La Familia Hort Review

The family matriarch has passed away without a proper will. You’ll play as one of four farmers in the family, tending to the land and trying to carry on her legacy. You’ll resource water, use fertilizer, plant crops, and sell them for money. Ultimately, players want to gain the most experience points in order to impress Grandma Hortensia’s ghost upon her third spectral visit to the family farm.

Life on the Land

Each player in La Familia Hort will be given a player board that represents the farm land they are tending to. You can choose to play on the standard side where all players are the same, or on the asymmetric side where players will have a special ability. You’ll store your fertilizer, water and plant your crops in the 3×2 grid of dirt. Experience is tracked along the top of the board.

The asymmetric side is probably where most gamers will start. This will allow a little player interaction during the game and is pretty easy to navigate.

Rounds in La Familia Hort have a straight-forward structure. You’ll follow the icons on the current round tile from left to right. The market tile will be filled with crops, then players have a chance to purchase crops in turn order until everyone chooses to pass. Next is the fertilize phase. Gaining a new fertilizer token, the round tile will tell everyone how this fertilizer is distributed.

This is an interesting mechanic where some rounds have you placing the fertilizer token on your opponents crop instead of your own. Depending on the players around the table, this might be a chance to make a deal. You can remind them of how generous you are with the fertilizer going into future rounds. Because fertilizer has to be used or lost (unless you have the compost bin), sometimes your best option is to give this resource to the person that cannot use it right away. Hateful, I know.

Saving for a Rainy Day

Any resource in La Familia Hort can become scarce if you don’t strike a balance. Water comes in the form of blue cubes. Players can only water a plant once per round no matter how much water they have available. Extra water can be stored in your well for rounds where this resource is more rare.

After collecting and watering plants, players can sell any crops that are fully watered. Veggies will earn players coins to spend and flowers will earn players experience points. Earning the most experience points is the name of the game, but players need money to buy plants at the start of every round. Players earn the most money and experience when they fully water AND fertilize a crop.

La Familia Hort is a game with a variable end game timer. The shortest game can be a total of four rounds while a long game would last six rounds. Since flowers take three rounds to fully water, the end game could sneak up on you, cutting your farming plans short.

Granny’s Back!

Three of the rounds in La Familia Hort are marked by the red moon which means that Granny’s ghost is coming to check on your progress. In these three rounds, new crops from the red moon tile deck will hit the market. These tiles include veggies that earn lots of money, a diabolical goat that you can feed for experience points, and a scarecrow that is just a cheap experience point.

When the third red moon round is revealed, the game comes to a close at the end of that round. Players will get the chance to exchange coins for victory points at a 5:1 ratio. The player with the most experience points at the end of the game will inherit Granny’s farming land.

I have a love/hate relationship with the round setup in La Familia Hort. When setting up this round deck, you’ll always start with the same beginning tile. The other two regular tiles are shuffled with the three red moon tiles and placed facedown in the stack. There is a small chance that rounds two through four are red moon rounds and that would end the game. In my half a dozen plays of the game, this hasn’t happened, but I’m very aware that it’s possible.

If the game were to only last four rounds, I think I would feel cheated. Like I was robbed of building my farm. This unknown end game timer also causes you to immediately rush into earning points since you don’t know how long the game might last.

This is easily mitigated by “cheating” and making sure the bottom tile is a red moon round. This guarantees six rounds in the game. I really wish the game came with a couple additional round tiles that could be randomly chosen to shuffle into the stack. With it’s current structure, players have the first round, a rainy day round, a sunny day round, and three red moon rounds. The number of water resource cubes are specific for each of these round tiles. The person who has played the game the most will know how much water is left for the remaining rounds. It’s a little thing, but it feels like putting two tiles additional round tiles with different numbers could have offset the predictability of the game.

Creepy Farming for the Family

La Familia Hort is a light-weight game that families can play together and I really like that. The art style is so much fun and reminds me a lot of Courage the Cowardly Dog, a cartoon that was a staple of my teenage years. I’ve had friends tell me that the game gives a “Tim Burton vibe” which makes it perfect for our Halloween game nights.

This is a tight economic game that feels similar to the card game Harbour. Players often end up with a lot of one resource and are scrapping by with all the others. The asymmetric player powers are fun because they allow interaction in a game that might otherwise feel a little too solitary.

La Familia Hort is going to stay in our collection because of its creepy style and casual gameplay. It’s one that is fun to teach others and that our teenage kids have enjoyed learning. I appreciate that Grand Gamers Guild took a chance importing a game that we might have missed out on otherwise.

La Familia Hort is available at your local game store, through the Grand Gamers Guild webstore or online through Amazon.

This game was provided to us by the publisher for review. Read more about our review policies at One Board Family.

Highs

• Unsettling artwork makes this game stand out
• Tight economic and resource management
• Asymmetric player abilities allow for a little interaction

Lows

• Games ending after four rounds are too short
• Could use a couple additional round tiles for variability

Complexity

Time Commitment

Replayability