In 2023, game designer Dani Garcia hit the ground running. His first game Barcelona received a top rating from us and is also doing well on BoardGameGeek. His second game Arborea, which will be published in Germany by Skellig Games, also did well. Now his third title, Windmill Valley, was published by the Polish publisher Board&Dice as part of the UK Games Expo. In Germany, GiantRoc is taking over the title under the name "Die Blumenstraße". You can find out whether his third game is a hit in the following review.
At the end of the 19th century, over 9000 windmills adorn the landscapes of the Netherlands. Some of them were built as wind pumps, specifically to drain so-called polders. In the polders there are fields full of colorful tulips, which are now an indispensable part of the Dutch landscape, especially the famous Bloemen Route. As tulip growers and entrepreneurs, we build and improve our windmills, search for new tulip bulbs from local and international traders, hire helpers, secure lucrative contracts and grow tulips. All to run a thriving tulip business.
ATTENTION: Board&Dice provided us with an English copy of the game for review purposes. Terms used in this review may therefore differ from those used in the German version that will be published by GiantRoc.
In Windmill Valley, we try over a varying number of rounds to plant our tulips in our bed as profitably as possible, to cleverly place windmills between the fields and to fulfil orders. A turn is divided into four short phases. At the beginning, we decide how far we open the dam's lock. This determines how much the water level rises in the second phase and how fast our mill wheels turn in the third phase. If we open the lock further, we have to pay guilders and receive victory points for opening the lock. However, we can also decide to keep the lock at its current position or to close it to let less water through. We do not receive a bonus for this.
Once we have operated the lock, we adjust the water level. To do this, we move the marker forward a few spaces according to the height of the lock. If the water level has already reached the last space, the lock cannot let in any more water and the lock is closed. Then the mill wheels on the personal mill board move. This also happens according to the height of the lock, because the more water is let in, the faster the wheels turn.
Mill wheels determine the action
Where the wheels stop in the fourth phase determines which of the seven standard actions we have available. At the beginning, the right wheel only has one action in all of its fields, with which we can lower the water level again. For each field that we lower, we receive the bonus shown above the field in the form of victory points or guilders. Guilders are particularly important for paying for various actions and improvements.
At the beginning we can use the left wheel to carry out all the remaining actions. Here we can improve our own farm and the actions of our mill wheels, build a windmill, visit the market, plant tulips or trade.
If we want to improve our farm, we take one of the farm improvements in the form of cards from the game board and slide them under our own game board. The improvements are divided into two parts, with the upper part depicting helpers and the lower part contracts. While helpers give us additional bonuses whenever we carry out the action stated on them, contracts give us conditions that we must fulfill in order to receive victory points at the end of the game. Depending on which side of the card we slide under our board, we receive the improvement that is still visible.
If we improve our mill board, we take one of the mill improvements. These are divided into three rarity levels, which increase in the strength of their actions from common to unique. While common ones cost us nothing, we have to pay one guilders for rare ones and two guilders for unique ones. We can install the improvement we receive in any field on our two mill wheels. Whenever our wheels stop during the corresponding action, we can now carry out this action.
Tough Tulip Business
In order to make our farm flourish and to earn as many victory points as possible, we first need tulip seeds. These can then be planted in the bed on our personal board. We get seeds either by building windmills or by visiting the market. To use the market action, we have to pay a certain number of guilders. We can then move a certain number of spaces on a rondel. With each step, we get any action from the space we enter with this step. With the action, we can either collect seeds or plant seeds. The amount is determined by the number of markers on the space.
If we want to build a windmill, it must always be connected to the market. To do this, we take a mill from our personal game board, pay the cost of the field on which we want to place it and receive the surrounding bonuses. In addition to the mill seeds, these are usually various actions that we can also find on the mill wheels. By building mills, we free up windmill fields on our personal game board. Each free windmill field provides us with victory points for planted tulips of a certain color, which are added up at the end of the game.
Planting tulips as an important victory factor
We can plant collected tulip seeds using the shovel action of our mill wheels. The number of tulip seeds we can plant is determined by the strength of the action. To plant, we place tulip markers, which end up in our supply as seeds, on our bed. This consists of four rows that must be filled from left to right. When planting tulips, you should pay attention to the color of the tulips, because if we fill a row with one color, we get more victory points than if we fill it with different colors. With columns, however, it is even more important to make sure that each column has different colored tulips, otherwise we risk losing points.
The last possible standard action is the trade action. With this we can place a tulip marker from our warehouse onto the trade card and receive the two bonuses that are adjacent to our placed tulip marker. Alternatively, we can also take all the tulip markers that are on the trade card to have more options for planting.
Continuous calendar leads to the end of the game
With every move we play, our mill wheel moves forward. As soon as our own mill wheel has completed a complete rotation, we move our own marker on the calendar. This has a total of four fields, each of which gives us different bonuses as soon as we reach it. When a person reaches the last field, the end of the game is initiated. The round is completed and an additional round is played. Then the scoring begins.
Victory points, orders, windmill fields and the arrangement of the planted tulips collected during the game are evaluated here. Whoever has the most points at the end wins.
Information about Windmill Valley
| Number of players: 1 – 4 Age: from 14 years Playing time: 45 - 90 minutes Difficulty: expert game Long-term motivation: high Classification: Rondell mechanism, Open drafting Author: Dani Garcia Illustrations: Perdro Codeço, Katarzyna Witos Publisher: Board&Dice Official Website: Link Year of publication: 2024 Language: English, (German at GiantRoc) Cost: 60 Euro |
Conclusion
Windmill Valley, or in German The Flower Road, is another fantastic title from Dani Garcia. As with Barcelona, he manages to deliver a game that is basically simple but has a lot of depth. The symbolism in particular is once again excellent. Even without the symbol overview, you quickly understand all of the game's bonuses and effects and can quickly start to think about big tactics. That's great, because it makes the game easy to explain. Some games with less depth don't even manage that as well as Windmill Valley. That also makes it more likely that it will end up on the table much more often.
The connection between the lock mechanism and the driving of the mill wheel feels particularly fresh and, in my opinion, is both thematically and mechanically successful. It's fun to think about your moves in advance, to cleverly place improvements and to adjust the lock so that the actions work out well. However, it's easy to lose track of things, especially when the improvements come into play. It's easy to miss out on actions, which can set you back and be frustrating as the game progresses. Since some improvement tiles offer the possibility of carrying out additional actions, it's still a lot of fun to improve your actions and possibly create strong combo chains from them.
Windmill Valley feels particularly rewarding when a combo chain succeeds. It's not just the improvement tiles that offer the opportunity to create chains. Helper cards, for example, also give us additional bonuses. But we can also build good combinations by cleverly placing windmills on the game board.
The game material is really high quality. Double-layered game boards, printed wooden figures, cards with a linen finish, everything feels good and makes sense. The only thing we would have liked was an insert, preferably made of cardboard, so that the great game material can be easily stored in the box. But this is complaining at a particularly high level.
All in all, I have to say that with Windmill Valley I have found a new game designer whose games I am really looking forward to from now on. Dani Garcia has also created a game that is easy to learn, offers a lot of depth and in which everything works really well. Even the solo mode against an automated opponent is great fun. Anyone who has even the slightest interest in the game should definitely take a look at Windmill Valley, because it is worth it.
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
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Barcelona (English)* | 56,20 EUR |
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
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Alley Cat Games Arborea (ENGL.), Standard* |
34,34 EUR |
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