Flow: Untamed Rivers
Flow: Untamed Rivers Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Content
- 1 Board (4 locked squares; outer ring; inner rings)
- 40 River Tiles
- 15 Lair Tiles
- 9 Point Tiles
- 5 Species Tiles, each with 3 matching Lair Tokens and 1 Reservation Tile
Goal of the Game
In Flow, each of you represents one of 10 endangered species of the Amazon basin and tries to secure as large a Territory as possible. The player who finds the best path through the river maze, thus claiming the largest Territory, wins the game.
Game Setup
Shuffle all River Tiles and all Lair Tiles separately and place them next to the Board as two face-down piles. You place all Point Tiles piles next to these two piles.
Each of you chooses one animal species and places the corresponding Species Tile together with the 3 matching Lair Tokens and Reservation Tile in front of you. In addition, each of you takes 3 Lair Tiles and 3 River Tiles from the prepared piles. After that the remaining Lair Tiles and unused Species Tiles / Lair Tokens / Reservation Tiles are placed back in the box.
Gameplay (3-5 Players)
When it is your turn you can choose between two actions:
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Place 1 tile on any empty square of the board (or on your Reservation Tile). Exception: In the first round, players may only place their tiles on the inner two rings of the board, not on the outer ring. If you put down a River Tile, draw 1 new River Tile at random. If you put down a Lair Tile, put one of your Lair Tokens on top of the Lair to mark it as yours and do not draw a new tile.
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Place your Reservation Tile on any empty square of the board, reserving the square for yourself for the rest of the game. Placing a tile on your Reservation Tile counts as a turn. You may only place the Reservation Tile once per game.
After performing one of these two actions, it is then the next player's turn. If you cannot take a turn due to all the free space being taken up by Reservation Tiles (which do not belong to you), you skip the turn.
Note: The Lair Token is placed on the Lair. Every Lair Tile also features a River End.
Territories
Any combination of Lairs, Rivers and River Ends that form a continuous, closed shape without turning a corner is called a Territory. After you have placed a River Tile or a Lair Tile on the board, always check to see if there are any new Territories.
"Without turning a corner" means that a Territory always follows the direction of the river from start to end and never turns sharply around a corner. The river direction of each tile is visible on the right.
Illustration note: the rulebook shows an example where a river that turns a corner before reaching a River End or Lair is "No Territory yet", and an example of a Single Territory of 6 points (= Length of Territory) for the pink player.
There are 4 possible ways a "closed shape" (= Territory) can occur:
(i) Single Territory - Lair connected to a River End. The owner of the Lair receives +L* points.
(ii) Dual Territory - Lair connected to a Lair. The owner of each Lair receives +L* points. If the same player owns both Lairs, they get +2L* points in total.
Illustration note: the rulebook shows a Dual Territory of 6 points (2 x Length) for the white player.
* L = Length of the Territory, which equals the number of tiles the river passes from end to end, including the Lairs/River Ends and repeatedly passed tiles.
(iii) Oxbow lake - River End connected to a River End. The player who placed the last tile receives +1 point.
(iv) Oxbow loop - River tiles closed in a loop. The player who placed the last tile receives +1 point.
Points scored with Lair Tiles are counted at the end of the game. To keep track of the 1-point Territories, players take 1 Point Tile for each 1-point Territory they build.
End of Game
The game ends when the whole board is filled with tiles (except for the central square in the middle and the 4 locked squares of the strategy mode) and there are no more Reservation Tiles present. Every player now counts their points for every Territory to which one of their Lair Tokens belongs. To this number, all players add their +1 points. The player with the most points wins. In the case of a tie, the player with the single longest territory wins.
Strategy Mode / 2-Player Mode
For a more strategic game experience, each player can perform two actions on their turn (instead of one) i.e. place two tiles, or one tile and the Reservation Tile. In a two-player game, we recommend that you always use this rule.
If this more strategic variant is chosen with 4 or 5 players, the 4 locked squares may also be occupied. This is important because it allows all players to place the same number of tiles.