Dorfromantik: The Board Game

Release

A small amount of copies were presented at Essen SPIEL 2022; however, the full release came later.^[11] Dorfromantik: Das Brettspiel, the German version of the board game, was first released in November 2022.^[12] The English edition premiered in the United States in March 2023.^[13]

Basic game

In the basic game of Dorfromantik, there are two main types of tiles: Landscape tiles and Task tiles.^[15] In Dorfromantik, there are six terrain types. The five terrains with task tiles are wheat fields, forests, villages, railroad tracks, and rivers, and the remaining "neutral" terrain type is meadows.^[1] With the exception of railroads and rivers, any terrain can stop or continue on any hex edge, meaning that terrain features do not need to match at tile edges.^[7] Except for the very first tile, all tiles placed must be connected by at least one edge to the rest of the game map.^[7]

When a task tile is placed, a random task marker of the same terrain type is drawn.^[7] On one side, task markers have a terrain type, and on the other side is a number from four to six.^[16] The number on the front of the task marker is exactly how many tiles of the terrain shown must be connected in order to score points.^[7] The greater the number on the front of the marker, the more points are scored by completing the task.^[7] Flags printed on tiles score more points for large territories, as long as the territory has been closed off (i.e., no tile edges with the type of terrain matching the flag are open to the edge of the map).^[15]

To start, players draw three task tiles and place them down to start the map.^[2] After these three original tasks are drawn and placed, landscape tiles start being drawn.^[15] These landscape tiles are used to expand territories, and therefore complete tasks for points.^[7] Once a task is completed, the next player draws another task to always bring the number of tasks to three.^[15] Once the task pile is exhausted and no task tiles remain, the game ends immediately and scoring begins.^[16] In the basic game, points are scored based on completed tasks, flags, and the longest railroad track and river.^[15]

Campaign

After scoring is complete, players may start or continue a campaign.^[3] On the campaign sheet, players round their score down to the nearest ten, then match their rounded score to the number of "bubbles" to advance and consult the number of steps on the sheet that they can fill in.^[16] The number shown on the sheet corresponds to bubbles on the sheet, which are filled in by the players to unlock campaign boxes and achievement cards.^[2] The campaign starts with five closed boxes.^[7][9] These boxes contain other ways to score points such as new tokens, tiles, or achievement cards.^[17] In addition to the tiles from the basic game, there is also a third type of tile that comes in the campaign boxes, Special tiles, which can be identified by a printed black signpost.^[7][2] While there is no definitive end to Dorfromantik, the campaign eventually runs out of boxes and achievements to unlock, which usually takes 15–20 games.^[3] Following this, the game does not have any more campaign content remaining.^[3] Players can either start the campaign again or keep playing without unlocking any more campaign content.^[18]

Solo play

While Dorfromantik does not come with a dedicated solo mode, the game is compatible to be played solo with few major adjustments.^[16][3] The German online board game magazine Reich der Spiele (transl. Realm of Games) said that the game functions best in solo mode.^[7]

Dorfromantik: The Duel

A new competitive game based on Dorfromantik was released by Pegasus in late 2023 called Dorfromantik: The Duel (German: Dorfromantik: Das Duell).^[19] Dorfromantik: The Duel is similar in style to the original game, however it is competitive and places two players against each other.^[20] It introduces new task types as well as a tile-matching system between the two players, eliminating most aspects of luck and making the game perfectly symmetrical.^[21][20] As opposed to the base game, in Dorfromantik: The Duel the two players each have their own game space.^[19] During play, players draw the same tile and place it on their personal board.^[19] Task and landscape tiles work similar to the original Dorfromantik, but there is a larger ratio of tasks relative to landscape tiles.^[19] Tasks themselves are also mostly the same as in the original.^[22] The game, like the original, has flags that score for enclosed territories.^[22] Dorfromantik: The Duel has two new types of tasks: wraparound and double tasks.^[19] Wraparound tasks, like in Dorfromantik: Sakura, are completed once the listed number of tiles have been placed surrounding the task tile.^[19] For double tasks, two landscape options are shown.^[19] When either of the options have reached the required number of tiles, the task is completed.^[19] The playtime of Dorfromantik: The Duel lasts longer than the original game, often reaching up to two hours.^[19]

Although Dorfromantik: The Duel does not have a campaign progression system, being the only stand-alone Dorfromantik game without one, it does contain two "modules".^[19] Unlike the campaigns from other games, the modules can be unlocked at any time and are optional to play with.^[19] Module 1 contains nine new task cards,^[22] and Module 2 contains markers that activate new mechanics, such as hearts, photographers, and special tiles.^[19] Dorfromantik: The Duel also comes with several new tiles, counters, and cards for the base game of Dorfromantik.^[3] The new task types, wraparound and double, can be integrated into the original game, as well as the special tiles and photographer from Module 2.^[19]

Reviews of the game have been mixed. The game has been criticised for taking up an excessive amount of space on the table.^[21][3] Due to the nature of the tile-matching, all 183 tiles have to be spread out on the table, taking up a lot of room.^[21] Dorfromantik: The Duel has also received criticism for the incredibly close final scores, as small mistakes near the beginning of the game can have a large effect on the end result.^[21] In a review, Spieletest.at enjoyed how the game is competitive, but with limited interference between players.^[22]

Dorfromantik: Sakura

About a year after the release of Dorfromantik: The Duel, a new stand-alone game, Dorfromantik: Sakura, was published in autumn 2024.^[23] It is based on the original design of Dorfromantik but is set in a Japanese landscape.^[3] Dorfromantik: Sakura retains the campaign system from the original game, with six boxes and 40 achievements.^[24] The rules of Dorfromantik: Sakura are very similar to the original, with only the terrain art design greatly changed.^[24] In Dorfromantik: Sakura, cherry blossom trees replace forests from the original Dorfromantik, rice paddies replace wheat fields, and roads replace railroads.^[23] However, the campaign part of the game is modified to fit the new theme, with a new campaign sheet and new achievements which unlock new game material unique to the expansion.^[24] While the original Dorfromantik only requires points from game scores, Dorfromantik: Sakura has another campaign mechanic, cherry blossoms.^[23] These allow the player to progress further in the campaign, unlocking new boxes.^[23] Reviewers of the game noted that, while it does bring some new campaign material, the basic game rules are almost entirely the same as the original.^[23][24]

Dorfromantik: Light Luggage

Dorfromantik: Light Luggage (German: Dorfromantik: Leichtes Gepäck) is a compact, stand-alone version of Dorfromantik^[25] which released in German in autumn 2025.^[26] This smaller version of the game includes most of the base game's features, but tiles are fewer and smaller, playing time is reduced, and the campaign rules are simplified.^[26] Dorfromantik: Light Luggage can also function as an introduction to the game and is more accessible to a wider audience.^[27] Some material from Dorfromantik: Light Luggage can be used when playing the base Dorfromantik game.^[26]

Mini-expansions

In 2023, a mini-expansion for Dorfromantik was released called The Great Mill (German: Große Mühle).^[28] It contains a small cardboard standee of a windmill which is used to score extra points in field tiles, as well as two new cards.^[28] The mini-expansion was announced following Dorfromantik's Spiel des Jahres win in 2023.^[28] In June 2024, another mini-expansion, The Wetterau (German: Die Wetterau), was released consisting of three new tiles depicting landmarks in the Wetterau.^[29]