by W. Eric Martin

▪️ Designer Friedemann Friese has two new titles coming from his 2F-Spiele game studio in October 2025, with the larger of the two being Formidable Farm — or in German Formidabel! (Yes, nineteen years after Friese's first "formidable" game, we have another.)

In the game, you're a trader who is trying to fulfill the wishes of the village population; you're the go-between who gets someone what they want, receives a reward, then uses that to fulfill someone else's need.

In more detail, each player receives a random deck of trade cards, each of which shows a cost on top and a reward on the bottom. Take three cards in hand, reveal five cards from the remaining deck to create a market, and place the supply board in reach of all players.

On a turn, you get supplies and fulfill up to three trade cards, whether from your hand or the market. To get supplies, move your token from its current location on the supply board to an empty location, then take what's depicted: three wheat, two cucumbers, two tomatoes, one pig, one sheep, or one card from your deck, the latter of which goes in your hand.

To fulfill a card, pay the cost from your reserve, place the card in front of you, then take the reward, which comes in many flavors:

• Take supplies from the supply board in some manner: from an adjacent space, from where you are, etc.
• Trade one field crop for another field crop up to X times.
• Draw cards from your deck.
• Take another turn.
• Get a cost discount on your next fulfilled card.
• Trade cards from your hand for others from your deck.
• Fulfill up to four cards this turn.
• And so on.

Your goal is to empty your deck as quickly as possible, but since you might not have cards in hand that let you smoothly trade A for B, then B for C, etc., you can also fulfill cards in the market. Doing so doesn't help clear your deck, but you'll ideally gain a reward that continues your progress.

What's more, each fulfilled trade card — whether from your hand or the market — is worth one coin (Bohnanza style), and you can spend these coins to take extra field crops, modify your supply action, or draw cards. You don't draw cards automatically in this game — only through a supply action, rewards, and spent coins — so you need to manage the flow of both cards and field crops to make progress.

Formidable Farm includes solo rules in which you have eighteen turns to fulfill thirty cards, with a marker on the supply board serving as both a turn counter and an obstacle to you taking the supplies you want.

▪️ Friese's other game is Fearless, which is sort of another title re-use as Friese released the card game Fast Forward: FEAR in 2017. Maybe we're running out of "f" words that make good titles? Any suggestions? Me, I'm hoping to see Fiber-Filled Franks in 2026, a game about wifi-enabled hot dogs.

Fearless is a trick-taking game for 3-5 players, with the deck consisting of cards valued 6 to -6 in four suits, with the 0s being all four suits.

On a turn, the lead player plays a card, then all other players must follow suit, if possible. (A zero always matches a suit, but you are not forced to play a 0 if that's the only card you have of that suit.) With each card played, the player gives a running total of the sum of the trick. Whoever wins the trick moves their ghost figure on a scoretrack away from the ruins at space 0, then they lead the next trick. Your ghost might bounce from positive to negative numbers depending on the cards you take — or you might keep moving in the same direction, farther and farther into the distance.

When all tricks have been played, everyone scores "fear" points for their distance from the ruins. (Yes, a game that uses absolute value for scoring, even if it's not labeled as such!) If you take no tricks and therefore don't leave the ruins, well, you score 15 points, so you should have taken at least one trick!

Play as many rounds as the number of players, then whoever has the fewest points wins.

▪️ Friese will have a third new game on the market — Five Families — from German publisher Skellig Games, with Queen Games releasing this title in English and French.

The description of this 2-5 player game due out in Q4 2025 is minimal for now: