Keyflower

Product Information

The rule book does a good job of setting out how to play the game, even if it’s unnecessarily text-heavy. Thankfully this is mitigated by the use of a summary bar which captures the most salient points. Overall, it’s a bit spartan but certainly fit for purpose. Key to the City: London constantly presents challenges like these to overcome. There’s a bit of a gamble involved in almost everything you do, and there’s always the risk that you’ll overextend yourself or overspend your resources. It’s a game of risk versus reward versus efficiency. There are always interesting decisions to make and it isn’t always clear just what the best decision is. I like that. It keeps me on my toes and it keeps me involved. At the start of the first round I reach into a bag and draw out a hand of random coloured meeples. I then conceal these surreptitiously behind my cottage-themed player shield.

In spring, summer, and autumn, more workers will arrive on board the Keyflower and her sister boats, with some of these workers possessing skills in the working of the key resources of iron, stone, and wood. In each of these seasons, village tiles are set out at random for auction. In the winter, no new workers arrive, and the players select the village tiles for auction from those they received at the beginning of the game. Each winter village tile offers VPs for certain combinations of resources, skills, and workers. The player whose village and workers generate the most VPs wins the game.

Expansions

A game with 2 players may last around 90 minutes. The more players you have, the longer the game runs. With 6 players, you might spend more than 2 hours playing. A: The recommended age is 12+, younger children may find it difficult to understand the mechanics of the bidding system and all the complications of the game. Developer (2018) [2]—Summer tile. Score 2 points for each upgrade symbol adjacent to the tile at the end of the game, and can be upgraded by a wood to get 3 points for each.

Keymelequin (2018) [2]—Ship tile that feature two-colored worker, they can be used as either color.Enporium & Monument (2013) [2]—Winter tiles. Enporium: Score 3 points for each set of green worker and 2 other workers allocated. Monuments: Score 4 points for each set of 1 gold and 2 resources allocated. There are tiles that can be used for generating resources. In this case, you put your workers on the tile. It can be your tile, or somebody else’s tile, or a tile that is available for bidding.