This review was originally posted at GameswithTwo.com
Keyflower is the newest game in <PERSON> “key” game series. The 2-5 player auction/worker placement game lasts between 45 and 120 minutes and is not terribly difficult to learn.
Image via BGG user <PERSON>
In Keyflower, players will be managing their different colored worker meeples. These meeples are the players’ main resource and can be used to place bids on, or activate different tiles that are on display. The game takes place over 4 rounds (Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter). Each round, there will be a certain number of tiles placed in the middle of the play area. These tiles are eligible to be bid on (and won, at the end of the round) by the players. Each player will also have a village of their own consisting of their Home tile (which they begin the game with) along with any tiles they have won in subsequent rounds. Players will also be playing the game with a screen (which are adorable little houses), behind which they will place their 8 randomly drawn meeples (which will be red, yellow, and blue).
Image via BGG user <PERSON>
A player’s turn in Keyflower is simple. She will place one group of her own like-colored meeples from behind her screen onto or along the edge of an available tile. She can place meeples along the edge of any tile in the middle of the play area (tiles not owned by either player). These meeples represent a bid by that player to win that tile at the end of the round. Since players don’t have specific colors, players will have to choose a tile edge and place all of their bids on that tile edge (usually the edge “pointing” towards them). 84
Players can also place meeples on top of any tile in the game, whether it be in the middle of the play area, in their own village, or in another player’s village. By doing this, the player executes the tile’s ability, and either collects the resources generated by the tile or executes the tile’s action.
Image via BGG user <PERSON>
This is where the brilliance of Keyflower comes in. Players can place any like-colored group of their own meeples as either a bid or a “worker placement.” However, once a tile has meeples present at it (either as bids on its edge, or on it as activations), future meeples placed at this tile for either purpose can only be of the color already placed there. So if a player bids on a tile with a blue meeple, only blue meeples can be used to outbid that player or to activate the tile.
Image via BGG user <PERSON>Of course in order to outbid another player, players will have to place meeples until they have at least one more meeple on the tile’s edge than anyone else. There is also a limitation on how many times a tile can be activated. In order to activate a tile, players must still follow the color matching rule, and they also must place a group of meeples that is at least one more than the biggest group of meeples already on the tile. Activating tiles has this important limitation though - each tile can only have 6 or fewer meeples place on it in order to activate its ability. So any tile each round will be able to activated a maximum of 3 times.
Image via BGG user <PERSON>
I am not going to get into too much detail regarding what all of the tiles do, but if you have played a “Euro game” in the past 15 years, you likely have a good idea of what to expect. The tiles available to be won in the first two rounds give out resources and more meeples, while the tiles available in later rounds provide more opportunities to score points at the end of the game (which is when all point scoring takes place).
Speaking of the final round (winter), that is where Mr. <PERSON> puts another little spin on something familiar. At the beginning of the game, each player will be given a number of Winter tiles (dependent on the number of players). There are end game scoring tiles that will give points based usually on how many of a certain resource (including meeples) you still have at the end of the game. These are kept secret until the beginning of the winter phase, when each player decides which of her 3 (but at least 1) will be going out to the middle of the play area to be bid on. 84