Photosynthesis (game)

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photosynthesis
Game data
author Hjalmar Hach
graphic Sabrina Miramon
publishing company Blue Orange Games
Publishing year 2017
Art Skill game
Teammates 2 to 4
Duration 30 to 60 minutes
Age from 10 years on

Awards

Photosynthesis (English original title: Photosynthesis ) is a board game by the game designer Hjalmar Hach . The game for two to four players, ages ten and up, takes around 30 to 60 minutes per round and was published by Blue Orange Games in 2017 . In 2018 the game was awarded the Mensa Select game award by the American section of the Mensa International Association, and in Germany it was nominated for the Graf Ludo game graphics award for the best family game graphics .

Theme and equipment

In Photosynthesis it comes to the players about to plant trees and to move on the field that they are powered by the year optimally with light and are not higher in the shade of trees. Players collect points by planting their trees in the best spots and letting them grow.

In addition to instructions, the game material consists of:

  • a game board with a six-sided playing field,
  • four player boards in the four player colors,
  • 24 seeds, six each in the four player colors,
  • 32 small trees, eight each in the four player colors,
  • 16 middle trees, four each in the four player colors,
  • eight large trees, two each in the four player colors,
  • a sun
  • a starting player marker
  • four sun markers
  • four round chips
  • 24 point chips

Style of play

Game preparation

Before the game, the game board is placed in the middle of the table. Each player chooses a player color and receives the corresponding player board, the seeds and a total of 14 trees as well as a sun marker. The point chips are sorted by color in four stacks in descending order with the highest value at the top, the stacks are placed next to the game board. Each player fills the free fields on his tableau with his trees from small to large and places 4 of the 6 seeds on the corresponding seed fields. Then he places the sun marker as a point marker on space 0 of his sun track. The remaining two seeds, the four small and the middle tree are placed next to the tableaus as ready-to-plant trees and seeds.

Beginning with a starting player, each player in turn places one of his small trees that are ready to be planted on any free space with a leaf on the edge of the board and repeats this until each player has placed two trees. The sun is placed at the place on the game board marked with the sun symbol and round chips 1, 2 and 3 are placed in a descending order as a stack next to the game board.

Game flow

The game of photosynthesis takes place over 3 orbits of the sun with six rounds each, a total of 18 rounds. Each round in turn has 2 phases, the sunshine phase and the action phase.

In the sunshine phase, the starting player moves the sun clockwise to the next corner of the hexagon. The players receive sun points for each of their trees that is not in the shadow of another tree and place their sun marker on the scoring track accordingly. The trees each cast a shadow according to their size on the side facing away from the sun, so the small trees cast a shadow from one, the middle from two and the large from three fields. A tree that is in the shadow of another tree, however, collects sun points if it is larger than the shadow-throwing tree and casts a shadow itself. For each small tree the player receives one, for each medium-sized tree two and for each large tree three points; Seeds do not earn any points.

In the action phase, beginning with the starting player, each player may perform any number of actions, whereby each action must be paid for with sun points. A player may never take more than one action that affects the same playing field. As actions, players can

  • buy: With the sun points you can “buy” trees and seeds from your tableau. You always have to shop within each column from bottom to top. When a player has spent the sun points, he places the trees and seeds he bought next to his board as ready for planting.
  • Planting seeds : For each point in the sun, a player can plant a ready-to-plant seed near one of his trees. The maximum distance between the seeds and the tree depends on the size of the tree; the player may plant the seeds in a small tree with one field, in a medium tree with two fields and in a large tree with three fields. Two fields are involved in a planting, on the one hand the starting field of the tree from which the seed originates and on the other hand the target field on which the seed is planted. Accordingly, the same tree may not sow two seeds in one move or grow first and then sow and the seed cannot grow into a small tree in the same game round.
  • Let a tree grow: The player can use his sun points to replace his seeds and trees with trees of the next size that he has already bought and is ready to plant next to his tableau. A seed becomes a small tree for one sun point, a small tree becomes a middle tree for two sun points and a middle tree becomes a large tree for three sun points. Trees and seeds that the player removes from the game board by letting them grow are put back on his tableau on the top free space of the corresponding column. If there is no free space, it is removed from the game.
  • Collecting: With four sun points, a player can remove a large tree from the playing field and in return receives the top point chip from the stack that matches the field of the corresponding tree in terms of color and number of leaves. When the stack is empty, he takes the top chip from the next stack. He puts the tree back on his tableau in the top free space in the right column.

When all players have carried out their actions and thus ended their turns, the round ends. The starting player marker is passed on to the next player. Whenever the sun has completely moved around the playing field, the top round chip is taken from the stack and the current round is displayed.

End of game and evaluation

The game ends when the sun has rotated three full circles around the board and the last round chip is removed. Each player adds up the points of his point chips and receives an additional point for each row started on his sun track. The player who has the most points after the evaluation wins. In the event of a tie, the player who has occupied more spaces on the board with his trees and seeds wins.

Reception and extensions

The game Photosynthesis was developed by the game designer Hjalmar Hach and published in 2017 by the publisher Blue Orange Games in a multilingual and an English version (Le Manoir Infernal) . This was followed in 2018 by a version in Portuguese by Mandala Jogos, a version in Polish by Portal Games, a multiligual Nordic version by Lautapelit.fi, a Korean version by Happy Baobab, a Bulgarian version by Fantasmagoria and a German-language version by Blue Orange Games published by Asmodee Germany is distributed.

In 2018 the game was awarded the Mensa Select game award by the American section of the Mensa International Association, and in Germany it was nominated for the Graf Ludo game graphics award for the best family game graphics .

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h instructions for photosynthesis ; accessed on September 6, 2018.
  2. ↑ Photosynthesis , versions at BoardGameGeek. Retrieved September 6, 2018 .
  3. ↑ 2018 Mensa Select® Winners Announced ; accessed on September 6, 2018.
  4. ↑ GRAF LUDO 2018 - The selection list ( memento of the original from October 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.modell-hobby-spiel.de archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; accessed on September 6, 2018.

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