Ridley's Games Flora & Fauna: Mindfulness Solo Game - An immersive environmental challenge set in the Amazon rainforest

Flora and Fauna is a truly amazingly made and carefully crafted game. I have come across many board games in this hobby and this is without a doubt one of the best produced, most carefully detailed and informative games that I have seen in a very long time. Certainly worth the cost for that alone. Plainly stated, the box, the rules, the inserts, and all of the cards are beautiful. The included meeple is big, chunky and wooden. Not a piece of plastic in sight, very environmentally friendly. All great qualities to have in a board game. So, now you have set up the game and are eager to play this "relaxing" game. Wait one minute. Screech! Then it happens. You seem to be eternally trapped in the analysis-paralysis loop. Where to go on your next move (and you only have 3 choices?!?), why to even make the next move, (since none of the moves are helpful) or let's just move somewhere (and hope something good comes of it). You are suddenly peeling off and discarding cards just to get to the ONLY card in the current tableau that can be used in your current your ecosystem. Arggggghhh. But wait, it gets worse. After 5 moves of tiring "3 move ahead planning" you have to turn all of the 20 cards over to their opposite sides. Now the cards are on their night sides and you will go from daytime (where you can see all the info you need) to the nighttime side (where you can see no info). Suddenly you realize that you should have been memorizing the cards before night fell, then retaining that knowledge until day comes again (where BTW, you will turn all the card back over again) Arggggggh, again. This goes on for a while as you frustratingly realize that if you get even one ecosystem built it will be a miraculous act. But wait. In its defense, I have been sitting with this game and actually playing it in more of a traditional tableau building solitaire fashion, finding a way to play this game and experience the "mindfulness" aspect of it all. Here goes...Set it up as stated in the rules. All other rules will now work SO much better. Then starting in the left and going right, randomly pick cards from the tableau (flipping the remaining cards in that column after each selection). This requires some advanced planning but little to no memorization. You can now move to ANY of the 4 cards in the next column. When all columns are flipped, fill in the spots where the chosen cards were taken from and flip them all to the day side and go again. This variation makes the game far more relaxing, yet still challenging. While you are still flipping cards, but it is done for a reason and you are not stuck taking cards you don't need. You are still going to have to plan ahead and yes, you are still at the mercy of the deck as cards are drawn randomly. But somehow it works better that the original rules. (in my opinion) So, at the under $20 price point, I would still recommend trying this game. While the rules that it comes with are a bit fiddly, you can easily adjust them, keep the game challenging and have a nice relaxing time "controlling" the rainforest. If you have never created "House Rules" for a game, this is a great one to begin with. Have fun.