Flower Fields is an abstract tile-placement game for 1 to 4 players. In this game, you take turns drafting tiles to place on your board and scoring points by earning and placing bee tokens on tiles.

Gameplay

The rules are very simple: each round, a number of tiles (depending on the player count) are randomly drawn and laid out on the table. The most common action is picking one of these tiles and adding it to your board, which also allows you to place a bee immediately. Alternatively, you can take one of the four small tiles available during the round, take bees from the field board, or place a bee. The round continues until all tiles are taken.

If you’ve played Patchwork, the tile selection mechanic will feel familiar. All tiles are laid out in a circle, and a sun token determines where tile drafting begins. However, unlike Patchwork, you aren’t limited to the first three tiles after the sun token. Any tile can be taken, as long as a bee is placed on any skipped tile after the token. After taking a tile, the sun token moves to its place, setting the new starting point for the next player.

The game is played over three rounds, with bee tokens earned as income at the end of the first and second rounds. Additionally, small tiles can be purchased by placing a pair of bees on the field board. The bee pairs can later be taken by any player, providing a second way to gain bees. Bee tokens are crucial for both tile selection freedom and scoring points at the end of the game.

Scoring is somewhat similar to Kingdomino. The largest region of each color scores points based on the number of areas multiplied by the number of bees placed in that region. Placing bees becomes progressively more expensive, so focusing on a single color isn’t always feasible, and diversification becomes necessary. Because of this, picking the right tiles and planning for future rounds when placing them is crucial. In addition to scoring for colored areas, every completed row and column on your board earns 5 points.

The player boards feature pre-printed tiles and icons. Along with fitting tiles of different shapes together, the boards add an extra layer of challenge, as the printed icons affect bee income. It’s also a good idea to take advantage of pre-printed tiles to expand the connected areas of every color.

There are a couple of areas where the game could be improved. The most notable is the lack of double-sided tiles. All tiles are one-sided, and we often found ourselves wishing we could flip a tile to better connect it to previously placed ones. Additionally, there’s no compensation for not being the first player. Especially in two-player games, one player gets the first pick twice, while the other gets it only once—an unfair advantage that hasn’t been addressed.

The game also includes a fun solo mode. The virtual opponent picks one option out of four, and the result is always removing a tile from the game. Other than that, the solo player follows the normal rules, with no extra steps required.

Artwork and Components

The artwork is beautiful, and the production quality is excellent. The bee tokens are screen-printed and look great on the table. That said, there are two areas for improvement. First, the included bag for tiles could be softer and larger to make mixing and drawing tiles easier. Second, the solo mode uses a system where the virtual opponent’s action is determined by flipping three cardboard tokens that show zeros on one side and ones on the other. The sum of these tokens determines the bot’s action. This could easily be replaced with a four-sided die to improve the experience.

Final Thoughts

We love tile-laying games, and Flower Fields is no exception. We’ve enjoyed playing it, and the 30-minute playtime has allowed us to play the game multiple times in a single session. While the game has room for improvement, it’s been a lot of fun. If you enjoy Patchwork or Kingdomino, or if you’re a fan of tile-laying games in general, there’s a good chance you’ll like this game.

Disclosure: We received a review copy of this game.