The Farmer and the Deal: an In Hand game you already own

 The Farmer and the Deal is a mostly In Hand game that uses a regular deck of cards. The theme of the game is that you are renting a field from a farmer and you need to make enough money to cover the rent and try to make a profit too.

If you’ve played Palm Island (and if you’re interested in In Hand games, it’s a safe bet that you have), The Farmer and the Deal is pretty easy to pick up. In fact, the rules have you hold the deck sideways but I quickly just started holding it Palm Island style and found that a lot easier to manage.

What The Farmer and the Deal does is effectively combine the storage action and the upgrade action of Palm Island. When you turn a card sideways to become a field, that card (or that spot in the deck) is also what gets upgraded.   

However, you have to go in specific suit order. You have to start with spades, turning up the soil. Spades have to upgraded to clubs, planting seeds. Hearts are cultivating seeds. And you end on diamond, selling the crop. Those are removed from the deck for scoring, which is where’s the game isn’t quite In Hand.

Upgrading cards doesn’t just involve suits. The card has to either be equal or less than the card it’s upgrading. Your value in diamonds is your score so you are going for high numbers.

You go through the deck twice, using the jokers to keep track. And you have to have a heart field that you cycle through to turn into mulch. (Ending the game with no mulch is an automatic loss) You also have to get at least twenty points in diamonds or automatically lose.

What I haven’t figured out about the game is how much work really determines whether or not you’re going to win. I need more plays, but I have a feeling that, as you learn to grok the game, you figure out how to balance the risks and you learn how to make good decisions. The fact that you do get to go through the deck twice helps with that.

In Hand games aren’t a huge niche and Palm Island was a major milestone. I have played a lot of post Palm Island games. The Farmer and the Deal definitely shows the influence of Palm Island but does some interesting things with it. Effectively upgrading a space in the deck, rather than actual cards, leads to a different dynamic.

And I also think that it’s a pretty good game.

Sadly, one of its strongest selling points is also one of its weaknesses. Using a regular deck of cards makes it very accessible and just adds to my never-ending argument that one deck of cards is the biggest game library you will ever find. 

However, I also know that I am more engaged when I have themed cards. The Shooting Party, which is a weaker game than the Farmer and the Deal, got more play when I made a themed deck for myself. I know there’s part of me that wants to think that chrome doesn’t matter but it does make a difference. A themed deck for the Farmer and the Deal would make me play it more. But the core mechanics are solid.

The Farmer and the Deal is already in your game library. It’s worth checking out.