Occasionally, I’m so stubborn too! Then a game is hype and I think: well, I’ll decide for myself.
Despite seeing Faraway come along frequently on socials, I didn’t feel the need to play it. Luckily, I recently met a gaming friend I know from Instagram. She sat me down at the table and said, ‘You have to play this!
And she was right. In a month, I’ve already played it at least 15 times, recommended it to several people AND it’s high time I wrote a blog about it.
Faraway is an entertaining, fast-paced game. But more importantly: this game is all about planning. In the game, you build up a row of eight cards from left to right. Then you score points with that row, but you do so from right to left.
This requires you to plan very consciously. Not only during the game, but also after scoring, you want to check very carefully how you built your row. Wonderful, isn’t it, a game that automatically demands a review.
Talking about reviewing games: have you read the article More than a game – talking about a played game with the focus on executive functions by Tineke and Robine (Leren Leren Nederland / Learning how to Learn) in the magazine Learning by Games?
Getting to know the cards
In Faraway, players build a row of eight cards in eight rounds. Each round consists of choosing a card, placing a card down and taking a card.
To make good choices in this, it is rather important to be able to ‘read’ the cards. Therefore, here is an explanation of the cards. Some cards contain a lot of information, others very little. What should you pay attention to?
1. The value of the cards
Each card has a value between 1 and 68. Per round, players secretly choose a card to play. At the same time, they turn over the card. The one with the card with the lowest value gets to choose a new card first. But then again, low cards don’t give you as many perks, while high cards can give you a lot of points.
2. Is it day or night?
The value of the card is shown in a circle that is yellow or dark blue. Yellow + sun = a day card. Thunder blue + moon = a night card. Handy to know, because there are cards that give you points for the number of night cards you have. You don’t get extra points for day cards.
3. What does the card ‘give’ you?
Some cards have one or more symbols in the top right corner. You need these symbols to score points.
4. What colour is the card?
The line at the bottom usually has a colour. There are cards that allow you to score points by colour, e.g. 2 points for every red card in your row.
5. What conditions do you have to meet?
Above the coloured line, some cards have a box with one or more symbols. These are the condition(s) you have to meet to score points with this card. You look to the right of the card to see if you have any cards face-up on which these symbols appear in the top right-hand corner. Or you use your auxiliary cards for this. You can reuse the symbols for each card. You do need the number of symbols, so if there are two ‘stones’, you must have at least two stones.
6. How many points do I get?
Of course, this is the most important thing! Some cards give you points just like that. You don’t have to do anything else. Other cards give you nothing. And some cards give you a lot of points, but you have to fulfil the conditions.
Sometimes it’s just points, sometimes it’s the number of coloured cards you have face-up or the night cards that are face-up. Every card is different.
The steps
Okay, you now know the cards. But how do you play the game?
1. Give each player three cards
2. Make a market of cards equal to the number of players + 1
3. You can start!
- At the beginning of a round, each player secretly chooses a card from her hand. Place it face down in front of you. All players turn over this card at the same time. The player with the card with the lowest score gets to choose a card from the market first. Then the player with the second lowest score and so on until everyone has taken a card. Note that you are not allowed to put this card down yet. You take this card into your hand. So you always have three cards to choose from.
- Put the card open in front of you.
From left to right
Each round you repeat these steps and build a row from left to right. From the second round onwards, there is one little thing you have to do extra:
- compare the value of the card you put down in the previous round with the value of the card you put down now. Is the value increasing? Then you may take 1 auxiliary card. Do you also have treasure cards on your cards? You may take additional auxiliary cards equal to the number of treasure cards + 1. Look at them all and choose only one. Put that help card above your row.
The final count
When you have eight cards after eight rounds, it’s time to score points. For the overview, it is useful to turn over all the cards first. Make sure they stay in the same place in the row! All auxiliary cards above the row remain face-up. The big advantage of the auxiliary cards is that they are always valid. Then turn open the rightmost card and score the points for it. Always pay attention:
- do you meet all the conditions?
- Can you use your help cards?
Now score the points for each person per card. You will notice how difficult it is to reason the other way now!
In this review, I completely abandoned the theme in which Faraway is set. If you do want to dive into ‘….before the mists of the sea…. constantly changing landscapes….’ then read the introduction in the game rules. I find Faraway particularly interesting for its mechanics. A game where I do think ‘constantly changing landscapes’ fits as a theme is the board game Emerge. Read the review here.
General information on Faraway
- number of players: 2 – 6
- time: from 15 minutes (it depends a bit on how many players you play with and whether you have ‘long thinkers’ in the group)
- from: 10 years, the game is language-independent
- Price: € 28,00 (Dutch price, autumn 2024)
- Note: the game is released with a cover in four different colours, which might make you think there are different versions. This is not the case: each colour contains the same game.
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