Stalk Exchange: Review
Information:
Player Age: 10+
Player Count: 2 - 5 Players
Year Published: 2023
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the VR Distribution.
Introduction:
Stalk Exchange is an interesting combination of tile placement and market manipulation. It has players placing and harvesting flowers in an effort to manipulate the value of the flowers they hold in their garden shed. During the game, each time a flower is harvested it will be worth one more point in the final tally. When players score each flower, the point value corresponds to the marker board. Most are worth equal to the number that the matching flower tile is on, whereas the leading flower tile number is halved.
Game Anatomy:
Market Board:
The market board contains the end-game value of each flower, shown throughout the game by the stalk value tokens. As flowers are harvested throughout the game, they will be placed on this board (starting at different locations based on the player count). Whenever a flower token passes a stalk value token, the game will end. Making this extra board important as an in-game timer.
Garden Board:
The garden board is where players will plant flowers through the game. At the bottom of the board is the stalk exchange where players can swap flowers with those in their garden shed and pick what type of flowers they will plant on their turn.
Flower Tokens:
There are five variations of flowers that players will be planting (and hoarding). Each type appears 25 times. These flowers are double-sided, one side with the bloom and one with the bulb. During the game, when flowers are planted from the stalk exchange, they are planted with the bulb side face-up to then flip during the upkeep phase of the same turn.
Seedy Business Tokens:
Each player starts the game with seedy business tokens (shaped as trowels) based on the player count, as shown below. These tokens can be used on a player's turn to either grant one extra turn or clear and refresh the stalk exchange board. This last bonus action can only be performed once per player, per game.
Setup:
Game Setup:
- Place the garden and market board in the centre of the table.
- Stack all value tokens on the zero space of the market board.
- Put all the flower tokens into the greenhouse bag.
- Grow flowers in the garden based on player count. Draw flowers and place them on the bee symbols if playing at 2 players, and also place flowers in the butterfly space for any other player count.
- Fill the stalk exchange with 6 drawn flowers.
- Place the compost bag to the right hand side of the stalk exchange.
Player Setup:
- Give each player a garden shed.
- Give each player 12, 12, 10 or 8 flower tokens based on the player count 2, 3, 4, 5 players.
- Give each player a turn reference tile.
- Give each player seedy tokens based on the player count as shown in game anatomy.
How to Play:
Players will play in clockwise order until either a flower passes a value token on the market board or the greenhouse bag is emptied. On a player's turn there will be an action and an upkeep phase. The goal is to carefully grow flowers in pursuit of increasing the value of those in your garden shed by the end of the game.
Action Phase:
The active player has two action points to use, where each action can be chosen multiple times on a turn. The plant action will allow the player to plant a flower from the stalk exchange into an empty space on the garden board, bulb-side up. The swap action allows the player to swap a flower from their garden shed with a flower in the stalk exchange.
Upkeep Phase:
This phase consists of harvesting, blooming, updating the stalk value, and moving the stalk exchange.
Harvest:
If any groups of flowers (the entire group must be surrounded) or singular flowers are surrounded without any spaces then these flowers will be harvested. This includes being surrounded by bloomed flowers, borders and bulbs. Bulbs cannot be harvested and harvesting occurs simultaneously.
Bloom Bulbs:
Flip over all the bulbs with at least one empty space adjacent to them.
Update Stalk Values:
All the flowers taken in the harvest step will be placed on the far end of the market track (starting placement is shown on the track based on player count). Each flower placed on this track will move the stalk value of its matching type up by one on the other end of the track.
Move the Stalk Exchange:
The rightmost flower in the stalk exchange will be discarded into the compost. Now each flower moves as far right as possible and the empty spots are refilled from the greenhouse.
End Game and Scoring:
Once the greenhouse bag is empty or the harvested flowers cross over a value flower on the market track, the game will end. This represents a market crash and the highest-valued flower will crash to half it’s value rounded up. Each player will then use the score sheet to multiply each flowers value by the amount of that flower they have in their garden shed. The player with the most points wins. For the example below, each rose would be worth five, since the player has three roses that is 15 points.
Final Thoughts:
- Players can plan ahead with whether they will grow groups of flowers or score quick single flowers.
- Welcoming market manipulation game.
- Visual game timer.
- Easy to understand rules but a lot of small rules can be missed that have drastic changes to the game.
Stalk Exchange is a clever market manipulation game that camouflages itself well with a welcoming nature theme. This is a game that sets itself apart from others in this genre by having a very engaging and important tile placement element of the game. When players are placing tiles they are deciding if they are trying to close off large groups of flowers, increasing that flower type by a landslide, or focus on smaller gains. While doing this, players also have to focus on what opponents are doing to determine which flowers they are heavily investing in. One more challenging consideration for players is the bust that happens to the highest-valued flower at the end of the game. This may lead players to improve flowers they're not collecting simply to protect their interest in the second and third flowers. This is a game that truly caught me by surprise. I personally enjoy market manipulation games but they tend to be harder to get to the table. Now with Stalk Exchange having such a welcoming theme, fast gameplay and an interesting tile placement puzzle, it becomes welcoming for anyone and always a pleasure when it hits the table.
Click...feed the addiction:
Comments
Post a Comment