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Description:Share the joy, give everyone in play an extra card! When HARVEST is used, everyone is happy... everyone except the player whose turn is just before yours. Though this is usually seen as a defensive tool card, expert players know how to use this card as an offensive against certain characters. Read on to find out more!
What it does:
When this card is played, cards from the deck are flipped around for every player to see. Flip open as many cards as there are players still in play (5 players still alive, flip 5 cards). The player who used HARVEST gets to choose which card he or she wants first. This is followed by the player after him or her, and so on until the final card is taken by the player whose turn was just before the user. In this way, the user has the most cards to choose from, and the player to his left (if play is anticlockwise) has no choice since only 1 card is left.
How to use it:
Toss the card into the discard pile, then flip open as many cards on to the playing surface as there are players.
Offensive strategy:
Since the HARVEST card is a tool card, it is subject to NEGATE 无懈可击. One option that works is to use NEGATE to deny an opponent a chance to pick up a card. Toss in NEGATE when its your opponent's turn and there is a chance he or she will pick up DODGE. This way your teammates may have picked up ATTACK and your opponent will be one DODGE short.
The other option is to force a player to take a card, and by doing so it puts that player in a disadvantage. For example, a player using Elder Zhu Ge Liang 暮年诸葛亮 is impervious to ATTACK and DUEL when he or she has no cards on hand (the "Empty City 空城" ability). Using HARVEST forces the player to pick up a card, thus the Empty City ability is not longer in effect.
Trivia:
The phrase 五谷丰登 does not come from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It simply symbolizes a bountiful harvest. The first 2 words 五谷 refers to the 5 basic types of crop in ancient times. The 5 crops are as follows:
1. 黍 (shu) - Proso Millet or Broomcorn (used in birdseed)
2. 稷 (ji) - Foxtail Millet, also referred to as "yellow rice".
3. 麦 (mai) - Wheat
4. 菽 (shu) - Soybean
5. 稻 (dao) - Rice
Hey Ricky, in English the "yellow rice" is known as foxtail millet.
ReplyDeleteI see! Thanks a lot for that info. I shall add that in. :D
ReplyDeleteMy friends and I tried to establish a rule about the timing of the negate card.
ReplyDeleteDo you play it on a particular person before the cards are flipped? Right after they're flipped? Right before the particular person gets to pick up the card?
That's an interesting question which made me realize something was incorrect about our playing.
ReplyDeleteThe correct answer is NEGATE must be used before any of the cards are flipped from the deck. Once the cards are flipped over, NEGATE cannot be used anymore. This also means that if a player picks up a NEGATE from one of the flipped cards, he or she cannot immediately use it to NEGATE the subsequent players.
We have been playing it wrong all these while, using NEGATE just before the person picks up a card.
That being said, these rules tend to be flexible with commonly agreed house rules.
Thank you for that. My group of friends have also agreed that it should be played before any of the cards are flipped over.
ReplyDeleteHey Simon, looks like this question has not been solved. Although my research online shows the common consensus is to NEGATE before the cards are flipped, the online SGS version is not quite the case.
ReplyDeleteIn the online game (which is regarded as the final arbitrator of ambiguity), any player is allowed to NEGATE another player right before they draw the exposed cards. It also allows a NEGATE that was picked up during the harvest to be used to NEGATE subsequent players from picking a card.
Of course, house rules prevail! :) For the moment, my friends and I are playing it the SGS online style.
^ ...and the SGS online is right. Also, the negated player cannot get the card, so the extra cards would be discarded.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when Xu Shu is present, if other players use HARVEST, reveals as many cards as there are players still in play, and Xu Shu cannot get the card. The extra card will be discarded. If Xu Shu uses HARVEST, reveals as many cards as there are players still in play, Xu Shu gets one of them, and discard the remaining cards...what a selfish harvest!