Stacking produce crates may seem like an easy task, but when you play Market Fresh by Avalon Hill, you are presented with a puzzle each turn and a competition for market share across 11 different fruits and vegetables that brings another interesting challenge.
This is a tile-placement, area-influence
game where players choose and stack one crate containing 2 product items per
turn onto their 5x5 player board grid, earning points for the total number of
viewable produce items of one type that is present on the crate they just
placed.
To start, each player takes the
following items in their player color: 11 farmer tokens, a scoring cube, and 1
produce display board, using the side with the 5x5 grid. The Market Board,
which has a scoring track around its outside, is situated in the center of the
table. The inside area has a grid with a
column for each produce type (11) and rows for scoring (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 points)
ascending from the bottom. This is where overall market share by item for each
player is tracked. There are 66 produce crates with varying combinations of
produce. Players receive three to start, which they keep secret from each other,
and four are put near the market board face-up.
- Each turn consists of the following actions:
- Take one face-up crate from the display or the main supply and put it next to your other three.
- Choose one crate to place on your produce board.
- Score points for crate placement using your scoring cube per scoring and placement rules.
- Put a token on the Market Board, or move it up if the total viewable number of any one type of produce on your player board has increased to match the next scoring row’s labeled number. Once these tokens are placed, they can move up but do not move down.
- Replace a crate if you used one from the display.
Play continues until all crates
have been placed, and then scoring begins. Using scoring cubes where in-game
scoring for crate placement has already been tracked, end-game scoring for
market share majorities in each produce column are added up, and the person
with the highest score wins!
What a colorful, delightful game for 1-4 players! It only takes 45 minutes to play and has two more challenging variants and a solo mode included ~ Marsha