this year, and it was the best one I played there. Finca is a game about gathering and selling fruit on the island of Mallorca. Not really a heavy theme, but fun. It comes with very good quality components. Good, sturdy game board and card board tokens, AND very cool wooden fruit pieces. It uses a rondelle system of gathering fruit. A wheel with fruit on it, your movement around the wheel, AND how many fruit you gather is determined by the number of workers on the section of the wheel. So if you are on an Orange section with 3 workers (1 for you, and 2 other worker pieces) you'd get to move ahead 3 spaces. If you land on an Olive section with 1 other worker already on it, you would then collect 2 olives. You collect donkey carts along the way, which you'll use to ship your fruit to collect point tokens. The player with the most points wins! There are also some bonus tokens which allow you to break certain rules.
As the title says, this is a great game for anyone. Its easy to learn and to teach to new players, which makes it ideal for family. Plus its just plain fun. There is plenty of strategy here too. For instance, when to go after certain point tokens, how to set up the rondelle to accomplish the movements you want to maximize your points, and of course; how to keep your opponents from setting themselves up. So if you get a chance to play, definitely check it out. I'd say this game fits into the light to midrange strategy category, depending on the players involved. And would be a hit with players who like games like Carcassonne, Settlers and Ticket to Ride. (And those who like more advanced games too)
Have fun!
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 A good and beautiful fruit farming themed game for the familyJan 23, 2012
By Godly Gadfly
A finca is Spanish term referring to a piece of rural/agricultural land typically with an cottage or similar building, often used as a holiday home. In the game Finca, this theme brings players to the island of Mallorca, where they're growing and delivering fruit.
The primary mechanic of the game is a rondel, represented in the game by a thematic windmill, on which players will place their farmers to collect fruit. By advancing your farmers on the rondel, there's opportunity to maximize your production of oranges, lemons, figs, almonds, grapes, and olives, and to collect the donkey tokens which you'll need to deliver your fruit to the Mallorcan fincas. In so doing there are also ways to get bonus points by making deliveries of different sizes, and getting majorities with fruits in certain locations, so careful tactical play will be rewarded.
Finca was a Spiel des Jahres Nominee 2009 and has been nominated for and won several other awards, and it's not hard to see why. The light farming theme is very accessible, and the simple pick-up-and-deliver mechanism integrated with a rondel is easy to grasp and yet gives opportunities for clever play, despite some luck. Arguably best with 2 or 3 players, it's a highly elegant and easy to learn game, with lovely components, giving it strong potential as a popular gateway game. - EndersGame @ BGG
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Good GameJan 20, 2012
By Psychic Mynock
It is a good, fun game involving delivering fruits to different communities. A surprising amount of strategy for such a simple sounding game with only a little left up to chance.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Lovely and funDec 08, 2011
By C. Tomasiak
Gorgeous reprint of a fun game. I have just this past year adopted board gaming as a hobby. I was afraid this game might be too simple (no children)) but, fortunately, I was wrong. It is a great family game, but has enough to it to interest more seasoned gamers. You can play as soon as you open the box and get the pieces punched. The rules are simple, the gameplay is not complicated, and it's fun! Others have described the gameplay but I cannot emphasize enough how much fun it is to find a new-to-you concept. This one employs a rondel to determine which and how many fruits you may collect. I think that ages 6 and up would enjoy this game. For a child, it would sharpen counting and matching skills plus, of course, the concept of taking turns.
If you would like to further explore the world of board gaming beyond Monopoly, Scrabble and Life, then check out boardgamegeek (.com). It's a whole community of gamers, very friendly, with a huge database of just about every game known to man. We've found it's much more fun to play games in the evening than to be glued to the TV.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Great strategy game that is fun to play with the familyNov 05, 2010
By Rebecca H Smith
Finca is a colorful fun game enjoyed by anyone that likes strategy games. You move your farmers, collect fruit, and make deliveries. It is easy compared to a typical Euro game, but has more strategy than the classic US games. My family and friends love this game. We play it all the time with my 9 and 6 year old.
See all 6 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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