Between Flower Fields

🌺 Main Match 9: Between Flower Fields 🌺

Set up flower fields with your neighbor meadows.

There are flower fields! You have been tasked to maintain them. Each flower field is maintained by two adjacent players. Plant flowers in pleasing arrangements so that they score the most points. Some flowers are fickle and want to see the other field too, so you have to balance both fields to maximize your own points.

RULES

You have been assigned a meadow, one player in each meadow.

Each pair of allied meadows has a flower field; the two players in these meadows will grow the flower field together. The flower field is a 5×5 board, and each cell can have a flower. There are 6 different types of flowers, each with its own method of scoring which is detailed later on in these rules. Each flower field is only known to the players managing it.

The game is divided into 13 rounds, numbered Rounds 0-12. However, in Round 0, you don't have to make any submission.

At the start of each round (including Round 0), you will receive a piece, known only to you. Each piece is a domino, consisting of two cells, each with a flower, joined side by side. The two flowers are different, which means there are 15 different pieces. The piece you receive is random, but you will only receive each piece at most once throughout the game.

🧠 Starting from Round 1, you will have to make a submission. You should have two pieces; you will choose one to place in a flower field. The flower field you will play on will alternate between rounds; in Round 1, you will play in the field clockwise from you, then in Round 2, the field counterclockwise, and so on. (It will be announced which field you have to play on in every round.)

🧠 You can normally choose either piece you have to play. However, you may only hold a piece for at most 3 rounds; if a piece is unused for 3 rounds, you have to use it on the next round. For example, the piece you receive in Round 0 must be used by Round 3; if you haven't used it by Round 2, you must use it in Round 3.

🧠 The piece you choose to play can be placed in any manner in the flower field, as long as it covers two adjacent empty cells. It may be rotated freely, as long as it remains aligned to the grid.

However, this is sometimes impossible if you fail to coordinate properly with your partner for that field. If it is impossible to place your piece in the field, you may break it up into two separate cells. (You may only break a piece if it is impossible to place it otherwise.) Note that both players of a field will know if a piece needs to be broken.

💎 Breaking a piece is expensive, and comes at the cost of garnets or points. And really, having to break a piece is the fault of both players. Therefore, both players must individually pay the cost. (Remember, both players will know if a piece has to be broken.) The cost to break a piece is 3 garnets or a 10-point penalty; if you don't want to (or can't) pay the garnet cost, you have to take the point penalty to your final score.

To recap, your submission will be:

• Place one of the two pieces you hold. If you've held a piece for 3 rounds, you must place it this round.
• Place the piece on two adjacent empty cells, if possible.
• If you can't, break the piece and just place the two flowers on two empty cells, they don't have to be adjacent.
• If the piece is broken, both players of the field must individually choose a penalty: pay 3 garnets or get a 10-point penalty.
• The piece you place will be in one of your two fields. The field you need to place on will alternate between rounds.
• There is no way to go out of turn and place in the other field than where you're supposed to.

👑 The game ends after Round 12. This leaves one cell in each field empty; it will receive a black flower. All fields are then revealed.

Your two fields will be scored. Although during the game your two fields are independently managed, during scoring, several types of flowers will refer to the other field. This means the same field can score differently for the two players managing it. The 6 different types of flowers and how they are scored can be seen in this thread.

👑 Your score is the sum of the scores of your two fields, minus any penalties you took for breaking pieces.

👑 The player with the highest score is the winner and receives a single Token of Life. The two players next to them are excluded from being the Elimination Candidate, although they can still become the DM Opponent.

👑 The Elimination Candidate is chosen among the two players opposite of the winner; the player with the lower score is the Elimination Candidate. If both of these players have the same score, the winner chooses the Elimination Candidate.

👑 What happens in case of a tie for the winner? In that case, nobody receives any Token of Life and all players are eligible to become the Elimination Candidate. The player with the lowest score becomes the Elimination Candidate and may choose any other player to become the DM Opponent. In case of a tie for lowest, the players with highest score vote for the Elimination Candidate, as usual.

ADMINISTRATION

📌 🀄 Player items

Each player receives pieces to be placed in flower fields. Pieces are not tradable -- besides, you're in your own meadows.

📌 ⏰ Timing

Each round lasts for approximately 24 hours. Note that Round 0 doesn't require any submission, so technically there's still the usual 24-hour period to understand the rules before you have to start making submissions. The deadline of every round is at 3pm UTC ( your local time); allow a few minutes for updating.

📌 🧠 Submission

Your submission consists of the piece you're placing and its location in the field.

You also have to choose a penalty of garnets or points for each broken piece that will be placed in either of your fields.

📌 📡 Information

This game has the following pieces of information, along with how and when they are revealed to the players, if at all. If a piece of information is not in this list, it is likely not known to anyone, but feel free to clarify.

🔻 Explicitly only known to you, at the start of every round

• The pieces you hold, and how long they have been in your possession.

🔻 Explicitly only known to the two players managing a field, at the start of every round

• What piece was placed in the previous round and where.
• The current field.
• Whether the next piece will have to be broken.

🔻 Explicitly only known to you, at the end of every round

• Which penalty you decide to take.

🔺 Publicly announced, at the end of the game

• All fields, and therefore all player scores.

📌 💎 ORG items

You can gain ORG currency in this way:

• White flowers award garnets instead of points at the end of the game. The field(s) with the most white flowers gives 3 garnets per white flower for each player managing it; all other fields give 1 garnet per white flower instead.

You can spend garnets in this way:

• One of the options to pay the penalty for breaking a piece is paying 3 garnets.

📌 Accidental rule inclusion

There was a ruling that was accidentally included, regarding replacing a piece by paying garnets. It should not have been in the game, but it was present for some amount of time. Therefore, that ruling will apply for the duration it was present. That ruling, together with its duration, is described below:

For 3 garnets, you may replace any piece you currently hold, provided it was given out in Round 3 or earlier (i.e. Rounds 0-3). You may replace the piece with any piece made of two flowers; they don't have to be distinct, and the combination may be some other piece you already had. Pieces given out in Round 4 and later cannot be replaced.

📌 Penalty for missed submissions

If you miss a submission or otherwise decide not to make any submission, the following things happen:

• Your oldest piece is removed from your hand and is revealed to the field you're playing for.
• The other player in that field must place the piece (along with their own piece) in the next round, but they may place it anywhere legal. Basically, it's as if the other player plays the piece for you. (For purposes of breaking, your revealed piece is placed before their own piece; if there is only space for one piece, they will break their own piece.)
• You get a 10-point penalty for the final scoring.