Go Farm!
- Board's Eye View
- 13 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Professor Puzzle's card game Go Farm! is a revamp of the traditional children's card game Go Fish, which itself is almost identical to Happy Families. In Go Farm!, however, the 2-5 players are trying to collect sets of farm animals, and the 'twist' is that when you complete a set of four matching farm animal cards you have to make that animal's noise when you lay the set down. The rules are silent over whether or not there are any consequences for failing to make the animal sound.
As in Go Fish and Happy Families, players each have a hand of cards and, on your turn, you ask another player if they have any of a particular animal in their hand. If they have, they must hand you all the cards with that animal. If not, they tell you to 'Go Farm!' and you just draw a card from the face-down draw pile and add it to your hand. You can only ask for an animal for which you have at least one card in your hand so, in common with the other similar traditional card games, this is a set collection game predicated on memory and deduction. In a game with three or more players, then unless my turn completes a set, when I make a request for, say pigs, I have signalled to other players that I was holding at least one pig. If they see that my request has earned me two cards then any other player with one pig card will be able to deduce that I now have three pigs in my hand that they can nab from me and complete a set by asking for pigs.
As with Go Fish and Happy Families, Go Farm! is a card game primarily aimed at younger children that introduces them to set collection, turn taking and simple deduction. This version from Professor Puzzle is attractively presented, and you can easily add in your own house rules penalising players who forget to make the appropriate animal noise when placing out their completed sets. It's a game all the family can play and it's an ideal stocking-filler for 4-7 year olds.
