Cellulose: A Plant Cell Biology Game | MENSA Recommended Strategic Board Game About Photosynthesis, DNA & Biochemistry

Overview

Cellulose: A Plant Cell Biology Game is a worker placement game that puts 1-5 players inside a plant cell, where they compete over limited resources to undergo photosynthesis, produce carbohydrates, and build the cell wall to score points.

With everyone vying for the same actions, players must carefully time their use of proteins, hormones, and cell component cards to diversity their strategies and outplay the competition!

How to Play Cellulose

Each round of Cellulose is one day played over three phases: Sunrise, Daytime, and Evening.

Sunrise Phase

In the Sunrise Phase, players collect resources and take bonus actions according to their markers on the plant board. Throughout the game, players will have the chance to use hormone signaling to advance along these tracks, earning additional benefits.

Daytime Phase

During the Daytime Phase, players take turns claiming the limited action spaces on the cell board to collect much-needed water and CO2, undergo photosynthesis to produce carbohydrates, and place those carbohydrates into the cell wall, in cellulose form, to score points.

Players may also acquire and play cell component cards, which grant them powerful bonuses. Protein storage vacuoles immediately recover action markers, granting extra actions in the round. Enzymes allow chaining together bonus actions each time a new one is played. Specialization cards like hormone receptors create endgame scoring opportunities and special powers.

Evening Phase

In the Evening, players recover their action markers, refresh the board, and build the next space on the cell wall. Whoever has contributed the most water to the central vacuole will earn points and is given an additional action marker, which they can use in the following round.