Tend – Board Game Preview

Have you ever dreamed of settling on a new planet and carving out your little homestead amongst alien flora and fauna? While interstellar travel is still a faraway dream for us Earthlings, Tend gives us all a chance to literally scratch out an existence on an alien frontier. In the name of science (and corporate profit), you will be tasked with sending goods back to the Zenith Corporation for study. How and what you collect is up to you. You might dip your fishing pole into the water for strange aquatic life, till your soil to farm unusual produce, build fences for alien livestock, take your axe to the forest, or delve into the mines… How you collect goods in this exciting new world is up to you!

Tend is an ambitious new flip-and-write game from IV Games that includes lotto-style scratchers, dice-rolling, pen-stamping, and more… It’s a game that must be experienced to truly understand because it’s unlike anything I’ve had on my table before.

The game shown in this preview is a prototype; components and gameplay in the final version are subject to change

Skip to Gameplay, Skip to Impressions

Rules Overview

To set up the game, the seasonal objectives are shuffled and revealed and the seasonal task deck is assembled. The starter task cards are shuffled and the five starter actions are revealed. Two upcoming seasonal task cards are revealed, giving players a glimpse at some actions that will be available in the next round. Each player will take two sheets – a cargo manifest and farm sheet, 6 colored stamp markers, a mine/woods scratch-off card, a metal scratcher coin, the corporate commissary market board, fishing/geode cards, and a neighbor card for each side of their farm sheet.

The majority of the game takes place on your farm sheet and cargo sheet. The farm sheet looks busy but the main takeaway is that this is the main area where farming and fishing take place. Additionally, the farm sheet has neighbor reward bonuses, equipment upgrades, etc. The cargo sheet is where you will go to work on badges, special projects, and filling your cargo manifest. It is also where the victory points are tabulated.

The main goal is to harvest/collect goods from your homestead to fill your cargo manifest, although there are other uses for collected resources that might help boost your engine or earn victory points in other ways.

A game of Tend lasts 12 rounds, each round having five phases: neighbor phase, scoring phase, setup phase, growth phase, and task phase.

1. Neighbor phase – gain resources from any neighbor cards gifted to them.
2. Scoring phase – tabulate seasonal objectives (only occurs at the end of each season).
3. Setup phase – prepare the next round’s action cards. 
4. Growth phase – rotate all crop and animal dice to tick it up to its next value. Anytime the die reveals a white symbol, a resource is harvested. Animals continue to produce resources indefinitely, while crops are eventually spent up and removed. 
5. Task Phase – choose 2 of the 5 available task cards to resolve. There are always basic tasks to choose from, and most rounds will have two conditional tasks as well that allow for bonuses if the required condition is met. Additional “free” actions can be taken during the task phase, such as spending resources to build fencing, upgrading fishing rods, or purchasing energy bars.

After 12 rounds are completed, victory points are assessed and totaled. Victory points are earned through collecting badges, completing seasonal objectives, being a good neighbor, and filling up your cargo manifest with goods.

Gameplay

Tend is a flip-and-write game, part of the large verb-and-write family of games. The rules are very simple – two actions are taken each round, then there is some upkeep. On its face, it’s very straightforward, but take one look at the components and it might seem overwhelming. That’s because this game took the “verb” part of verb-and-write quite literally. Tend is a game full of action – you are invited to stamp, scratch, roll, and draw as you choose your main actions. 

The best way to understand the game, after understanding the structure outlined in the overview above, is to understand the core actions:

Tend – Till soil, plant, or water crops in the farm area. The tend task lets players use their farmland to generate resources through plants and/or animals in the farm area of the Farm Sheet. This action can be used to till soil, plant crop cubes, or water crops. Livestock cubes can be added to fenced-off areas once purchased and do not have a finite resource harvest as crops do. All plant and livestock cubes are ticked up by one level during the game’s growth phase, and resources are harvested whenever a harvest side of the cube is revealed.

Chop or Mine – Reveal one square in the forest/mine using a scratch-off sheet. Chop and Mine are separate actions, but they function similarly. Both involve the scratch-off sheet. When choosing either action, the player chooses a square on the northern side of the forest/mine and scratches to reveal what’s underneath. The square may reveal a resource, additional action, a level upgrade for the chop/mine action, or a combination of these. As you travel deeper into the forest/mine, the rewards become greater but the work becomes more difficult, requiring two actions to reveal a square. Additional actions may come from upgraded tools and/or energy bars.

Fish – Catch fish using a grid and rolling two dice. Players immediately have access to pond fishing. To perform a fishing task two dice are rolled. The numbers on the dice correspond to the fishing grid. If you are lucky, you will be able to pull a fish or other resource from the waters. To increase your chances of success, rod upgrades, and lures can be crafted with resources, improving the catching area and increasing the catch limit. Other fishing locations can be unlocked, as well, either by making it to the bottom of the forest or mine or by repairing the broken bridge with resources.

These are the main actions however there are other ways to gather resources, fill your cargo manifest, and rake in victory points. For example, being neighborly can yield a nice windfall of resources and victory points, and earning badges can yield lucrative medals and victory points.

Secondary actions are unlocked through the payment of resources and credits that are earned through the main actions. Chopping in the forest may yield wood, which can then be used to build fences for livestock, or towards earning badges for medals and victory points. Many items have a monetary value, and these credits/coins can be spent on purchasing items, such as energy bars to boost future actions. Additionally, items can be placed in the cargo manifest, one of the primary goals of the game. The boxes are filled in the style and shape of the item as listed on the commissary board. This is where the stamp pens come into play. Finally, a resource may be gifted to a neighbor to earn bonuses and victory points.

As with many games in this genre, much of the game is played solitaire. Tend does have some light positive interaction in the form of gift-giving. Getting surprises from your neighbors can be incredibly helpful, and the game incentivizes this charity by offering plenty of perks to the gift-giver. There’s no take-that in the game which works well with the cozy farm sim vibe. 

The game will guide your strategy somewhat. The cargo manifests are different and randomized – in a single game no two players will have identical scoring parameters. On top of that, Tend provides seemingly unending combinations of seasonal objectives to ensure each game is unique. Working towards scoring well on the seasonal objectives and maximizing your cargo manifest scoring is powerful and should play a part in shaping your strategy. There are tantalizing bonuses offered by the task cards, but chasing those can be a trap. Yes, they are powerful, but pursuing bonuses that don’t align with your strategy will derail you. In addition to setting players on unique paths of gameplay, the variable cargo manifest sheets also add tons of replayability.

Impressions

Tend has left a rather big impression on me from the moment I lifted this surprisingly heavy box, to the unboxing to see the colorful sheets and components inside. I wasn’t sure what I was looking at exactly, but I felt I was on the verge of a completely new experience – my instincts were spot-on.

This game shares suspiciously similar notes to Stardew Valley. Tend does a better job at capturing the feel of SDV than Stardew Valley the Board Game. There is a very similar cozy energy and the actions are almost identical. Fishing, farming, mining – heck there are even geodes to be smashed here. The game is colorful and has a unique visual identity. I like the inclusion of the alien flora and fauna and the bright color scheme – are they hiding a vaguely dystopian entity in the Joja Zenith Corporation or is my imagination too dark?

Despite the cute illustrations and bright colors that might appeal to children, this game is aimed at an older audience. This is one of heavier entries in the roll/flip-and-write genre that I’ve tried. The teach is a bit lengthy and the intricacies of the player sheets can be overwhelming at first. The game mechanics are not complex, but their interconnectedness makes efficient play a challenging puzzle, much too complex for most children and newer gamers. The simultaneous task phase limits downtime, ensuring maximum engagement during its hefty playtime.

There are many paths to take in this game, and it seems there is a little something for everybody. For the risk-averse, farming is a safe bet to produce exactly what you need – the animals and crops are predictable. The woods and mines bring more mystery, as you can never be sure what you will find when you scratch off a square. You will always find something, but it might not be what you were hoping for. Fishing has the most risk but pole and tackle upgrades greatly increase the odds of making the task lucrative. If you set yourself up correctly, every venture seems to have the potential to score well. There are so many ways to play this game and I have not had a chance to try every strategy. IV Games mentioned working out some balancing issues that may have been present in the prototype form.

An action’s value will completely depend on your strategy. Each player has a unique cargo manifest, encouraging opponents to explore individual paths. One player may want to fill part of their manifest with fish while another might need to focus on medals. Additionally, every player’s forest/mine scratch-off cards are randomized ensuring nobody can memorize (or peek at) the most lucrative pathway. The differentiation between scoresheets and a main area action area is impressive and massively boosts replayability.

This was not a game that revealed itself to me immediately. There was a learning curve as I figured out how everything connected, and that I could not do everything. A strategic focus on one or two areas seems key to success in Tend. After a few plays, I discovered a game with a satisfying arc, one where you start as a dirt-poor farmer and eventually build your skills to a level that can harvest enough resources to put a nice dent in your cargo manifest. Each game I have played has presented a new puzzle to solve and problems to overcome and it’s been immensely satisfying.

Speaking of satisfaction, Tend has Lotto-style scratchers. And stamp pens. And chunky crop/livestock cubes to fiddle with. This game is a veritable tactile playground for tabletop gamers and takes the “verb”-and-write to a whole new level, attempting to squeeze in as many of those verbs as possible. It’s a flip-and-write. But you can also roll dice. You can draw. You can scratch. You can stamp. There are so many activities to do, and it’s just plain wholesome fun.

Tend is the type of game that keeps me coming back for more. Yes, the components are fun to play with, but there’s more to this game than the flashy production. This is a strategically tight puzzle where every choice feels meaningful. Each player has a slightly different playing field to work on, and you will too next time you sit down for another interstellar farming adventure. Tend is a gem, and I am genuinely excited to see this project in its final form.

Who it’s for – Tend is for just about anybody who enjoys a heavy strategic puzzle with fun tactile components. Be prepared for a fairly hefty teach, but once players learn the basics the game flows smoothly. Fans of Stardew Valley may enjoy some of the not-so-subtle references to the hit indie game.

As with all my reviews and previews, I was not paid to cover this game. Any opinions expressed are my own.

Tend will be on Kickstarter beginning late October 2024.
You can find more information here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ivstudios/tend-0