Dorfromantik and the Simple Joy of an Early Campaign Ending
Create a charming countryside region with the relaxing campaign experience found in Dorfromantik: The Board Game.
The world of solo tile-laying games is one of my favorites, as I’ve demonstrated over the years! I never heard of the video game version, yet Dorfromantik: The Board Game sounded like it was going to be excellent. Laying tiles, creating areas to complete simple tasks, and working on achievements all sounded like the recipe for something I would enjoy!
Spoiler Alert
There are a few unlocked elements shown throughout, although I tried not to show exactly how most of these are unlocked. If you want a full surprise, I recommend not browsing through this post until you’ve played. Have fun!
Game Overview
Game Name: Dorfromantik: The Board Game
Publication Year: 2022
Designers: Michael Palm & Lukas Zach
Artist: Paul Riebe
Publisher: Pegasus Spiele
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
In the simplest of terms, this is all about deciding how to place the tiles in play. Task markers indicate specific sizes of connected areas like forests, streams, and villages. All very easy, calming, and lovely! With all sorts of content to unlock via achievements, it offers up many challenges.
First Play
November 14, 2023
Complexity
1
Latest Play
November 17, 2023
Expansions
0
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
8
Play Time
20 Minutes
High Score
206
Game Area
32" x 28"
Low Score
96
On Task with a Trio
Not too many rules exist, outside of the task markers and how these may be completed. Setup involves drawing a random trio, and then it’s all about building outward!
Sometimes, these work together to set up easy sequences. There are also interesting decisions to make about discarding a task marker to put out a different one.
I only lamented over how some of these edges terminated! Some of the fields looked a little too eclectic for me.
Still, this was a very cozy and relaxed sort of visual style that matched the practically zero-stress gameplay.
All Around the World
My completed maps looked quite charming, indeed! It was pleasant to take a step back to imagine how it would be to live in this little area. Lots to see and do around here!
Perhaps the heart of the enjoyment comes from unlocking more and more content. New tiles and components add up over time for more scoring opportunities.
A campaign sheet tracks overall progress, with the ultimate goal of scoring 400 victory points. Quite difficult!
However, I was immediately taken by how lightweight this was. Fun and lovely, but more of a gateway solo game.
Opening Up Boxes
I counted my plays as a success if I unlocked something else, and that never failed. There were times when I had to focus on going after a strategy for an achievement.
Opening up the boxes to find the new content was intriguing! Yet it all felt pretty limited after a few plays.
Don’t get me wrong: This is certainly a lovely and cozy sort of game! It just felt like something I didn’t need to keep playing over and over again for every achievement.
My campaign still took me through a full 8 plays, which wasn’t nothing! Simply seemed like a good stopping point.
Task by Task by Task
Finding ways to connect up regions was often quite fun, especially when there were identical task markers of different values. I had some exciting moments!
Keeping some areas maxed out at 3 tiles ensured that some 4-level tasks were completed immediately.
I even had a play where I got all of the task tiles out! Normally, the game ends when the landscape tiles run out, so using up more task tiles extends the game a lot.
Enjoyable in many senses, but just too light and repetitive for me to work into my collection. Still glad I played!
Knowing When to Stop Early in a Solo Campaign
I know… Usually, the best advice is that a campaign gets even better later on! Just looking at some of the other tiles, there are definitely cool elements I didn’t experience. Yet I made the call not to force myself to keep on playing just to reach that point. For me, the worst thing I can do to myself is make a board game feel like forced, boring work. Nope!
Is this rating low? Absolutely, yet as I’ve mentioned before, my ratings are only for myself. This tells me at a glance that I made the right call in stopping early. Also, this is definitely a board game to find a new home for. Finally, I’m not the target audience for this one, so a low rating doesn’t reflect anything about the game itself… Just one that’s not for me.
With so many campaigns to get through, I find that it’s important to recognize when I should stop early for my own sake! There isn’t enough time to play all of the board games I want to all the time. I’m here to have fun, and that might mean I don’t need to reach the end of a campaign to have gotten all I can get out of the experience. No problem!
Finding the Best Scene
Although gameplay is focused on completing tasks and unlocking achievements, many tiles feature delightful little scenes. The trick is to take a moment to look closely!
Ignore the fact that this circular river route was worth nothing for completing tasks and was just a poor idea…
I was more excited about the fact that the field with the building is my favorite tile! There is a person just laying back, relaxing all cool and all. That’s the spirit!
So throughout my campaign, I always tried to spot this tile to have a little smile and laugh. Great times on the river!
Unlocked Tiles
For a handful of plays, I had a lot of fun unlocking all sorts of achievements. New tiles showed up, and I had paths to keep on earning more victory points each time I played.
At a certain point, though, it all felt a little too repetitive. There wasn’t a story to keep me coming back, and I didn’t see any major surprises to unlock later on.
Granted, this wasn’t the case of a bad game. Nope! More like a lightweight game that didn’t quite align with me.
I can see why this one would be an excellent choice for sitting back and enjoying the tile-laying genre.
Session Overview
Play Number: 1-8
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Outcome: 96, 99, 105, 128, 162, 206, 182, 206 (8 Wins)
Look at that set of train tracks! It was neat to connect everything up, and I almost had the same thing going on with the river. There were certainly some interesting things to enjoy with unlocking the achievements. It was a nice enough time that I’m happy to have experienced. But I knew this was going to start feeling tedious for me, so I stopped my campaign early to still appreciate the design. Hope my copy goes onto bring someone lots of joy!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
7
Originality
Design & Theme
4
Quality
Components & Rules
7
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
6
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
5
+ Pros (Positives)
- The rules are easy to understand, and new cards with rules are easy enough to reference for any quick questions.
- Play time flies by with pretty easy choices on how to place the tiles and a consistent flow of action.
- Landscape tiles act as the end game timer, yet it can be awesome to place all of the task tiles first for a large area.
- Many different avenues to earn victory points exist, and these expand as new tiles are unlocked over time.
- Campaign play allows new content to be unlocked through achievements and high scores, which is very satisfying.
- A lot of tiles include charming little scenes or characters that add a bit of personality to a fairly dry theme.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Many of the terrain types, particularly the fields, end in odd shapes that can make the final play area a bit eclectic.
- Gameplay is very light without many decisions, so it’s an excellent choice for relaxing, but may be too lightweight.
- The tiles shed a lot of cardboard dust and debris even after punching and playing a few times, which is annoying.
- Although the campaign includes plenty of direction and challenge, there may not be enough here to play forever.
Victory Conditions
Unlock a New Achievement
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Score 100 points.
Score 200 points.
Continue the Conversation
What do you think of Dorfromantik: The Board Game? Have you managed to unlock everything? I had a nice enough time and think this is a great example of porting a video game into a board game. Maybe it’s not quite the right choice for me, but I can still appreciate its excellence and hope to see the campaign make a lot of solo players happy!
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