OUR REVIEW

LIFE OF KEY

KEYFLOWER

WOR-KEY PLACEMENT DURING THE FOUR KEY-SONS

Over the hills and far a-key, the „Keyples” dwell with Richard Breese to-key.

From 1995 on those Keyples (related to Meeples, the Carcassonne pieces) have deforested “Keywood” to clear the undergrowth for the land of “Keydom”, in which they found freedom and prosperity. In 2000 they founded to city of “Keytown” there, which boasts of a “Keythedral” since 2002. After having achieved a remarkable “Key Harvest” in 2007 they have set up “Key Market” in 2010.

So “Keyflower” is already the seventh (Word)Game in the “Key” series, all of which are loosely connected also by their pastel watercolor graphics. From a game historians point of view the series is also of interest, because “Keydom” (aka Morgenland, Hans im Glück, 2000) is considered to be a co-founder, if not even the first example for a worker placement mechanism. After more than a decade worker placement games primarily cause a big yawn, even if the genre was enriched recently with “TZOLK’IN (Daniele Tascini und Simone Luciani, Heidelberger Spieleverlag / Czech Games Edition) by a beautiful new specimen.

In „Keyflower“ once again we place our playing pieces on various production areas or tiles, in order to produce, among other things, wood, stone and iron and to transform those on other areas into victory points. So far, so good, but commonplace!  Yet the game manages to convince a critic due to „key-ven“ reasons:

First, here an area is not blocked for the rest of the round (= one season of the year)  due to being used, but can be used up to three times, and by different players (!) at that! As -Second - we are not restricted to our respective personal areas, but can place our workers also on areas of other players. A similar idea, which always resulted in a pleasant intense interaction among all the players, was seen before already in „Helvetia“ (Matthias Cramer, Kosmos) and „Ora & Labora (Uwe Rosenberg, Lookout Games), an idea, which on the other hand of course always results in a certain unclear or confusing situation and a very strong potential brooding factor: I must not only make the best of my own display/area, whatever, but must in addition also consider if I might not be better of when placing my worker(s) with a fellow player (even when this worker might be lost to me due to the once-in-the-game acquired revenue and maybe might have to put his future labor at the disposal of my opponent).

Third - The production tiles are introduced into the game by and by. Each player starts with one home area/tile only, next to which in the course of game additional tiles - similar to “Carcassonne” are added. The allocation of those areas/tiles is handled by an auction. Auctions, basically, are a rather intractable element in a game: Nobody knows how much something is really worth or, respectively, will be worth later in the game, the cogitation period before each new round of auctions can take up a lot of time and in the end one is irritated or annoyed because one has bid too much or not enough. Those disadvantages have here been defused due to the fact that they means of payment for the new tiles are the worker pieces, too, and as they are necessary to do some work, too, the mutual raising of bids stays within acceptable and therefore pleasant limits. In addition to that, during the first round - in Spring - we start with only eight workers; in following rounds your own workforce can increase, mainly due to corresponding production tiles.

Fourth - Workers do not come in colors assigning them to a certain player. Your workforce is marked instead by the fact that they are either working in your own display (that is, your own village) or that they - during auctions) are placed at the edge or corner of the intended tile that is nearest to the respective player using the worker. (So, in a game of six you‘d best play at a hexagonal table). Very nicely done - in this context - is also the mechanism that there are no different phases for auction and production, as those things happen simultaneously. So you can, for instance, make a bid, when it is my turn again, I produce something, and in my then following turn I rise my first bid or bid for another tile, and so on.

Fifth: The color of the first worker that is sent to or used for a tile/area must be adhered to for the rest of the round. That is, should Player A use a production area/tile of Player B employing a red worker there, Player B himself can only send red workers to this area/tile during this season. The joy about “winning” a red worker can be mingled with annoyance for Player B about the fact that he maybe has no red worker available anymore for this season. In addition to the three basic colors of red, blue and yellow there are also green workers. Those green workers must - as a matter of principle - first be generated using the corresponding production tiles/areas and are therefore much rarer than all other three colors of workers. This rarity gives great value to the green workers, especially for use in auctions: You can always secure a tile/area for yourself using one green worker only as long as now other player has green workers at his disposal or has already used them for another area/tile. This expectation/intention can of course be foiled by the fact when one of the other colors has been chosen for each  area/tile and your green workers must sit around idly behind your screen and wait for the next season.

Sixth - It is often not enough to simply produce resources or simply to own them in order to transform them into victory points; most of the time you have to transport/relocate them to certain other areas/tiles. This on the one hand introduces a nice logistic element to the game mechanics and, on the other hand, players therefore strive to lay out their respective auctioned tiles with the shortest possible transport routes to achieve the desired result in the most effective possible way. This more or less purposeful puzzling of your own display adds another nice aspect to an altogether very satisfying game experience.

Seventh (or „Key-venth“) those victory points: Those points can be accrued from lots of different sources, with most of them only materializing during Autumn and Winter. With the Autumn season tiles are auctioned which, among other things, reward you for the production of wood, stone or iron. As in each round always only a certain selection of the total of 12 season tiles appears in relation to the number of players in the game, it can of course happen that a previous production of wood does not yield any revenue or that an opposing player wins the respective victory point area/tile in auction; contrary to production areas/tiles you cannot use the victory point areas/tiles of another player. Something similar to this goes for Winter tiles: Those tiles are secretly allocated to players already at the start of the game, so that you - in a way - can accept them as a special order and can adapt your game play to them; but if you manage to acquire the desired winter areas/tiles in the end will again rest with the outcome of a thrilling auction.

The potential frustration resulting from this mechanism - already one auction that you won or lost can result in a dramatic difference in the number of victory points - as well as the element of chance are integrated that well and in an unobjectionable way into the other mechanisms of the game so that one is more than ready to accept them as part of the game play.

The pastel water-color design of areas/tiles is a question of taste, you like them or you don’t, of course, but it must be pointed out that the six screens have all been given an individual design, too. The shape of the (very many) playing pieces is by now a classic, and as regards to all other aspects the game box is well filled, too. A nice service is the more than sufficient number of zip-loc bags included with the components for a well-sorted storage of the piece.

The rules in general are acceptable but, especially in the German translation, in parts worded a bit awkwardly. Before your first game you should take time to read through the rules at least twice. Real misinterpretations, basically, can only result from the description of the course of an auction: This description creates the (wrong) impression that you must remove your workers from a tile in case you are outbid (as happens in many games since “Evo” by Philippe Keyaerts or “Amun Re” by Reiner Knizia): In fact, you can raise a currently outbid offer, even several times, but you can also decide to send out workers previously used for an outbid offer to do a completely different job.

All in all, the rules expenditure is nicely limited and offer an astonishingly free game experience, encumbered by only very few restrictions, so that more than the limited group of experts will have a chance to appreciate “Keyflower”. This fact is also supported by the clear and concise graphic design denoting the possibilities provided by the respective production areas/tiles.

Despite the fact that there is no real story at the back of the game, the game provides a very lively and alive flair: You expand your village, employ your workers, enjoy your production processes and the transport of resources; you are anxious if you will acquire the tiles you want to have and are aggravated over intentional or unintentional interference by other players. As in all games on optimization the game mechanisms here, of course, demand a certain interest in solving logic puzzles (as once formulated by the Constitutional Court). In response to the progressively more confusing display with every additional player in the game the only four rounds of the game can be drawn out into a game of several hours. On the other hand, “Keyflower” provides very active game play for two players only with a playing time of only about an hour, especially as in a game for two no abstract feeling is created in contrast to many other games for two.

Harald Schatzl

Players: 2-6

Age: 12+

Time: 90+

Designer: Sebastian Bleasdale and Richard Breese

Art: Juliet Breese and Jo Breese

Price: ca. 44 Euro

Publisher: R&D Games / Huch

Web: www.huchandfriends.de

Genre: Optimization game

Users: With friends

Special: 2 players

Version: multi

Rules: de en

In-game text: no

Comments:

7^th game of the „Key“ series

A trial game seems opportune

Brooding and frustration potential is given

Chance element barely visible

Plays very well for two players

Compares to:

All worker placement game

Other editions:

Currently none

My rating: 6

Harald Schatzl:

Another highlight in the worker placement genre of games, in which, among others, auction, logistic and chance elements are integrated into the highly interactive game mechanisms

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 1

Communication (red): 1

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0