Wildblooms Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Game Materials
  • Before the First Game
• Game Setup
• Gameplay
  • No Room to Grow More Flowers
• 1 | Growth Phase
  • Plant a Flower in Your Flowerbed
  • Flowers Grow
  • Fully-Grown Flowers
• 2 | Effects Phase
  • The Effects
  • Summary of Effect Symbols
  • Tip on Effects
  • Landing on an Effect Space
  • Author's Tip
• 3 | Refill the Gameboard
• End of Game
• Scoring
• Tips & Hints
  • Scoring Example
• Rainbow Tokens
  • Using Rainbow Tokens
  • Getting a Rainbow Token
• Game Variant

Overview

The goal of the game is to make the most flowers bloom in your meadow. On your turn, take a flower and plant it in your flowerbed. Depending on which space you took the flower from, all flowers of that color will grow — including in other players' flowerbeds. Use the special effects on each flower to make your meadow grow even faster.

Game Materials

• 1 Gameboard
• 50 Flowers: 10x blue (flat sea holly), 10x green (spiked rampion), 10x orange (Chinese lantern), 10x red (common poppy), 10x purple (foxglove)
• 45 Wooden tokens: 25 seeds, 10 bees, 10 ants
• 10 Rainbow tokens
• 5 Wildflower meadow 3D stands
• 1 Start worm

Before the First Game

Assemble the 3D wildflower meadow stands by following the directions in the rulebook: crease along the fold lines and fold them inwards toward the middle as shown. The result should look like the illustrated stand. Insert the blue tabs on both ends: first tab I, then tab II. Finished.

Game Setup

1. Place the gameboard in the middle of the table.

2. Turn the flowers face down (so that the side with the white spaces is facing down), shuffle them, and place them in a stack next to the gameboard.

   • In a two-player game, return the top ten flowers from the stack to the box.
   • In a three-player game, remove the top five flowers.
   • In a four- or five-player game, you will use all of the flowers.

3. Draw the top five flowers from the stack. Randomly place them face up on each of the five colored fields of the board. The colors of the flowers do not need to match the colors of the fields.

4. Place the bees, ants, and rainbow tokens at the edge of the playing area.

5. Distribute one wildflower meadow stand to each player.

6. The player who most recently gifted someone a bouquet of flowers gets the start worm.

7. Beginning with the player who has the start worm and moving clockwise, take the top flower from the stack and place it face up on the table in front of you. This is the start of your flower bed. Depending on your starting position, you also receive:

   Starting position	1	2	3	4	5

Gameplay

Beginning with the player with the start worm, players take turns in a clockwise direction. A turn always consists of three phases:

1. Growth phase: You plant a flower and all flowers of the same color as the empty gameboard space grow.
2. Effects phase: Special effects are resolved.
3. Refill the gameboard.

No Room to Grow More Flowers

If it is your turn but you have no free seeds because they have all already been placed on flowers, you do not take any flowers from the gameboard this round. Instead you may choose any color. All flowers of that color grow.

1 | Growth Phase

Plant a Flower in Your Flowerbed

On your turn, choose one of the five flowers on the gameboard. Place it face up and flat in front of you (in your flowerbed) and place a seed on the bottom space of your new flower.

Flowers Grow

The gameboard now has an empty colored field. Say the color of this field out loud so that everyone can hear. All flowers of this color may grow by one space during this phase. Important: This does not only apply to you! Everyone else may also grow the flowers of this color if they have any in their flowerbeds.

For instance, if you took the flower from the red field, everyone has the option to grow their red flowers by one space during this phase. To grow a flower, simply move the seed one space further up the flower.

Example: Kasper takes the blue flower, places it in front of him, and places a seed on the lowest space. Because he took the flower from the orange field, all the orange flowers may now grow by one space. Kasper's orange flower grows. Tobias has no orange flowers. Aaron has two orange flowers. He lets one grow, but he doesn't want the other to grow at the moment.

Fully-Grown Flowers

When a seed moves out of the top space on a flower, the flower is fully grown and blooms. Congratulations! Immediately take the flower and place it upright in your wildflower meadow. The seed can now be used to grow another flower.

2 | Effects Phase

Each flower has two effects. These are always in the top part of a double space. If a seed lands in the lower part of a double space, you may move the seed to the top part of the double space during the effects phase. Then, resolve the effect.

That means that your flower grows an extra space whenever you resolve an effect.

If you can resolve multiple effects in the same turn, you may choose the order in which they resolve. You must, however, completely resolve each effect before moving on to the next effect.

You may resolve one effect after another until there are no more possible effects to resolve or until you do not wish to resolve any more effects. Everyone takes part in the effects phase, regardless of whose turn it is.

Don't forget: You move your seeds first, and then resolve effects.

The Effects

Color Growth: This effect causes all of YOUR flowers of the corresponding color to grow one space.

Example: Aaron uses the orange color growth effect (1). All of his orange flowers grow one space (2).

Butterfly: If you trigger the butterfly effect, your tallest flower grows one space. If you have multiple flowers tied for tallest, they all grow one space.

Example: During the effects phase, Kasper triggers the butterfly effect. He therefore moves his seed to the top part of the double space (1). Now the blue and red flowers are tied as his tallest flowers, so both flowers grow another space (2).

Caterpillar: Your shortest flower grows one space. If you have multiple flowers tied for shortest, they all grow one space.

Bee: Take a bee token from the supply. You may place this bee and any other bees you have on empty spaces on your flowers (or keep them where they are). However, there can never be more than one bee on the same flower. Seeds jump over spaces that have bees on them, so flowers grow faster. If you place a bee on an effect symbol, you cannot use the effect, but you can jump over the bee for free during the effects phase. Once a flower with a bee on it has fully grown (the seed has moved out of the top space), keep the bee at the edge of your flowerbed. You may place it on a new flower as soon as you trigger the next bee effect. The more often you use the bee effect, the more bees you get as the game progresses.

Ant: Ants function exactly the same way as bees, except that all ants must be placed on the same flower.

Grasshopper: If you trigger a grasshopper effect, you may immediately move any of the seeds on any of your other flowers with grasshopper spaces to those spaces. You may decide for each flower individually; you don't have to move your seeds down.

Example: Tobias triggers the grasshopper effect on the blue flower (1), and can therefore now move the seeds to the grasshopper spaces on the orange and pink flowers (2).

Ladybug: Take the top flower from the stack and place it face up in front of you in your flowerbed. Place a seed in the bottom space. If you have no available seeds, you may not take a flower.

Summary of Effect Symbols

• Color growth (one symbol for each flower color: blue, green, orange, red, purple): All of YOUR flowers of this color grow.
• Bee: Take a bee and place all of your bees on DIFFERENT flowers. Seeds jump over bees as they grow.
• Ant: Take an ant and place all of your ants on THE SAME flower. Seeds jump over ants as they grow.
• Butterfly: Grow all of your TALLEST flowers.
• Caterpillar: Grow all of your SHORTEST flowers.
• Grasshopper: Move any seed on a flower with a grasshopper space to a grasshopper space.
• Ladybug: Add the top flower in the stack to your flowerbed and place a seed on the bottom space.

Tip on Effects

Because a flower grows one additional space to trigger an effect, it can be useful to trigger an effect even when you have no way to use it. For example, you may want to trigger the red color growth effect even if you have no red flowers.

Landing on an Effect Space

It is possible to land on an effect space with your seed during the growth phase. For example, if you didn't want to use the effect on your last turn. In this case, the effect is still triggered. The only difference is that you didn't use the automatic "free space" during the effects phase. However, you are never allowed to perform the effects phase before the growth phase.

Author's Tip

In your first game, it's a good idea for each player to take turns resolving their effects one at a time until you get the hang of it. Later, you can all resolve your effects at the same time, although it's fun to show off your coolest combos to the other players!

3 | Refill the Gameboard

Your turn ends by drawing the top flower from the stack and placing it face up on the empty space on the gameboard. Now it's the next player's turn in a clockwise direction.

To clarify: The only thing that distinguishes "your turn" from the turns of others is that you plant a flower (and thus decide which flower color grows).

End of Game

After you have placed the last flower from the stack onto the gameboard, finish the current round to ensure that everyone has had an equal number of turns. The game always ends after the player sitting to the right of the player with the starting worm finishes their last turn.

Because you don't refill the gameboard in this final round, some fields may remain empty. You may choose one of these empty fields during your turn to make the corresponding color grow, but you won't receive a flower.

Scoring

Whoever has the most flowers in their own wildflower meadow at the end of the game, wins. Flowers that have not finished growing do not count.

In case of a tie, the tied player with the tallest unfinished flower in their flowerbed wins. If there is still a tie, the next highest flower decides, and so on.

Tips & Hints

• All flower growth is voluntary. You are therefore not forced to let your flowers grow during either the growth or effects phase. This can be useful in some cases — for example, if you want to wait for the right moment to trigger an effect.
• On your turn, you always take a flower first, and then all flowers of the color of the empty field on the gameboard may grow. So, for example, if you take a blue flower from the blue space on the gameboard, place a seed in the first space, and then it may immediately grow one space.

Scoring Example

Kasper and Tobias both have 10 flowers in their wildflower meadow. However, Kasper's tallest flower in his flowerbed is in a higher position than the tallest flower in Tobias's flowerbed. Kasper wins.

Rainbow Tokens

Using Rainbow Tokens

You may return a rainbow token to the supply at any time during the effects phase to grow any flower in your flowerbed by one space. You may use multiple rainbow tokens in the same turn.

Getting a Rainbow Token

Whenever you complete a set of all five flower colors in your meadow (not in your flowerbed!), you may take a rainbow token from the supply. You may make multiple sets over the course of the game and therefore receive multiple rainbows.

Game Variant

If you'd like to make the game a bit more tactical and strategic, you can make a simple but significant rule change:

You may only use a double space to move a seed two spaces if the effect in the top space can actually be used.

So, for example, if you only have one flower with a grasshopper on it, you can't use the effect. You must either perform the movement normally during the growth phase (moving one space at a time) or wait until you get another flower with a grasshopper on it. The same applies to the color growth effects.