Fields of Arle

Fields of Arle is set on a small East Frisian village board featuring a central action hub flanked by two personal player areas. Each player receives a home board with fields and bogs to clear, a storage depot for vehicles, starting resources of food, wood, clay, and peat, and worker pieces. The main action board is organized into summer and winter actions, each connected to tool tracks that dictate the efficiency of your actions throughout the game.

The main goal is to cultivate your homestead in East Frisia into a thriving, productive farm over nine half-year rounds. Players must efficiently clear peat bogs, build and expand their farmland, acquire and breed livestock, manufacture goods from raw materials, and construct various buildings and vehicles to travel and trade.

Each round represents a half-year, alternating between summer and winter seasons. Players place their four workers onto available action spaces on the corresponding side of the central board. The strength of each action is determined by the tool level associated with it, which can be upgraded using master actions. Players alternate worker placements until all workers are exhausted, with optional imitation actions available by paying food.

At the end of the nine rounds, players tally points from multiple categories: goods markers, building levels, clothing types, travel experiences, livestock numbers, and game board assets. Special attention is given to animal husbandry, where balanced numbers of horses, cattle, and sheep score higher, while unmanaged bogs and unbuilt spaces incur negative points.

The game ends after the completion of the ninth half-year round (the fourth winter). Following the final inventory and breeding phase, players calculate their total victory points using the score pad, and the player with the highest total wins the game.