In my article about AI artwork in board games I asked if you ever bought games based on their artwork alone. Have you? I certainly have, and I’m about to do so again with FLOE. A new Kickstarter from Pika Games and the art team of Andrew Bosley and Yoma.
Andrew is most known for Everdell and Merchants of the Dark Road, while Yoma has previously worked on Planet Unknown and Endless Winter. Together they’ve once again captured my imagination with the beautifully illustrated world they’ve created and the fun cuddly creatures that inhabit it.
Not being one to be won over by a pretty face. Another reason why FLOE has been on my radar for the last couple of years is that it’s being published by PIKA Games, an offshoot of the new-ish publishing house Fantasia Games. I thoroughly enjoyed their debut board game, Endless Winter, and am eagerly awaiting the delivery of their follow-up game Unconcious Minds.
Outside of its pedigree, FLOE is a half-worker-placement, half-adventure game. You take control of an incredibly cute adventurer and a small familiar and bravely explore the frozen world of the Iceberg Sea. Choosing between resting in town on your turn, or wandering from iceberg to iceberg in search of treasure and adventure.
Just like in Endless Winter, there are more than a few different disconnected systems at play. Such as finding pools of water to dive into, or delving into a dangerous cave to fight monsters. However, they all tie back to your character. You will level up their stats and abilities throughout the game. While also having a chance to build a small home and make friends with a plethora of animal folk who live in the area.
As expected from Fantasia Games, the production quality of FLOE looks fantastic. The standard edition includes the adorable player and familiar miniatures, dual-layered player boards, and a whole stack of other larger tiles including map, cave and village tiles.
Meanwhile, upgrading to deluxe gets you miniatures of all of the villagers and boats, upgraded components, a GameTrayz storage solution and access and the digital soundtrack.
What is FLOE about?
The second update on the Kickstarter was a massive graphic with the words ‘What’s this game about?’ As funny as that is, it’s because FLOE is an incredibly ambitious game with so much going on that it’s hard to describe succinctly.
But I’ll do my best.
Putting everything else aside, FLOE is a race to six points or twelve half-points. Earned by venturing out into the Iceberg Sea either on foot or via the ships shared amongst players. While you and your familiar are adventuring, you’re bound to find resources to pick up, encounters with quests to complete, and monster-laden caves that are overdue for a cleanout.
Each move you make out in the wilderness costs you Warmth, a vital resource in this frozen habitat. Upon running low, you must return to the village where you can spend time with one of the locals for Warmth and the bonuses they offer. Every villager offers something new such as buying items, meeting allies, gaining potions and Warmth, or building a new house.
After you’ve taken an action, your familiar gets a turn as well. Realistically, having a small creature stalk your every move is extremely creepy. Thankfully though, they’re cute… and useful. Familiar actions aren’t as powerful as your main action but still impactful.
Now, this sounds like a lot of rules and complexity. But you won’t be playing with everything out of the gate. There are a couple of tutorial scenarios that gradually introduce the rules. Once you’re past these, there is even more content hidden in different envelopes that will reward players for continuing to play.
As you know, I am an absolute sucker when it comes to games that combine strategy and theme. Especially, if it’s a rich world that I can dive head-first into. The last two games that truly blew me away in this regard were Revive and Merchants of the Dark Road. But this is what they’re selling with FLOE and so they have me hook, line, and sinker.
For more information about FLOE brave your way over to their Kickstarter page, or Board Game Geek page.
Pictures used in this article were taken by Yoma, part of the publishing team behind FLOE, you can find more of his pictures on Board Game Geek.
