Hallertau

Hallertau at a glance: village growth over six rounds

Hallertau is a 2020 strategy board game by Uwe Rosenberg, published by Lookout Games, for one to four players aged 12 and up. The publisher lists a playing time of 50–140 minutes. Set in a farming region of Bavaria around 1850, it combines worker placement, crop rotation, sheep farming and card combinations as you develop a village’s craft workshops and Community Center.

There are six rounds, with ten phases in each. The game is not won just by harvesting the most crops: your main long-term decisions are how to increase the workforce, make enough goods to advance buildings, and play cards that turn resources into extra income or points. Expanding the Community Center is especially important because it both increases worker availability and later unlocks sizable final-scoring opportunities.

This is a guide to the standard 2020 base game. Lookout released a separate 2022 promotional starter-card deck, but that optional promo is not assumed in the explanations below. Refer to the publisher’s Hallertau rules and downloads for full timings, card wording and the official English rulebook.

What you manage

• Workers: initially six, increasing as your Community Center develops; an already-used action generally costs more workers to use again.
• Fields: planting and harvesting lowers fertility; leaving fields empty lets them move up the field track.
• Sheep: a source of milk, wool and other animal products, with an ageing system that rewards timing.
• Craft Buildings: five buildings advance by spending required combinations of goods or jewelry.
• Cards: Gateway, Farmyard, Bonus and Point cards reward planning around requirements and future production.

The round structure: ten phases, two major decision windows

A round passes through these ten phases: remove workers; new workers; income; actions; new card; fallow fields; harvest; milking; progress; and boulders. Many are upkeep steps that players can perform at roughly the same time. The Actions phase and the Progress phase are where most of the consequential decisions happen.

During Actions, workers are placed to generate crops, manage sheep, draw cards or obtain other benefits. During Progress, players use their accumulated goods and jewelry to move Craft Buildings rightward, which can move the Community Center. Field recovery, crops, sheep milk and other income are then processed according to the rulebook’s sequence.

Learning tip: before making a complicated opening plan, understand which phase generates the goods you want and which phase spends them. A resource you earn at the wrong time may not help with a Craft Building until the following round.

Worker-placement costs: why an occupied space is not always blocked

Many worker-placement games simply prevent a second visit to an occupied action space. In Hallertau, most spaces have three rows: the first visit costs one worker, a later visit to the second row costs two workers, and using the third costs three workers. Some card-related spaces have only two rows. Once all allowed rows are filled, that action space is unavailable.

The workers already there are not necessarily all cleared at the end of a round. The clearing step depends on the player count, so it is worth checking the action board before building your next round’s plan. A premium action that costs three workers can still be correct if it completes a large bonus or the final input for Community Center progress—but it is rarely efficient simply because the action looks powerful.

Example: suppose an available one-worker action provides useful clay, while a second visit to a different space costs two workers for a slightly bigger immediate gain. Compare the benefit per worker and the goal that each action advances, not merely which space produces more resources. This comparison is editorial strategy; the official action-space effects govern actual resource gains.

Fields, crop rotation and sheep ageing explained

When to plant and when to leave fields fallow

An empty Field generally becomes more productive during the fallow step, moving up its track where possible; harvested Fields move down one row as they lose fertility. This creates a repeating choice between taking a smaller harvest now and keeping a Field ready for a larger harvest later. A successful farm needs a mix of productive and recovering fields rather than planting everything whenever possible.

The game includes crops such as barley, flax, hops and rye, plus other goods used by local workshops. Because a Craft Building may require specific combinations, crop diversity can be more valuable than a single large stockpile. The official rulebook also explains limitations on how and where Fields move, so use the track and instructions rather than assuming unlimited fertility growth.

How long do sheep live?

Sheep placed on early-round Farmyard cards move through an ageing process and can die at the start of a later round. Sheep acquired late in the game can go directly into the Stables, where they do not die from old age before scoring. While alive, sheep produce milk during the appropriate phase and can support other animal-product conversions; sheep remaining in the Stables contribute endgame points.

Plan sheep purchases around the timing of the animal products you require, not just the number of sheep in your flock. Holding a sheep to the last possible moment can be sensible, but using its output to make an earlier Community Center advance may be worth considerably more.

How Craft Buildings move the Community Center

Players develop five Craft Buildings—Carpentry, Brewhouse, Cooling House, Bakehouse and Manufacture—by spending the prescribed goods, or jewelry as an alternative. You move the chosen building to the right when you pay its cost. As all five buildings advance, the Community Center can follow the building furthest behind.

That movement matters twice. Early on, it grows your supply of workers from the starting six towards a maximum of twelve. Later advances can reveal 18, 34, 50 or 70 victory points on the Community Center tile. The Center is therefore both an economic investment and a major scoring objective.

Progress costs become more demanding as rounds pass. Costs normally correspond to the round number, with potential discounts for eligible mixtures of goods in later rounds; the five buildings have different resource requirements. Jewelry can pay for a single building advance, but boulders still have to be moved if they obstruct it. Tools help clear those boulders and work differently in the last round.

For a step-by-step explanation of costs, tools, jewelry and final scoring, use our dedicated Hallertau Community Center and scoring guide.

Cards and combinations: the four types to know

Hallertau contains 336 cards including the setup Quadrant cards. The principal player-card families are Gateway, Farmyard, Bonus and Point cards. Each creates a different planning horizon:

• Gateway cards: typically reachable conditions that can start an engine quickly; you begin with four.
• Farmyard cards: often relatively modest requirements and effects; you gain another as each round progresses.
• Bonus cards: generally cost resources to play but can produce recurring income during later income phases.
• Point cards: often require more difficult conditions or investment and provide endgame scoring; you begin with one.

There are four alternative Gateway decks and four alternative Farmyard decks with different complexity profiles. For an introductory session, Lookout recommends the Beginner Gateway and Hops Farmyard decks. Selecting a different compatible deck changes which combinations appear, making repeated plays feel noticeably different without changing the underlying structure.

Useful tactic: assess a card based on when you can satisfy it. A conditional card that activates your income engine by round two has a different value from a difficult card that might only score at the end. The card’s actual timing restrictions and effects always take precedence over generalized advice.

Five checks before committing workers

1. Community Center bottleneck: which of the five Craft Buildings is holding back the Center, and what goods does it still need?
2. Action efficiency: will the next action cost one, two or three workers? Is another action a better way to obtain the same missing resource?
3. Field rotation: which Fields should be harvested now and which would benefit from being left fallow?
4. Sheep timing: will animal products arrive in time for an important progress payment, and are any sheep about to age out?
5. Card timing: could a Gateway or Bonus card turn a small move into a multi-step combination before the round ends?

These are editorial strategy prompts, not new rules. For more detailed openings and development paths, see Hallertau strategy: fields, workers and Community Center.

How Hallertau scores and who will enjoy it

After the sixth round, players have a final opportunity to play cards from hand, then calculate points from the Community Center board, sheep, jewelry, remaining Fields/goods/tools, and the Bonus and Point cards already played. A well-advanced Center can dominate a score, but smart card play and smaller categories still matter.

The game suits people who enjoy long-term resource planning, asymmetric card combinations and worker-placement decisions in which efficiency matters. Players who like Agricola may recognize the agricultural theme, while those who prefer the alternating seasons of Fields of Arle or the compact economy of Nusfjord will find a different puzzle here. Hallertau’s rising action-space costs and round-to-round field recovery are its distinctive challenges.

If you want to learn the basic systems before using all cards, the official rulebook includes a No Cards variant for a first game. There is also an official solo mode. These are genuine rulebook options, not separate expansions.

Hallertau frequently asked questions

How many rounds does Hallertau have?

Six. Each round has ten phases, from clearing some workers through gaining workers and income, choosing actions, harvesting, progressing the village and resetting boulders.

Can another player use an occupied action space?

Usually yes, if a higher row is still available. Most spaces cost one, then two, then three workers as the rows fill. Completely filled spaces are unavailable.

Does harvesting make a Field less productive?

Yes. After harvest a Field moves down one row, while unplanted Fields recover during the fallow phase, moving up as permitted.

How do you get more workers in Hallertau?

Advance all five Craft Buildings far enough for the Community Center to move. Its initial progress increases worker availability, from six to as many as twelve.

What are the four Hallertau card types?

Gateway, Farmyard, Bonus and Point cards. There are multiple alternative Gateway and Farmyard decks, and the game also includes Quadrant cards used during setup and maintenance at certain player counts.

Is Hallertau playable solo?

Yes. The rulebook supports solo play with the standard game system and a score target. It also describes a No Cards variant for easier learning.

What is the difference between Hallertau and Agricola?

Both are agricultural worker-placement games by Uwe Rosenberg. Hallertau emphasizes action spaces that become more expensive when occupied, recovering Fields and advancing a village Community Center, rather than following Agricola’s farm-development structure.

Is the 2022 promo deck needed?

No. The original Hallertau game is complete. The 2022 promotional starter deck adds optional cards and is not required to play the standard rules described here.