WBG Score: 8/10
Player Count: 1-4
You’ll like this if you like: Smallworld, Mountains out of Molehills, The comic.
Published by: Off the Page Games
Designed by: Jay Cormier, Shad
This is a free review copy. See our review policy here.
Harrow County is a fascinating game. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, the game follows the exploits of two battling factions, trying to sway the fortunes of the people of a small American town. You can learn how to play and read our thoughts here. The game plays one to three players, but is best at two I would say. But with this expansion you can add a fourth player, and introduce a fascinating new way to play with three. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays.
How To Set Up Harrow County: The Fair Folk
If you are playing a two player game, you can use the Fair Folk against Hester in a new way to play two player.
If you're playing a three-player game, you can have any combination of the base factions (Emmy, Kammi, or Hester) along with the Fair Folk.
For a four-player game, all four factions are used: Emmy, Kammi, Hester and the Fair Folk. This board becomes crowded with more Leaders, Haints and importantly, conflicting objectives. The Fair Folk, with their manipulation abilities, can serve as both an ally. But ultimately have their own goals. To find their Queen!
To set up, place the Fair Folk's Queen's Board next to the player using the Fair Folk faction along with the three tokens representing the Sword, Crown and Queen. Then the other players choose a starting location for the Queen, Crown and Sword on the main board. They keep this secret from the player using the Fair Folk. They can be placed in any location but are marked secretly on the small white board representing the game board. Place this facing away from the Fair Folk player s the other players can see it, but not the Fair Folk.
Next, the Fair Folk player places all their offer tokens into the bag and draws three out. Place these into the nest tokens. The Fair Folk player also places one silver cube on one terrain on their Queen's board. This terrain now gives the Fair Folk a benefit when they activate it in the game. Finally, shuffle the two decks of cards and draw three from each. Three objectives and three Fair folk cards.
The rest of the main board setup remains the same.
How To Play Harrow County: The Fair Folk
The Fair Folk always act after each of the other factions in the game have carried out their turn. Apart from Hester if they are in the game. So, in a game with four factions it would flow between the Fair Folk, Faction one, Fair Folk again, Faction two, Hester; then back to the Fair Folk again. The aim for the Fair Folk is to find the location of their Queen. When they do this, the game ends at the end of that round and they win. It may be that another faction shares the win if they can get to seven or more points in the same round.
On their turn, the Fair Folk can do three things. First, they can place a nest along with an offer in that nest on any hex on the map without a unit or bonfire. If they place it on a terrain that matches the one they chose in their player board during set up they take a silver cube from their supply and add it to the battleground. If another player takes the offer later in their turn, (which they do by ending their turn with a unit on the same space), then you activate the tree. You do this by gathering all cubes in the battleground and dropping them into the top of the tree. Then, if the Fair Folk have more silver cubes in the battleground than the player who took the offering, the Fair Folk player can play an arrow token on the board. More on that soon. When another player takes an offering in this way, the nest stays where it was, and the player who took the offer token can use that as a bonus action later in the game when they choose.
When playing Nest’s, the Fair Folk are looking to match the patterns shown on their objective cards. These all show representative layouts of four Nests. You must match these layouts, either by where they are on the board or what they are next too, and then when you achieve this, show the completed card to the other players. The Fair Folk can now do one of two things. Guess where the Sword, Crown, or Queen are. Or, if they have no idea, gain some clues as to their location. They do this by placing one of their arrows onto the outside edge of the board, the same as when they win a battle as mentioned above. The arrow must point to one of the Nests that still has an offer on it, that was used in the recently completed objective. The Fair Folk declares which item they are looking for, the other players then check the secret location of the searched for item, and either leave the arrow where it is or rotate it. This shows the Fair Folk player if the item they seek it above or below this imaginary line on the board. Once they have done this a few times, you can quickly determine where the items is.
When the items are found the Fair Folk player gains additional powers as shown in their player board to use in the rest of the game. When the Queen is found, the game ends that round.
The final thing the Fair Folk can do it play their cards. The cards have a cost as shown on the card themselves, and offer various powers to help this player during the game. The rest of the game plays as per the base game.
Is It Fun? Harrow County: The Fair Folk Expansion Board Game Review
I am already a big fan of the base game. I like the three player option, but I think the three player game as offered by this expansion is better. And of course, the option to play this in a four, with wildly contrasting asymmetric faction is a pure joy. They are all SO different, but they work incredibly well together. I have no idea how much testing or math went into balancing these contrasting playable characters, but it works very well.
It may not feel like that as you play. Like similar asymmetric games such as Root, the speed at which different factions play is very different. Players can pull ahead during the game itself and it may feel unbalanced during the early and mid-game phase. But by the end of most games I have played, taking into account different player experiences with the game, it has always been even. And certainly a fair experience. This really is a huge compliment considering just how different these factions all are in how they play, how they score, and how they win.
Of course, the biggest change is the ability to play the game with four players. In a four-player game, the presence of all factions makes the game much more chaotic. The board does not get bigger like many other games of this nature when player count increases. Area control becomes more challenging, as players need to negotiate and contest with three other factions for control of certain hexes. But of course, the Fair Folk do not build like the other factions. They can help and hinder. Their disruptive abilities become hugely impactful for all players. But they don't mean to help. They are out for their own, and you cannot forget that. But during the game, mini alliances can be formed, however they are never as genuine as you may think!
If you own the base game and enjoy it, this is a must-buy from me. Not just for the increased player count options; you may not ever want to play this at four. But more for the variety this brings, even at two players. I think the two-player game of the Fair Folk versus Hester is better than the base game experience. It is certainly more intriguing to me anyway. The three-player game with the Fair Folk is similar in quality and enjoyment but wildly different in terms of actual gameplay. So again, worth it if only for variety. And if you do want to play with four, well then this really is a must-buy.
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