Type of Game: Open Drafting, Tile Placement, Point to Point Movement
Number of Players: 1-4
Age: 10+
Designer: Matthew Dunstan & Brett J Gilbert
Artist: Kerri Aitken
Publisher: Grail Games
This copy of The Gardens was provided as a review copy from the publisher, Grail Games.
This is my first review game I’ve received and was ecstatic once I opened up the box. It was like being a kid in a candy shop.
CONCEPT
The Gardens, released in 2022, is a puzzle game where players draft cards depicting different features of the parkland in the Sydney Royal Botanic Garden. These cards are used to represent the Harbourside, Middle Gardens, and Cityside as you try to build out your own portion of the Royal Botanic Garden on your board.
How will you design your Royal Botanic Garden and score the most points based on what your visitors see as they stroll past the various flower beds, ponds, trees, and statues?
HOW IT WORKS
The Gardens is played over 8 rounds in a 3- or 4-player game, or 4 rounds in a 2-player game. Each player has their own two boards, which are combined with a central board piece where you will place your cards after drafting them each round.
The cards to be drafted are located next to the scoreboard (see below). These cards are labeled A (Harbourside/top row), B (Middle Gardens/middle row), and C (Cityside/bottom row) for the three different rows in which they will be placed once drafted.
There are three steps that are followed in order during each persons turn.
Choose a garden card from the display.
Design your garden by adding the card to your player mat (placing it adjacent to the central board or a previously placed card in that row).
Walk your visitor through your garden to the new card
As you draft your cards throughout the round, you will pick one for the top row, one for the middle row and one for the bottom row. Whenever you draft a card, you will place to the spot to the left or right of the last played card or central board if you have not placed on one side of your player boards. Then you walk your visitor through your garden and you score points based on the last card you placed in that row which is where your visitor lands. The scoreboard clearly outlines how to score during the game as well as for end-game scoring. There are three key elements on the card you’ve just placed that determine whether you score points for the walk your visitor just took:
Card has one of four focal trees on it. If your visitor stops on a card with a focal tree (Golden Wattle Tree, Red Bottlebrush, Purple Jacaranda, or Green Canary Palm), count the tree you see the most of on that walk. Depending on the number of trees you see, you score 1/3/6/10 points.
Card has a Fountain on it. If your visitor stops on a card with a fountain, you score one point for each stream your visitor saw, as well as one point for the fountain the visitor stopped at. Don’t forget to count the fountains that may be on the Central Board or in already placed streams.
Card has a bench on it. If your visitor stops on a card with a bench, count the number of Garden cards that are adjacent either orthogonally or diagonally, and gain one point for each of them.
There are other features, such as a statue or a stream without any of the above elements, that are worth points at the end of the game, including the length of your longest connected pathway.
Once your garden is complete and each row is filled with cards, players will score additional points based on the end-game scoring tiles. Each player will score points based on trees in each row, columns with two or more connected streams, the longest connected pathway, and the number of statues you have compared to other players’ gardens.
The player with the most points wins!
COMPONENTS
The components of The Gardens are of high quality and make the game accessible for players with various needs. My favorite component of the game is the unique visitors, differentiated not only by color but also by their individual designs. Each one has a distinct design, from sunglasses to long hair, adding a fun element to your favorite player color. Additionally, the scoreboard is double-layered to help hold the scoring tiles in place for each visitor’s walk and the end-game scoring tiles. Overall, the components of the game add an extra touch to an already fun tile-placement game.
FINAL THOUGHTS
After playing The Gardens with 1, 2, and 4 players, I’ve found it to be an excellent choice for a light game to balance out a heavier or more complex game that may have been played beforehand. Although I haven’t yet explored the advanced scoring tiles or landmark tiles in depth, I still discover something new in each play that shifts my strategy and goal targets. I know I’m not an expert at this game yet, but I will continue to play it, whether solo or with others (I haven’t won solo yet, but that’s a challenge I’m determined to overcome soon! Haha).
The Gardens is just one of the many great games in Grail Games’ extensive library, and I highly recommend checking them out to find the perfect game for you. They recently completed another successful Kickstarter campaign for Food for Thought: A Game About Food and Choices. With each release, Grail Games continues to bring something new, always seeking that perfect fit. I’m excited to discover more games from the Grail Games library that I can introduce to my game group.
Have you played The Gardens? If so, what were your initial impressions of the game?
