On the coast of the North Sea, you can make a living with a successful farm. With hard work and careful choices, your land can thrive, your flock of sheep can flourish, and you can reap the rewards of a job well done. How will you manage your farm in Lowlands? Pre-order your copy of Lowlands from our website now or from your local retailer.

A Hard Day’s Work

Running a farm is no easy task. Strategically prioritizing tasks will lead to a succesful farm that is running smoothly. When a new day dawns will you spend time focusing on adding new buildings to your land? Or will you build fences and enclose pastures to house your flock of sheep?

Each player will have their own farmyard to take care of. A small workforce of three farmers can be assigned to the different tasks available for the day’s work. When you assign a farmer to a task, you can resolve that task according to the farmer’s action value (2, 3, or 4). Perhaps today you’re planning to increase your pasture so that tomorrow you can get more sheep. The farmer with the 4 value can be placed on the fence space of your farmyard, allowing you to build multiple fences in preparation for the sheep. You only have the three farmers for tasks, so make your choices strategically.

A Helping Hand

A few farmers won’t get all the work done. Thankfully, laborers can give a little assistance. A laborer placed on an action will improve that action for you. For example, if your laborer is taking care of the sheep market for you, the sheep will cost one less coin to buy or will gain you one more coin when you sell.

Each player starts with one laborer already helping in their farmyard. Throughout the game you can acquire another laborer or reassign the ones you already have. As you add buildings and fences to your farm, you’ll uncover bonus icons on your basic income card. A farm with pastures and buildings is running successfully and brings in more income. Once you uncover the laborer icon on the income card, you can add a second laborer to your farmyard or reassign a laborer already on the board.

Winning the Game

At the end of the game, the storm surges against the dike. If the dike breaks, then some of your sheep will get washed away in the flood waters. After surviving the storm, the best farmyard in Lowlands will win. Score victory points for dike points, sheep, buildings and features, coins, and resource cards.

Buildings and features improving your farm are worth victory points. Any sheep left in your farmyard will also score. The value track may have changed during gameplay so make sure to check the value for sheep and dike points when scoring. Trade in any leftover resources for victory points then count up your gold.

Did you choose to focus only on your own farmyard or did you contribute to the greater good, building the dike to protect everyone’s farm? Make your choice in Lowlands! Pre-order your copy today.