Page 28 - spielbox 03/21 - English

Review. Blätterrauschen
About Bees and Flowers
make anyone nervous. The graphic design is quite charming, if a bit cluttered. With great thematic consistency, the river dries up in the summer heat, only to become a torrent during fall. Really nice: the game comes with a thick book of sheets, there’s definitely no skimping here. In addition, multiple scoring modes provide change, although their subtleties are a barrier to entry and not all are well-balanced.
But the game has one major drawback: the scoring area is way too small. It’s te- dious for people with poor eyesight and puts a strain even on healthy eyes. Unfor- tunately, this visibly spoils an otherwise great gaming experience. (cs)
Title: Designer: Illustration: Publisher: Players: Age: Duration: Price:
Blätterrauschen Paolo Mori
Elli Jäger Kosmos
2 – 6
about 8+ years about 20 minutes about 13 Euros
Reviewer
Marie Poenisch
Udo Bartsch
Roll & write with a difference.
L.U. Dikus 6
A nice story angle and implemented with great variety, but quite convolu- ted; minuscule scoring area.
Stefan Ducksch 6
Thematically it is extraordinarily effective. Unfortunately, the scoring area is too small.
Wieland Herold 6
Nice variability with the changing of the seasons, but too cluttered for my liking.
Manuel Fritsch 7
Beautifully implemented theme, each season plays noticeably different. Entertaining roll-&-write fun.
Harald Schrapers 6
The idea of the different seasons is thematically nice. But I would pro- bably prefer a single, well-developed version that really shines.
Christoph Schlewinski 5
Nice how the seasons offer variety. But the game does not manage to create a strong urge to bring it back to the table.
Playing appeal
6
6
By MARIE POENISCH
Oh no, not another roll & write game! These have come, well, “roll-ing in” recently, so we were
bound to feel that we have played them ad nauseam. But wait: four seasons, each played a little differently? And a river running through the middle of the land- scape, reminding me of My City? Okay, my curiosity is piqued.
No matter which season you are play- ing, they all have one thing in common: two dice with one to four pips and a few clouds determine the size of the rectangle you have to draw on your sheet. And each time you have to decide which symbol to score, while your rectangles spread like a carpet over the grid.
Similar to the scoring opportunities, the forest changes over the course of the year. In spring, when they find many flowers to pollinate, bees are valuable. All rainbows win 30 points. Oh, let me men- tion it at this point: A rainbow tactic is essential to win. And then there are the love birds, who like to perch as pairs in
spring. Decisions, decisions . . . and where am I supposed to put that three-by-four section now? Fortunately, there‘s a joker, and the possibility to note down any bad rolls as misses. But at some point, the sheet gets cramped and withdrawing is unavoidable.
If we ever get tired of avoiding bears in spring, we simply avoid snakes in summer instead. In addition to beautiful combina- tions, each season also has symbols that give minus points. Sometimes the darn weather gets in our way, because fireflies do not like rain and autumn storms con- strict our choice of territory. On the other hand, autumn not only has an abun- dance of mushrooms, but also squirrels. However, their value is determined by the number of acorns, in the sense that the number of squirrels ist multiplied by the number of acorns. The winter forest is above all white and cold, but has arctic foxes to offer.
In Blätterrauschen (“Leave Rus- tling“), flora and fauna are always de- signed to match the seasons, although all those pesky mosquitoes in summer will
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