The Best and Worst of Market Foxby with Village Green
Set up a respectable and attractive bit of scenery to compete for awards and create a pleasant spot to visit with Village Green.
I’ve always been drawn to Village Green, and it often gets a fair amount of regular play time. Perhaps the only slight point of disappointment is how its tagline regarding “petty grudges” doesn’t quite come through… But it’s a wonderful little solo puzzle I thoroughly enjoy! Getting everything to line up to win the committee’s awards is not easy, yet is very satisfying.
Game Overview
Game Name: Village Green
Publication Year: 2020
Designer: Peer Sylvester
Artist: Joanna Rosa
Publisher: Osprey Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Awards create the goals to work towards in the rows and columns as beautiful scenery is added to the area. Flowers, ponds, structures, and trees fill the space to make it worthy of earning the garden committee’s awards! It’s a quick puzzle that features interesting decisions and a bit of luck.
First Play
June 8, 2021
Complexity
2
Latest Play
April 5, 2026
Expansions
0
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
34
Play Time
10 Minutes
High Score
39
Game Area
24" x 16"
Low Score
11
Making the Right Calls
Choosing between the award and green cards is an act of balancing scoring opportunities. Placement is also very important to consider with the rules for adjacent cards.
There isn’t too much to gameplay, yet reaching the highest scoring tiers is difficult! Aligning everything perfectly takes some planning and a slight reliance on good luck.
Despite that, I found myself laughing at my horribly low scores since the artwork is so beautiful and calming.
Besides, that idea of petty grudges can be applied to the other villages… I definitely didn’t make poor choices. Ha ha!
Filling Up the Green
Such a beautiful final grid! It’s not alway possible to fill in every space with the way adjacent cards must share the same color or flower icon, or both. Hence all the red here.
For the solo mode, placing structures is more strategic. This is the only way to cover up an existing award, so I often make sure to time the addition of them until later rounds.
I was reasonably happy with this outcome! As usual, I paused after scoring to find my favorite scene.
It was the upper gazebo, nestled between trees and nearby a pleasant looking pond. The perfect place to take a break!
“Best” Use of Space
Sometimes, I had to make do with what I had. The worst is when an award only results in negative scoring… Definitely a bit of tampering from the villages in the competition!
Here, I had a row that was looking to utilize the space in the best way. It wasn’t too bad… Filling it in completely made it reasonably worth it, and there was only a single tree.
It was interesting that this play wasn’t all that great, though. So many gazebos gave me all sorts of other awards to see!
Alas, this is a game that sometimes doesn’t work out. It’s quick to clean up and set up, though, so I kept on playing.
My Best Score Yet
How excellent! This arrangement ended up netting me my highest score ever, which was just shy of 40 victory points.
It was due to me cycling through the market at one point… Note the flipped Market Foxby card! This was exciting, especially since I managed to draw the perfect card.
There was a good chance I was going to end up with an empty area, yet the bottom left gazebo was the last card I drew. A new award covered one worth nothing. Pretty good!
As many times as I’ve played, I don’t remember ever seeing the middle card. That would be the best one in this green!
Appreciating the Journey Over the Final Result
I know one of the biggest highlights of this session was my highest score, yet I had almost as much fun with my horrific scores! Although I play to score as well as I can, there are some plays where everything goes wrong. But the important note is how I never feel frustrated. There are a few laughs and sighs, yet nothing I would classify as stressful. Time to play again!
Short, lightweight solo games tend to lead to less frustration for me, and it’s an important lesson to try to apply to the more complex games I bring to my table. That whole idea of enjoying or appreciating the journey over the score can be helpful. I like to remember the awesome moments or rounds when I accomplished something, even if it all doesn’t pan out.
Session Overview
Play Number: 27-34
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Outcome: 22, 28, 23, 27, 16, 16, 39, 29 (1 Win & 7 Losses)
The artwork is simply gorgeous, and I keep finding new details every time I play. I don’t think I ever spotted this magpie hanging out in these branches before. So cute! Achieving my personal best score was wonderful, as was scoring embarrassingly low and blaming the other villages. Ha ha! I keep coming back to this one pretty regularly, and it’s always a peaceful sort of puzzle. Glad to see I’m finding new ways to love this one more and more over the years!
%
30 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
9
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
6
Quality
Components & Rules
9
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- Every card features beautiful and relaxing artwork, often with little details or calm scenes with people or animals.
- Finding the best combinations of award and green cards is challenging with very satisfying results when it works.
- There is a good deal of variety across the different decks, allowing slightly different strategies to emerge.
- Gameplay is very quick, as is cleanup and setup, making it easy to play multiple times in a row during a session.
- Planning the grid is a nice challenge with the adjacency rules and the way options are reduced in the later rounds.
- Structures offer additional ways to think about the timing of filling up the grid with the ability to replace awards.
– Cons (Negatives)
- The yellow flower icons have limited contrast, and it can be very difficult to see these in the earlier print versions.
- A fair bit of luck is needed to reach the highest scoring tiers, which is often well outside the control of the player.
- Some awards seem to be better or worse than the rest, leading to a bit of a bias over many plays about what to pick.
- It’s minor, but the experience doesn’t quite align with competing against other villages that harbor petty grudges.
Victory Conditions
Score 30+ Points
- Overall Goal Progress 75%
Goals and Milestones
Score at least 25 points.
Score at least 30 points.
Score at least 35 points.
Score at least 40 points.
Continue the Conversation
What is your favorite part of Village Green? Have you achieved a personal best, or created something special with your green cards? I simply love what this game sets out to do: It’s not complicated nor does it change all that much from play to play, yet it’s so beautiful and enjoyable! Such a nice feeling when I find a solo game I can always rely on for calm fun.
Glad youve enjoyed the game!
Im happy to report, that newer editions have solved the yellow-colour-issue. Probably not enough to justify a new copy, but whoever is interested…
Thanks! I’ve spotted the newer editions and am happy that was resolved. I seem to enjoy the slight struggles with this original edition I have. Makes it easy to blame the nearby villages for tampering with the yellow flowers. Ha ha!