Flowerpower… sort of

Flowerpower is one of the games in the Kosmos 2-player line which has been out of print for quite a few years. It’s fairly popular as a wife/girlfriend-friendly game, and it’s also nearly impossible to get a copy. Fortunately someone (cuzzle on BGG) who didn’t care too much for the flower theme posted a pdf of the tiles for his big-game animal re-theme. I have to admit that the original flower version is a little on the ugly side in my opinion.

Anyway, I downloaded the file, printed it on sticky paper,  stuck the two sheets to matte board, and finally cut until my joints hurt. The next task was to come up with a board. Not a Photoshop guru, or even a student, my best effort was crayons. And since the tiles represent African big game animals, the board I created shows yellowish areas (dry, grassy plain) divided by a big blue watering hole.

Homemade board for the animal version of Flowerpower

It’s a very simple game, rules-wise, but a nice past-time for 2 people. On your turn, you pull a tile from a bag (or shuffle them around face-down) and place it on any pair of empty spaces on your side of the board or in the shared blue area.  You’re trying to create large groups of the same animal, of which there are 10 different types. You may claim the animals in the blue area only if they connect to the same animal that is on your side of the board. Your opponent can steal them if they connect to them and have a larger group on their side of the board. That adds a bit of nastiness to the game but you can also be nasty by placing a tile upside down anywhere on your opponent’s side of the board to block him, but you can only do that 3 times.

When there are no more tiles to place or when both players have run out of places to place tiles, the game ends. You then score each animal grouping one at a time, which is why there is a list of them along the edge of the board to help you keep track. Each grouping of 3-5 is worth 1 point, a group of 6-9 is worth 2 points, and 10 or more is worth 4. I had fun doing this, in fact, it was more fun than playing some versions of card-based solitaire.

I have quite a few of the Kosmos 2-player games and I think this is an excellent addition. It’s a shame that it isn’t easier to come by, but thanks to cuzzle I have my own, better looking, copy.