Become the dandelion in this 2 to 3 player game and send your seeds floating on the wind to plant themselves in a selection of beautiful gardens. Use gusts to push other players seeds in to neighbouring gardens and end the game with the most dice in each location to score the most points.
This travel sized game has a quick playtime and the eyecatching box certainly stood out on the shelf. I often want a quick to play game that has some strategy to it and when I heard about Dandelions, I was keen to see what it had to offer.
First Impressions
The artwork on the outside of the box is simple and bold, yet somehow emits an air of elegance which is carried through onto the components of the product inside. These components are of good quality with a nice seal around the edges of each board and a drywipe pen is included for calcualating your scores on the reuseable scorepad. The rules despite being short and sweet explain the game well and left us with few questions on how to play the game.
Game Play Overview
As part of the setup of the game, each player will roll all of their dice which will then be mostly set for the rest of the game. Once all players are ready, you'll then take it in turns to choose one of your dice, move that number of spaces around the board with your dandelion token and then place your die on the space you land on, planting it into the garden. If another players Dandelion token is on the space you would land on, harness the power of the wind by floating on the same number of spaces again. Once you've planted, compare the die used to those already in the garden and if the value matches the die of another player, use a gust of wind to send their die to another garden. Lastly, if you land on the start space, a puff occurs and you reroll all your dice that haven't yet been planted. Once all players have placed all of their dice, you'll move onto scoring where you'll gain points for each die in each garden (sprouts) and for the player with the most dice in each of the 5 gardens, they'll score extra points based on the pips on their dice (seeds). The highest total score is the winner.
Pros and Cons
This is a very quick game to play, with a straightforward set of rules, however it certainly packs a punch when it comes to strategy considering it's size and speed. For such a small game, the components are excellent and despite not taking up much space on the table it certainly has a striking presence. That being said, it is only a 2 to 3 player game, so if there's a group of you that you usually play with, then this may not be the game for you. However, as it is designed for 2 or 3 players specifically, it does play well at those player counts. It has a reasonable amount of replayability to it and with a 15 minute play time and compact size, it's great for filling waiting times whether you're out and about relaxing at home.
Final Verdict
Overall, I was surprised at how much this game fitted in to a low player count and quick game play. It certainly feels like it fills a gap in my collection and I'm looking forward to playing again.
In conclusion, we would rate this game a 9.3/10
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