Rejoice! The house of Fleur has won the crown from house Aer. As tradition dictates a ceremonial wreath, made of the new Kings favourite wild flowers, must be constructed. You are the Royal Florist, so it is your job to go out and find those flowers. And you better do a good job. No one wants an upset King.
Crown de Fleur is a puzzle game where players match flowers in order to collect tiles. The base game is for one player, while there is a variant for 2-4 players. Both are essentially the same, with an added scoring system to the multiplayer version. The game is designed by Allan Chesher, with art by Allan Chesher and Rohan Scarr, and published by Centennial Games.
The play area starts as a 4×5 grid of tiles. Outer tiles have blue cubes on them, with the inner tiles having green. There are three special tiles, however, which cubes are not placed onto. Every tile contains at least one half of a flower, with there being three types of flowers in the game.
Each turn players place a tile from their stockpile to the board, aligning one of the flower halves with another matching half. The tile placed is left on the board, and all adjoining tiles containing completed flowers are picked up. If only one tile is picked up the player must remove a cube from their store. When more than one is picked up, no cubes are spent.
As tiles are removed the player collects the cubes on the tiles. These cubes are spent to remove the special tiles which colour corresponds with the cube, when picking up tiles with completed flowers. Players also have the option to discard a cube from their stockpile to rotate a tile 90 degrees.
The game ends when all tiles are removed, or there is no way for the player to remove any more tiles. In the solo game removing all the tiles is considered a success. While in the multiplayer game, players flip the tiles they collected, as on the back are an assortment of wreath sections with different coloured flowers. Players attempt to earn points from making complete wreaths, with different colours earning different point amounts.
Crown de Fleur is built on a simple idea, but is quite interesting in its execution. The process of placing a tile to remove others requires quite a bit of board understanding and forward planning. It seems the aim is to create chains of matched flowers prior to placing a tile. But at the same time, not removing so many tiles, and from one area, that it isolates other tiles and makes them expensive to retrieve.
As a solo game it contains a nice rhythm. There aren’t many rules to remember, and most of the information needed is laid out in front of the player. So to the multiplayer is an engaging experience which provides a nice progression on the solo play. In fact multiplayer is almost two games in one, as players via to collect tiles then wrack their brains over how to construct the optimal points scoring wreaths.
The game is so succinct, so to the point, that there isn’t much wrong with it. Certainly I can’t fault the solo experience in unto itself. The multiplayer is a nice addition, and tweaks the solo game enough to create some competitiveness. But realistically, I doubt that most people will get more than half a dozen multiplayer sessions from it before moving onto something a little more robust.
From a visual standpoint the artwork isn’t amazing, but it is more than adequate for the task. It is easy to distinguish the three flowers, as well as the special tile colours. And there are some cute details added, like varied sizes of lily pads and the occasional fish. So too the rule book is quite basic in its layout design, but is easy to understand and so makes learning the rules a breeze.
Possibly the most charming thing about the game is its production. The tiles are a nice size and well made, and feel quite sturdy. While the rule book is stitched rather than stapled, which is a neat little touch. The cubes are completely generic, but that is hardly a black mark. And the whole thing comes in a handy bag, adorned with gold lettering, which seems to elevate the whole experience immensely.
If you are someone who really enjoys solo games, but also wants a title which can be occasionally called on for group play, then Crown de Fleur is an excellent addition to your collection. Its simplistic visuals belie a complex and challenging puzzle which a player can come back to again and again.
You can find more information on Crown de Fleur, or purchase it, on the Kingdom of Aer website.
