Orchard: A Land of Apples, Pears, Plums and Friendly Worms
Grow a delicious assortment of fruit with carefully placed trees in the colorful rows found in Orchard: A 9 Card Solitaire Game.
A lot of quick solo games have made it to my table lately, and that was clearly an opening for another session of Orchard: A 9 Card Solitaire Game! This has grown into a series, yet I enjoy the simplicity of this original. Just a few cards, counting dice, and adorable wooden worms for company. Time to harvest all the apples, pears, and plums!
Game Overview
Game Name: Orchard: A 9 Card Solitaire Game
Publication Year: 2018
Designer: Mark Tuck
Artist: Mark Tuck
Publisher: Side Room Games
Solo Mode: Designed for Solo (Included in the Base Game)
Overlapping cards increase the yield of different fruit trees, yet the decisions are often very tricky! Worms show up to indicate rotten fruit, where the wrong types of trees are placed on top of each other. The experience is very quick and offers plenty of tough decisions to make!
First Play
September 22, 2018
Complexity
1
Latest Play
August 3, 2024
Expansions
0
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
134
Play Time
5 Minutes
High Score
50
Game Area
12" x 12"
Low Score
18
Off to the Orchard
There is something so wonderfully simple about gameplay in a way that brings me a sense of calm. I can focus in on placing cards and ticking up dice… Nothing else!
The worms are also adorable, especially for something that indicates negative scoring! For that reason, I don’t see them that often, but I still love having them nearby.
Scoring well is the overall goal. I’ve been working at a personal challenge for years… Getting close to 55 points!
But this is also one where I don’t mind what my final score is. The relaxing gameplay is always worthwhile.
Slowly Building Up
Since I haven’t been playing regularly, my skills were in need of growth, much like a fruit tree. Ha! I risked putting out a rotten fruit token with this play quite early on.
Hilariously, that was the wrong decision! Had I waited, the perfect card game out during the next round. Whoops!
It was still nice to put out most of the dice and see some higher values in the mix. My scores slowly improved.
There is another side to the dice with a value of 10 that I still refuse to use until I hit my original target score. It’s a battle, but one I’m having a lot of fun working towards!
Compact Play Space
Higher scores come from overlapping more cards, so a very compact play area is desirable. I can usually get an idea of how well I did just by looking at the final cards!
This play was a mild improvement, but I didn’t really build up the central area early on. I had a lot more outliers with dice, yet it was hard to keep overlapping them all.
I love the moments when I can cover up 4 fruit trees, or the even rarer times when all 6 trees line up on a card!
Nearing the end of my session, I had to try out a few more ideas to work on achieving a reasonably good score.
Delightful Dice
A-ha! With a good deal of luck, my final play resulted in a lot of perfectly overlapping cards, with about half covering up 4-6 fruit trees. That was definitely a valiant effort!
I also love the little details on these dice. The pips aren’t simple pips, but have tiny stems so they indicate fruit.
This is a great example of a fairly repetitive sort of solo game that is excellent. There are no surprises to come across, aside from the rare high scores I’m hunting for!
Many times I’ve overlooked it on my shelf, yet it delivers a very consistent, calm, and wonderful experience!
A Sense of Accomplishment with High Scores
In many instances, I love discovering the challenge of scoring well with my solo games. The ones I win far too soon after learning how to play mean I don’t have anywhere to go. In this case, I’ve been fighting to get to 55 points for years! It may seem like a very high goal, yet I’ve come within a few points a few times. Definitely possible to do!
And often, these sorts of fun battles are the experiences that stand out the most. I’m trying to win and hit a specific score, but it’s the journey that will ultimately be fun. Recall my days of trying to get a complete map in Expedition: Northwest Passage? That memory has still stuck with me several years later. Love looking back at my path to get there!
Session Overview
Play Number: 131-134
Solo Mode: Designed for Solo (Included in the Base Game)
Outcome: 27, 28, 30, 48 (1 Win & 3 Losses)
There it is! A score that nearly reached my goal and my personal best from years ago. Just need to keep on playing to try to get even better and find those cards that will neatly overlap each other. I used the word consistency before, which is a very positive aspect of gameplay. The only surprises are when things work out nicely, and those are always welcome moments of joy! Although maybe I like the rotten fruit tokens too much… Just so cute! Ha!
%
130 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
9
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
5
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
5
+ Pros (Positives)
- Finding ways to overlap the fruit trees is straightforward, but offers a lot of different decisions to make.
- Having a hand of 2 cards allows for a bit of advance planning to help map out the cards that work well together.
- Each fruit tree stands out with bright colors and different fruit shapes to make it easy to see everything from afar.
- The required play area is very reasonable, especially since cards are designed to overlap as much as possible.
- Simple rules are easy to remember and the experience is mostly predictable, making it a very relaxing game.
- Achieving some of the higher scoring tiers feels like an accomplishment, since these don’t come from pure luck.
– Cons (Negatives)
- It can be a little tricky to keep track of the patterns underneath the dice, even though these are easy to tell apart.
- Numbers are printed on the card fronts for community challenges, yet they take away from the aesthetic a bit.
- The original rulebook had the scoring tiers on the back cover, but they are now found by flipping back a few pages.
- Cards don’t perfectly align, so there can be some hanging edges or artwork peeking out from underneath.
Victory Conditions
Score 40+ Points
- Overall Goal Progress 80%
Goals and Milestones
Score at least 20 points.
Score at least 30 points.
Score at least 40 points.
Score at least 50 points.
Score at least 55 points.
Continue the Conversation
What is your favorite part of Orchard: A 9 Card Solitaire Game? Do you have a personal best score you remember achieving? Such a great little game! I know using words like simple or consistent might not sound exciting, yet these are some of the reasons why I don’t get tired of gameplay. With a little luck, I’ll hit my final goal soon enough!
0 Comments