Ora et Labora, Uwe Rosenberg's fifth "big" game, has game play mechanisms similar to his Le Havre, such as two-sided resource tiles that can be upgraded from a basic item to something more useful. Instead of adding resources to the board turn by turn as in Agricola and Le Havre, Ora et Labora uses a numbered rondel to show how many of each resource is available at any time. At the beginning of each round, players turn the rondel by one segment, adjusting the counts of all resources at the same time.

Each player has a personal game board. New buildings enter the game from time to time, and players can construct them on their game boards with the building materials they gather, with some terrain restrictions on what can be built where. Some spaces start with trees or moors on them, as in Agricola: Farmers of the Moor, so they hinder development until a player clears the land, but they provide resources when they are removed. Clever building on your personal game board will impact your final score, and players can buy additional terrain during the game, if needed.

Players also have three workers who can enter buildings to take the action associated with that location. Workers must stay in place until you've placed all three. You can enter your own buildings with these workers, but to enter and use another player's buildings, you must pay that player an entry fee so that he'll move one of his workers into that building to do the work for you.

Ora et Labora features two variants: France and Ireland.

SLEEVING:

110 cards size 45x68mm (mini euro)

CONTENT:

2 game boards

2 production wheels

110 cards

450 goods tiles

22 landscapes

22 wood pieces

4 game summaries

1 scoring pad

2 rulebooks

1 building/settlement index

AWARDS & HONORS:

2013 Ludoteca Ideale Official Selection Winner

2012 Spiel des Jahres Kennerspiel des Jahres Recommended

2012 JoTa Best Gamer Game Nominee

2012 International Gamers Award - General Strategy: Multi-player Nominee

2012 Gra Roku Game of the Year Nominee

2012 Golden Geek Best Strategy Board Game Nominee

2012 Best Gamer Game Critic Award

2011 Meeples' Choice Award

2011 Jogo do Ano Winner

2011 Jogo do Ano Nominee

2011 Jocul Anului în România Advanced Finalist

BGG link