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I love nature. I love the sights, sounds and smells of nature. And living on and next to farms, well, that’s a pretty bold statement! But it’s true. Animal, vegetable, or mineral – they all have their sweet and sour notes. But one thing I know for sure. When I play Floriferous Solo, it’s a beautiful bouquet of thorny choices!
Pesky Crow
Now, not everything is rosy in the garden. The Pesky Crow is the ornithological antagonist who is intent on disrupting your flow. But the meddling they make is for the best reasons! Their card swapping, stone stealing, objective removing actions are what make this wander through the garden so flipping addictive!
Stone Me
Setting up the solo mode is simple – it’s basically the same as the 2-player set up although the sculpture cards aren’t used. And you can do an extended version (which I always do!) which has 7 cards in a row instead of the usual 5.
Your turn is also the same. You pick a card (either a Garden card or a Desire card) from the garden (collecting any stones on top) and then place your Gardener Pawn in its place.
The only addition is the Pesky Crow Card and the Pesky Crow Action deck which is a small pile of prickliness indeed! Haha. The Crow card is where its stash of stones will sit, and the deck contains the prescribed move the Pesky Crow will take on their “turn in the next column in the Garden”.
In Floriferous, there are only a few moves it will make; it will swap a Garden card in the position shown for another face-down card or for stones, or it will swap a Desire card for another face-down card or for stones. And if you’re still meandering when the Pesky Crow deck runs out, you just shuffle and keep going!
Throwing Shade On My Garden
Sounds like the Pesky Crow will be nothing more than a petty pilferer, but somehow it always goes for what I want. I set up to take the next Desire Card or a gorgeous arrangement and poof. Gone. Swapped for stones that do me no immediate good. I mean, I can’t collect them (although I do stop the Crow from collecting them which is sort of beneficial) and it’s effectively denying me the chance to score those points at end game! I don’t know how it does it. Lady luck must be a bird watcher because these two are definitely in a pact together! And I know I can use my Cup of Tea card to thwart the feathered fiend once per game. But if feels like I’m cheating – like the Crow will mock me for it – so I stand firm and fall with my dignity in tact!
I know you’re thinking to yourself “why would she take stones if they don’t count towards her end score?”. Well, there’s another fiendish feather in this Pesky Crow’s cap. For any stones set out and not collected at the end of the day are taken back to the Crow Card. And if there is ever more than 4 on it, I have to discard one of my cards (unless I can pay with my own stones to discard theirs).
Final Thoughts
I love playing Floriferous solo. I know I sound like such a greedy gamer, but I prefer to play all of my Pencil First Games solo. The direct interaction from the Pesky Crow feels so much more personal than going up against another human player. I don’t know why but it just does. And I love the light but thinky decision space. Choosing between beautiful Garden cards is hard enough. And the arrangements and Bounty cards with their unique scoring criteria present competing goals that vie for attention. Predicting which Desire cards are going to reward you most by end game is also delightfully dilemma driven. It’s almost push your luck as you sacrifice Garden Cards for goals in the hope that the gamble will pay off at end game. And you’re in a race against the rounds in terms of the Bounty cards as their value diminishes the later you achieve them (if at all).
I probably don’t need to mention that Floriferous is also gorgeous on the table. The watercolour artwork is manna for my tired soul and a feast for my worn-out eyes
After a day’s work and life’s dramas, sitting down and wandering through a delightful Garden is just what the doctor ordered. Especially when there is a Pesky Crow in residence!