FM3 — Cultivating Flowers

Sprout flowers on the field to win floral domination.

📌 Summary

In Cultivating Flowers, players take turns placing seeds on a hex grid to bloom flowers of their color.

📖 Rules

The game takes place in alternating turns on a 5x5x5 hex grid known as the field. On their turn, players will plant a seed from their seed bag onto the field. You may place rotate or reflect seeds before you place them.

A seed is defined as a trihex (a 3-hexagon) with 2 hexagons of your color and 1 hexagon of your opponent's color. All possible trihexes if your color is blue and your opponent's color is red are as follows:

At the start of the game, your seed bag is full with one of each type of seed. After placing a certain type of seed, you can't place that type again until you refill, which is an additional action you may take on your turn only if you have 0 or 1 seeds remaining in your seed bag at the end of your turn. If you choose to refill, your seed bag will once again have every type of seed in it.

The game ends once a player cannot make a move on their turn.

👑 Winning

The goal of the game is to make flowers. Flowers are defined as a cell and three cells adjacent to it that are all 120 degrees from each other all being filled with the same color. For example, B3-C4-D4-C5 is a flower in the above grid. You may chain flowers together in a bouquet; for example, B3-C4-D4-C5-B5-D6 is a bouquet that counts for 2 flowers.

The player who cultivated the most flowers of their color wins the game. If this is a tie, the players will play another bout, but with the turn order reversed. If, after both games, the number of flowers is still tied, then the player with the most non-overlapping flowers (flowers in different bouquets) across both boards wins the game. If this is still tied, the player with the Early Riser item wins the game.

🕑 Timing

Players have 60 seconds to make a move on each turn, with a 5 minute time bank that is used in 10 second periods. If you run out of time in your time bank, you automatically lose FM3.

🎲 Items

Early Riser — The owner of this item chooses who moves first.

Free Refill — Use this item during your turn to refill after any move. Single-use.

Private Property — Use this item at the start of the game to prevent your opponent from placing on a cell of your choosing for the entire duration of the game. Single-use.