Attention bakers and brewers: Bread and Beer is a cozy board game for two that plays richer than the compact box suggests. And a strategic game for two, which is quite special in the land of board games. Most two-player games are small and over quickly. Or as a duo you are condemned to a multiplayer game where the board feels too spacious and the game too long.
But Bread and Beer meanders just long enough before the points are counted. The players are in charge of a village. The two villages compete with each other – of course – to see who can bake the tastiest bread and brew the tastiest beer. The illustrations certainly make you hungry and thirsty: the rye bread is nice and soggy and the beer foams well.
The beer and bread cards are also the heart of the game. The clever thing about it is that each card can be used triple. Or you use it to bring in ingredients from the land (water, wheat, barley, rye and hops). Or you can bake the bread pictured or brew the beer (if you have enough ingredients). Or you can play the card, permanently improve your village and earn points for your bakes and brews.
Fertile and dry years alternate Bread and Beer. In dry years, ingredients are scarce and you keep all the bread and beer menus to yourself. In the fertile years, grains are plentiful and players exchange cards with each other. This variety has an effect in all kinds of ways: in the dry years you are more concerned with yourself, in the fertile years you have more opportunities to upset others.
It is also smart that the game forces you to follow a balanced strategy. The points for beer and bread are added up separately and the lowest score counts. So it doesn’t pay to just deliver beer or bread. Also nice: whoever brings in more ingredients than he or she can use, has to donate excess ingredients to the other village. Of course, the trick is to offer the most unattractive ingredient of that moment. Do you really not want another hop? No? Too bad!
Bread and Beer2 players, 30,-