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Dutch Flower Auction drops you into a world of fast-paced bidding, where every flower counts and hesitation can cost you points. It’s a real-time auction and set collection card game that doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not. What you get here is quick rounds, some tension-filled moments, and a fair amount of shouting across the table about who slapped first.
It’s got the theme of a Dutch flower market, but don’t expect anything too deep or historical. This is more about speed, timing, and trying to outbid your friends before they grab that red rose you were eyeing.
👥 2-5 players, ages 8+
⌛ Playing time: 15 minutes
📝 Designer: Zong-Ger
🏢 Publisher: Good Game Studio (review copy provided)
How It Works
Everyone gets a deck of cash cards in their own colour, draws five, and gets a hidden starting card with a bonus scoring objective. Then you lay out a bunch of flower and bonus cards for auction, depending on how many players you have.
One player starts as the auctioneer. They announce a card, start the countdown at 15 coins, and the price drops steadily, about once every half second. If someone slaps the card, they buy it at that price. If nobody does, it gets discarded. And if more than one player slaps right at the start, the price resets at 25 coins, which is slightly painful but also quite funny to watch.
Paying is done with your hand of cash cards. You can overpay, but there’s no change. Some cards let you double the value of your other cards, so there’s a little bit of clever timing involved. After each auction, you draw back up to five cards if you have any left, and the game moves to the next card.
Scoring comes from your flower cards, completed bonus objectives, your starting card condition, and any leftover coins. The set collection part is fairly straightforward and gives the game a little bit of depth beyond the slapping.
Design and Components
The artwork is simple and colourful, with a clear focus on usability. Flowers are illustrated in bold colours with point values, which helps during the quick auctions. The cash cards are clean, easy to read, and colour-coded by player. Bonus and starting cards all rely on symbols, which works well, especially when players are focused more on reacting than reading.
It’s a small box, small table footprint kind of game. Nothing flashy. It doesn’t try to wow you with components, but everything feels functional and consistent, which honestly suits the fast-paced nature of the gameplay.
Our Experience
We played this with a few different groups and it always brought out a good mix of tension and laughs. The bidding mechanic creates some real pressure, especially when you’re low on coins and still need that last flower to complete a set. There’s a lot of hovering, half-slaps, and trying to second-guess each other. Don’t be surprised if it gets a bit noisy.
At its best, the game delivers those split-second decisions where you either grab the card just in time or miss it by a heartbeat. That part is genuinely fun. There’s also room for the occasional bluff, just moving your hand a bit to make someone panic. A small thing, really, but it gives the game that little extra something.
But let’s be honest: this isn’t a game you build a whole evening around. It’s light. It plays fast. And while it has a scoring system with some interesting decisions, the real hook is the auction mechanic. If you don’t enjoy real-time play or get easily flustered by quick reactions, this won’t be your thing. It’s also not particularly deep. Once you’ve played it a few times, you’ve probably seen most of what it has to offer.
Still, it fills a niche. It’s a good opener, closer, or something to bring out when you don’t have the energy for a heavier game but still want to interact and laugh with the group.
What We Think
Dutch Flower Auction is a nice option for groups who like fast, competitive games with a bit of humour and pressure. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, and it’s simple enough to teach in five minutes. Just don’t expect deep strategy or a ton of replay variation. What you see is pretty much what you get.
It plays best with three to five players. Two-player games are a bit flat, as there’s less tension and interaction. With more players, it becomes more chaotic in a good way, especially if you’re playing with people who enjoy reading each other’s body language and messing with timing.
We wouldn’t call it essential, but in the right group, it absolutely works. It’s the kind of game that gets a few laughs, gives you something quick to focus on, and maybe even sparks a bit of table banter. Just try not to break the table when you slap for that final tulip.
📝 We received a review copy from Good Game Studio.
