In Planta Nubo, you will be growing energetic flowers on the top of giant trees. Some of these turn into green energy to power up different modules while you gain oxygen that is needed in the atmosphere. Players use their actions wisely on their flower fields to grow and supply the energy needed and making oxygen. Whoever produces the most oxygen, wins. The game is for 1-4 players, takes about an hour or so to play, and is on the heavier side for its complexity. The game is designed by Michael Keller (II), Andreas Odendahl, and Uwe Rosenberg, and the game is published by Devir.
What’s in the Box?
- 1 Game Board
- 24 Action Tiles
- 30 Forest Tiles
- 12 Crafting Tiles
- 36 Flowerbed Tiles
- 68 Soil Tiles
- 48 Plugin Markers
- 40 Standby and Battery Markers
- 24 Requirement Tiles
- 150 Flower Cubes
- 26 Freight Containers
How’s it Play?
This game requires placing tiles to grow flowers, move those flowers to complete objectives, add forest tiles on top of flower beds or soil tiles, add new cards around the outside of the board, and increase the value on the die while also moving it around the track as much as you can.
The game is played in rounds where you follow specific steps on your turn. First, you choose one of your tools and place it next to the grid of possible actions to take. You are then able to then take one of the actions adjacent to your placed out tool, and possibly also take the action listed on the other adjacent tile. If you place next to one of the flower bed tiles, you gain a tile to eventually be placed on an empty space on your board. If you cover a bonus, you gain it.
Eventually you will be able to remove barricades to place flower beds over those areas. Soil is a 1 square tile that can be placed out. You may then choose whatever color flower you’d like for that flower bed, but flower beds must have flowers of the same color. You can also “compost” flowers, which exchanges 3 flowers for a soil tile.
Freight container actions let you move flowers from your board onto other freight containers. Some are personal objectives, others are public. Ultimately, you want to pick freight containers and place flowers on them to fulfill that objective, and thus gain green energy. When completing some freight containers, you can gain a point. There are rules how you can place flowers on your personal freight containers versus public ones.
Throughout this process, you will be gaining forest tiles that you want to place on your board. They go on top of other tiles already on the board, soil or flower beds. Of course, the flowers need to be removed before placing the forest tile on top. You gain the forest tile’s bonuses once its placed, and you can eventually flip it over to the other side to gain more end game points.
Additionally, there are other objectives called arbor objectives you’ll want to focus on to help with strategy. These objectives give you additional bonuses as you play, but more importantly, they give you a good amount of points.
There is a green energy track that you can build up by placing additional cards out around your board. When a new card is placed, a new green node is added to that track. Some cards have a passive abilities that help gain tiles, resources, or upgraded energy to gain more points. The more the die moves around this track, the more powerful the abilities become.
Eventually you will have only one tool remaining to use for crafting. This will give you an additional action, which change as the game goes on.
Income at the end of the round is determined by how far you are on the arbor track, the number the die shows on the track surrounding your board, plus any income shown on your forest tiles.
The game ends after 4 rounds. You collect points for your level 2 forests, for tokens on the pre-printed extension areas, points from flower pots that you filled, and points from your cards. The player with the most points wins the game.
The Verdict
This is a beast of a game, there is a lot going on. So you need to be prepared, as there are a lot of connecting parts, and you’ll need to focus on many different aspects of the game to be good at it.
Three great designers come together to make this game. These is some tile placement, some ramping up to gain with your actions, and the game advances as you play as you eventually start placing more forests and do more end game actions than beginning game actions. The game is 4 rounds long with 4 phases in each round, and while you’re playing you’re going to want to do a little of everything. Choosing your strategy can be tricky.
The game does take up a lot of room, with 2 player boards per player, a grid for action tiles, and then the main board with a bunch of tiles and cards to either play or take, plus containers to fill up with flowers.
At first, it can be difficult to grasp what the game offers, but you’ll figure it out within a couple of plays. But, you have to invest this time to be able to enjoy it because of how much is going on. As you play, you’re improving your energy network to get more points. You’ll also want to move the die quicker, gain energy by delivering flowers, and upgrade the tile and planting forests, which give you better end of round income.
This is a game for those who like complex games and enjoy putting in the time to play a game often. So itʼs a game not for beginners, but more for the experts. In my opinion, the game is better with just 2 players, as with more, the game can drag on and become a very long.
Player interaction is mainly seen with the action selection, as other players might place their tool on a spot you might want, or use a tool you want to use nearby. There are no issues with the components, they work and do the job.
Overall this is a game for the experienced. A game that has a bit of a steampunk vibe, but itʼs more like a solar punk world. You need to invest in this game, but if you do, and if you want a complex game, then it might just be the game for you.
Images via Devir Games
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