Beschrijving
Three Sisters
Three Sisters is a strategic roll-and-write game about backyard farming. The game is named after an indigenous agricultural technique still widely used today in which three different crops — in this case, pumpkins, corn, and beans — are planted close together. Corn provides a lattice for beans to climb, the beans bring nitrogen from the air into the soil, and the squash provides a natural mulch ground cover to reduce weeds and keep pests away.
In the game, you have your own player sheet with multiple areas. The garden is divided into six numbered zones, each containing the three crop types. There is an apiary. You’ll be managing compost, goods and fruit. There’s room for planting perennials. And last but not leats you have a shed, which is filled with tools that have special abilities.
Gameplay
All the crops, fruits, flowers, and hives are represented by tracks that you will mark off as you acquire these items. Many of the tracks are interconnected with other elements in the game, giving you bonuses along the way. A common feature of these tracks are circles that represent a harvest, which generates goods; get enough goods, and you unlock bonus actions. Advancing on all of these tracks offers various amounts of points, advancements, and bonuses.
The game lasts eight rounds. Each round you’ll roll dice and group them by number. You then place the dice on an action space of the circular action wheel. Once the dice have been placed, each player drafts one die and uses it. Once everyone has drafted a die, all players get to use the lowest-valued die remaining on the action wheel.
A die lets you do two things, which you can do in either order:
- Plant or water the numbered zone matching the value of the die.
- Take the action of the space from which you removed the die.
At the end of the round, all players receive a bonus action, either rain that waters all numbered zones in your garden, a trip to the shed, or a visit to the farmer’s market. After eight rounds, you score points for harvested crops, perennials, the apiary, fruit, and some shed items. Whoever has the most points wins.
Three Sisters has a solo mode in which you try to top your own score against an “opponent” that drafts dice and blocks areas of your sheet.
Summarised
This is a beautifully brutal game. It’s an absolute brain burner and a joy to play. You often get lost in the multi layered actions and can find yourself forgetting what you wanted to do, but it all adds to an amazing roll and write experience. The game has real depth and interesting decisions to make while also having a lot of replay ability.
