Oh My Orchids: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Drafting, Hand Management, Set Collection
Player Age: 8+ Player Count: 2 - 5 PlayersTime to Play: 20 - 30 Minutes
Game Designer: Daryl Chow Publisher: OrigameYear Published: 2023BGG Weight: 1.33Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Player Age: 8+
Game Designer: Daryl Chow
Introduction:
Oh My Orchards is a quick filler game about hand management but, most importantly, planting and growing the most beautiful Singaporean flowers. You have to be mindful to diversify as you will score a larger output of points at the end of the game if you have a vast range of uniquely named flowers.
Card Anatomy:
Seed Deck:
Seeds are the pivotal point of the game as you will grow plants by discarding several seeds equal or not equal to the same colour or type. Each seed comes in four potential colours and four potential types.
Flora Deck:
The flora deck is filled with common flowers but only five types. Each flower may have a different point amount or growth requirement but ultimately it is easy to gain flowers. It is harder to diversify your plants when focusing on this deck. One of the most interesting flowers in this deck is the 'Torch Ginger' that requires a certain amount of seeds to fulfil as denoted on the seed cards.
Orchid Deck:
All the orchids in the game are native orchids of Singapore and are unique in name and points. If all those you plant are orchids, you are guaranteed points for diversity. Each orchid is more challenging than the general flora to plant though as they will require larger amounts of seeds and prove more challenging to build. With that challenge comes are larger reach of points.
Setup:
- Separately shuffle the three decks.
- Place the orchid deck on the top row and reveal three cards in a row.
- Place the flora deck on the second row and reveal four cards.
- Place the seed deck on the bottom row and reveal five cards.
- Give everyone a player aid card.
- After determining player order, each subsequent player draws one more seed card than the last player, starting at zero for the first player and ending at four seed cards for the last player.
How to Play:
This is a very quick and easy game to play. On your turn you will either take seeds or plant flowers. Whenever one of the rows has lower cards than they should at the end of the turn, new cards from their respective decks will be revealed.
When picking seeds you will either pick a colour type or seed type and take all cards matching that description. If this forces you to have more than seven seed cards, you must discard down to seven cards and put all discarded cards under your player aid card as negative points at the end of the game.
When you plant a flower you either pick a revealed flora/orchid card and discard the seeds that meet that flower's requirement. Once a player has planted their seventh flower, every other player has one last turn to plant a flower.
End Game Scoring:
At the end of the game, players will score a point on every flower planted, add points for diversity (as shown below) and then deduct any extra seeds under the player aid card.
Final Thoughts:
- Quick and snappy gameplay.
- Interesting hand management when choosing how many seeds you want each turn.
- Need to keep an eye on opponents and be ready to adapt to a different flower if need be.
- Game time is based on players and how fast they plant.
Oh My Orchids is a perfect filler game, with elements from a larger engine-building game called Splendor but has distilled those core elements into a faster, cleaner and (in my opinion) more interesting game. Players constantly have to size up which plants opponents are going for and decide when it is best to chase the higher point orchids or catch up with flora cards. Players may also simply sieze good opportunities based on the pattern of seed cards that come out. Combined with the great art and always welcomed nature theme, Origame have a great filler here that can be enjoyed by all.
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