Tea and Trade Exp: Fields of Arle

Fields of Arle is Uwe Rosenberg at his best. It is a farming game, but one in which you can pretty much focus on anything you want. Want to be the Lord of Livestock? You can do that. How about the Count of Cloth Manufacture? Fields of Arle has you covered. Prince of Peat Cutting? Yes, you can be that. Baron of Buildings? Of course! This is an Uwe Rosenberg game! I received it for Christmas and snapped up the Tea & Trade expansion (designed by Uwe Rosenberg and Tido Lorenz), as soon as it was back in stock. I couldn’t wait to find out what further toys it added to this wonderful farming sandbox game.

Teatime

The titular tea. Tea is a new resource in the game, represented by two-sided card chits. On one side is basic tea, the other is an upgraded version; East Frisian tea. Fields of Arle players will be right at home with how this works: it is identical to the wood/timber and clay/brick chits. The upgraded version is worth more points and can always be used in place of the lesser version.

Tea interacts with the new buildings, scores points if you have it at the end of the game and, as expected, you certainly can trade it using the other big addition offered by this expansion. Tea also impacts the cadence of the game. If you are prepared to give it up, you can use it to send a worker into tea-fuelled overdrive, performing the space’s action twice that turn!

Arle Trade You For That…

Tea and Trade allows players to now purchase boats. These work in similar way to the vehicles in the base game, though the larger trade ships can also trade goods with distant lands in a manner that can be quite lucrative for the player in question.

These are good additions to the game, allowing for further options to be explored. The new buildings also provide further variety for the budding Frisian farmer and this variety is a great strength of Fields of Arle. To some though, it could also be its weakness.

Fields of Arle has so many options that players could play a game with the expansion and experience virtually none of what it has to offer. It may also be the case that the options in the base game are already overwhelmingly plentiful for some; more choices to be considered could be detrimental to their experience.

That said, the iconography for the new actions is clear and consistent and I found I was able to get going with the minimum of fuss. I like to play around with different strategies game-to-game and appreciate there being even more to explore. As such, I would always include Tea and Trade, given the choice.

3 is the Magic Number?

Tea and Trade also provides components so that Fields of Arle can now be played with 3 players. Expansions that add to the player count are a bit of a mixed bag for me. Whereas Fields of Arle will still play at a good clip with 3, and there will be those who are thrilled to be able to now enjoy it at this player count, those of us who will mostly play it at 1-2 are paying for unnecessary additional boards.

Luckily, I am also easily pleased by little things and the new blue player pieces do look very nice, so I use them. There is also enough expansion content here, beyond the extra player components, to still make Tea & Trade worthwhile for me.

Expand Your Agricultural Horizons.

Fields of Arle: Tea & Trade gets an awful lot right for an expansion. The new additions and options integrate seamlessly with the base game and introduce minimal further rules overhead.

How important the 3rd player components are will depend on your game group. Fortunately, it all does fit in the base game box, so they can be stored with the game even if they are not used regularly.

Tea & Trade gave me what I was hoping for. I wanted more toys and they are here in spades. With the expansion included, I am even less likely to end up developing my farm in the same way twice and I would not choose to play without it.

I am typically a fan of expansions that provide me with more of what I already love about a game and that don’t require me to learn a whole new set of complex mechanics. This is precisely what Tea & Trade does and I do not hesitate to recommend it for any Fields of Arle player.

For me, having further fun farming options is not arduous. It is more Arleduous: the choices are not stress-inducing, but relaxing and enjoyable. Speaking of which, I think I’ll get it out now. Just after I’ve put the kettle on.

About The Author

When not reviewing board games, Graham is teaching maths, running a games club and failing to convince his students that baseball is the greatest sport ever invented. You can read his thoughts and opinions on all things board game on his blog, GrahamS Games.

You can find him on BlueSky, where he will invariably be wittering on about whichever game has currently captured his attention: https://bsky.app/profile/grahamsgames.bsky.social