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Sunflower Valley - The Card Game

[Sunflower - The Card Game]

Author:
Wouter van Strien

Publisher:
Hobby World
2019

No. of Players:
2-6

EVALUATION

[Complexity]
[Design]
[Interaction]
[Strategy]
[Evaluation]


G@mebox author Ralf Togler writes about the game:

Sunflower Valley - The Card Game is a fast-paced card variant of the family-friendly pen-and-paper game Sunflower Valley from HOBBY WORLD (refer to my review). Like in the older game the author Wouter van Strien let us build railways, sunflower fields, sheep pastures and villages to create a lovely mountain valley. But in contrary to the older game, we don’t have pens and boards on which we draw our new acquisitions. And there are also no dice that determine the available landscapes.

Instead of this we have cards, each of the players has his own valley card pile and a single starting town card in front of him. At the beginning of each of the 3 rounds, all player draws 7 cards from their card pile. In a drafting mode, each player picks one of these cards, reveals it and plays it next to another card in his or her valley. Then everyone passes the rest of the cards to the player on the left and the next card is chosen.

[Sunflower - The Card Game]

Click on image to enlarge!

Of course it is important which card is adjacent to another one when it comes to the scoring. We can derive that from small symbols of the required combinations on each card. So, for example a farmer card requires sheep next to it, sometimes also a sheep and a lake card. If there is such a combination adjacent to the farmer at the end of the game, it scores 2 or 3 points. Other cards only demand a single card, but they get more valuable the more identical cards are adjacent to it. Finally there are lakes that simply score 1 point without any further requirements.

[Sunflower - The Card Game]

Click on image to enlarge!

But where is the railroad. Experienced Sunflower Valley players will remember that the railroad was a valuable element to score. The more villages that were connected the higher the score at the end. And the same is true to the card game. Railroad cards can be placed as all other cards adjacent to villages. As soon as to villages are connected through at least 1 railroad card, a valley express token moves to the next town card in line. Of course this is good for the player as he or she scores three victory points.

[Sunflower - The Card Game]

Click on image to enlarge!

That are all of the rules, not more difficult than the pen-and-paper variant. And still I think the game is slightly more difficult to master for the younger ones. The reason for that are the goal cards that expand the way to score in the game. I mean you have something similar in the older game too. And still I had the feeling that you had to consider more. Maybe the reason is that you aren’t limited in your expansion by the board or that you are less luck-dependent from any dice. Anyway, Sunflower Valley - The Card Game is a popular game in my family at the moment. And it is a nice entry into the world of drafting games. Different from the pen-and-paper variant, but still more or less the same game. A solid, fast-paced family game.


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