Stalk Exchange Components Overview

My wife is a huge fan of anything to do with plants, and yes that extends to board games. We have a ton of plant themed board games, all of which bring something new to the table mechanics wise. Stalk Exchange is yet another unique plant based game to add into our collection, and I’m really excited about this one if for no other reason than the outstanding production. Let’s take a look.

In Stalk Exchange, players will be containing and harvesting flowers, planting bulbs that they hope will become flowers, and so much more to make their hidden pile of flowers worth as many points as possible. It is, my all accounts, a stalk exchange, so fittingly named, Stalk Exchange!

The production of this game from The OP is really great, from the cardboard boards to the player shields, to the great wooden pieces and bag. Off the top, all of the cardboard components are fantastic. They are nice and thick pieces that easily punched from the punchboard. Cardboard quality in 2024 is becoming less and less of an issue as the standard for board games seems to be pretty good now, but it’s still worth mentioning.

The buildable player shields are great. I didn’t have any issues getting the tabs and slots to fit nicely together, and assuming you have a level table, they sit nicely and hide everything you need hidden. Since you aren’t reaching in and grabbing bits and bobs often, the “roof” is a nice addition to keep all your plants extra hidden! While a shield like used in Isle of Sky would probably have been OK, the extra security to keep away prying eyes is nice, and it looks great too!

Stalk Exchange isn’t overly complicated, so lengthy player aide cards really aren’t necessary. I LOVE that The OP has instead opted…see what I did there…to give player cardboard aids. In a game that doesn’t use cards, having 4 cards as aides would be a bit odd.

The double-sided flower tokens are fantastic. They are nice chunky, wooden tiles with flowers on one side and bulbs on the other. These will be flipped and placed throughout the game, and will be drawn randomly from the draw bag to refill the flower row at the bottom of the board. These tokens are going to get handled a lot, so it’s great to see that wood was the material of choice here! The artwork on the tiles looks fantastic, but I do wonder if they will rub away over time.

The bags for holding the pieces are just OK. You have a flower bag where you draw to refill the central board, and a compost bag to place tiles you are removing from the board. They aren’t terrible bags, but also not the best bags I’ve seen in a game. The best thing I can say is that they are fine. They are good. They are useable. I have no concerns here.

I see Stalk Exchange being a great filler board game for board game nights, and with a fantastic production, it will also be a head turner!