Some games take time to warm up. Flip Pick Towers is not one of them. Published by Osprey Games, this compact and colourful card game gets going almost immediately, offering a cheerful mix of puzzling decisions and creative flair.
With a light Welsh-inspired touch and a focus on building your own tower, the game invites players to sketch, plan, and occasionally question their life choices. It is aimed at families, casual players, and anyone who enjoys a game that is easy to pick up but has just enough bite to keep things interesting.
Simple to learn, quick to play, and quietly addictive. Let us see how it all stacks up.
How To Play Without Building Yourself Into a Corner
Right, pencils at the ready. This is not a fastest finger first situation. This is a “stare thoughtfully at your options and still pick the wrong one” situation.
Flip Pick Towers is a flip and draw game where each player builds their own castle on a personal sheet. Over the course of the game, you will be adding floors, collecting resources, decorating your tower, and occasionally dealing with problems of the fire breathing variety.
The game takes place over two rounds, and each turn follows a simple but surprisingly thinky structure.
At the start of a turn, three cards are flipped face up. Each card shows a combination of a floor value and resources, and you must choose one to use on your sheet. The other options are discarded, which means every choice carries a little bit of tension.
When you choose a card, you will usually be drawing a new floor onto one of your towers. Floors must follow the all important rule of descending order. Higher numbers at the bottom, lower numbers as you build upwards. It sounds simple, and it is… until you realise you have enthusiastically placed a “2” far too early and now your tower has all the upward potential of a pancake.
Alongside floors, cards provide resources which can be used to add features like windows, banners, and delightfully ambitious beanstalks. These are marked off on your sheet and contribute to your score in different ways, depending on how you choose to develop your tower.
Some cards shake things up a bit. Bridge cards allow you to start new towers in separate areas of your sheet, giving you more options but also more to think about. Suddenly you are not just managing one elegant structure, but potentially several slightly questionable ones.
Then come the magical creatures. Some are helpful, offering little rule bending perks that can rescue you from a tricky situation. Others are… less helpful.
Dragons, for example, are not here to admire your architecture.
When a dragon appears, you must either spend resources to deal with it or place it on top of one of your towers. If you place it, that tower is capped. Finished. No more building upwards. It becomes a proud but slightly disappointing monument to what could have been.
Once everyone has chosen and marked their card, a new set is revealed and the process repeats. This continues until the deck runs out, marking the end of the round. Then you do it all again for a second round, armed with experience, optimism, and possibly a lingering sense of regret.
At the end of the game, scoring takes place. Points are awarded for your towers, your decorations, your beanstalks, and how well you have met the expectations of the nobles. The player with the most impressive and well planned layout wins.
Or, more accurately, the player who made the fewest catastrophic decisions under mild pressure.
Three Choices, One Regret
Every turn presents a small but meaningful decision. Do you take the high value floor for long term flexibility, or grab the resources you need right now?
There is something quietly agonising about watching a useful option slip by because you committed to something else. It is the kind of choice that feels perfectly reasonable in the moment and mildly questionable a few turns later. It keeps the game engaging without feeling rushed. Players have just enough time to think, but not quite enough to guarantee they will make the right call. Which, in many ways, is where the fun lives.
A Little Welsh Charm
Flip Pick Towers carries a subtle Welsh-inspired theme that gives it a gentle sense of identity. It is not front and centre, but it adds a bit of character to the whole experience.
Building towers, impressing nobles, and adding whimsical features creates a world that feels playful without needing a deep narrative. It is more of a nod than a full story, but it works nicely.
And frankly, any game that lets you grow a beanstalk up the side of your tower deserves a bit of appreciation.
Easy On The Eyes, Even Easier To Read
The visual design does exactly what it needs to do. The cards are clear, colourful, and easy to interpret at a glance, which is essential when you are weighing up your options.
The player sheets are well laid out, giving you plenty of room to build while keeping everything organised. By the end of the game, your sheet tells the story of your decisions. Some clever, some questionable, all very visible.
It is immensely satisfying to look at, even if your tower does resemble a slightly unstable stack of “it made sense at the time.”
Planning, But Make It Tricky
Flip Pick Towers has more going on under the surface than you might expect. Every decision has a ripple effect.
Choosing a high number early gives you flexibility later, but might mean missing out on useful resources now. Focusing too much on decorations can leave your tower structurally awkward. Starting too many towers can spread you thin.
And then, of course, there is the ever present risk of boxing yourself in with numbers that simply do not cooperate.
It is not punishing, but it does reward careful thought. Or at the very least, slightly less chaotic thought.
Creativity With a Hint of Chaos
No two towers ever look the same, and that is part of the charm. Some players will build tall, elegant structures. Others will create wide networks of smaller towers. Some will chase decorative points with wild enthusiasm.
And some will accidentally trap themselves with a “1” on turn two and spend the rest of the game working around it like a very polite architectural apology.
The game gives you freedom to experiment, while gently reminding you that every choice matters. Sometimes immediately. Sometimes much, much later.
Blink And You Are Playing
Set-up is wonderfully quick. A few sheets, a shuffled deck, and you are ready to go. It makes the game perfect for slipping into any part of a game night.
Because turns are simultaneous and rounds move at a steady pace, it never drags. It is easy to play, finish, and immediately suggest another round with the confidence of someone who believes they have learned from their mistakes. This is rarely true. But it is nice to think so.
A Social Puzzle, With Mild Judgement
Even though everyone is working on their own sheet, there is still plenty of interaction. Players compare towers, comment on choices, and share knowing looks when someone places a suspiciously low number far too early.
There is a gentle sense of shared experience. Everyone is dealing with the same options, just in slightly different ways. It creates those lovely moments of “oh you took that one too” or “why did you take that one?”
It is all very friendly, of course. Mostly.
Not Just Another Flip and Draw
Flip Pick Towers manages to stand out by taking familiar mechanics and giving them just enough of a twist. The layered decision making, the descending number puzzle, and the mix of features all work together to create something that feels fresh.
It is approachable without being shallow, and thoughtful without being heavy. A tricky balance, handled very nicely.
Just One More Tower… Surely
Flip Pick Towers has a way of lingering on the table. What starts as a quick game often turns into another, and then possibly one more for good measure.
It is quick to set-up, satisfying to play, and full of those small, memorable moments where everything either clicks into place or goes spectacularly wrong.
Win or lose, perfectly planned or gloriously improvised, building your tower is always a good time.
Even if the dragon disagrees.
About the Author
I spend a fair amount of my time happily wandering through the worlds of medieval history and folklore, whether that is buried in a book, deep in research, or simply daydreaming about castles, legends, and the wonderfully odd details that come with them.
It is a space filled with grand ambitions, curious traditions, and the occasional dragon keeping a very close eye on things, so it is safe to say this game felt like a rather natural fit.
Speaking of dragons, I do in fact live with my own miniature interpretation of Smaug. Ebony, my tuxedo cat, has taken it upon herself to guard an ever growing hoard of catnip mice, carefully stashed in places only she seems to understand.
Much like her legendary counterpart, she is deeply suspicious of anyone getting too close to her treasures and will defend them with surprising enthusiasm.
It is all very dramatic for something that fits under the sofa, but I would not have it any other way.
