Publisher: 25th Century Games
Player Count: 2-4 Players
Game Length: 30-60 Minutes
Complexity 2.25/5
Earn prestige as you seek to become a Master Gardener in Gartenbau, a horticulture journey of garden cultivation, timeless floral beauty and deceptively deep planning.
Gartenbau is made up of a number of mechanics that include a rondel track, tile drafting and placement, tableau building and endgame objectives. Points are king and scoring accumulates from a nifty, 3-tiered tile-laying system where the points increase the higher you stack. While Gartenbau is a more casual gaming experience, there may be more under the surface than a bright bouquet of sunflowers. Check out our review below and see if Gartenbau will satisfy your green thumb.
ON YOUR TURN
The creators behind Gartenbau made an interesting choice when it came to the presentation. All the floral artwork in the game comes directly from vintage seed and flower catalogs of the late 19th century. These lavish illustrations provide a unique look into history, but also set a rich tone for the gameplay.
The goal of Gartenbau is to score the most points and you attempt to achieve that by mastering the horticultural art of flower presentation. As you cultivate your garden, you’ll plant seeds, buy flowers and achieve dynamic, floral groupings.
On your turn, you’re met with 3 choices: Do you visit the seedling market, the plant market or place flower tiles? Your garden will ultimately serve as a tableau for compounding points so it’s necessary to get your engine running right by making good choices early. And there really is an emphasis on making the right decisions and doing so early in the game since careful planning of your garden is critical. To make the process a bit more streamlined, each player chooses a set of flower tiles that present goals that payout in various ways when applied to your garden at later points in the game.
A great way to explain the overall game-flow is to explain the tile-laying/building process. Your garden always starts with seedling tiles. These tiles are drafted when you choose to visit the seedling market. You have the opportunity to select the top tile of that location and place it immediately adjacent to tiles in your garden. These seedling tiles aren’t worth points, but they each feature 2 random flower symbols. These symbols are important since you’ll need to pair 2 specific symbols in order to visit the plant market (which we’ll explain shortly). Optionally, you can choose water and sunlight tokens instead of choosing seedlings. Each location on the board has a different combination of water and sunlight tokens often creating some interesting decisions and nice tension. The value of these tokens come into play as you visit the plant market on later turns.
The game board essentially has 2 rondel tracks. The first moves you around to visit the seedling market, while visiting the plant market moves you briefly off that primary track and away from blocking any opponent’s next move. The plant market allows you to purchase flowers which will then be placed on top of seedling tiles creating a second tile layer in your garden. You gain these tiles by paying a specific number of water and sun tokens and matching adjacent seedling tile symbols already played in your garden. As more plant tiles of each plant type are selected, they increase in value. So waiting to buy a certain plant tile may make sense, you also run the risk of missing out completely. These plant tiles also serve as a countdown to the end of the game and when they’re gone, they’re gone.
The 3rd turn option also coincides with the 3rd layer of your garden. Prior to the start, each player receives a set of flower tiles providing a variety of scoring opportunities. Each of these tiles requires a set of 2 specific flower tiles to activate. Once you’ve achieved a tile goal, you can choose to place it on top of the proper flower tiles. This does provide bigger end game scoring opportunities, but also cancels out the points from any covered up flower tiles. While it’s typically worth it, this can create some interesting choices, especially if you gain the higher value plant tiles closer to the bottom of the stack.
The flower tiles all carry different, creative scoring conditions. Some will give you points for certain exposed plant tiles in your garden, while others might score points for individual “holes” in your garden tile system. Of course some will just give you big chunks of points, but it’s up to you to target your goals early so you gather the right tiles or at least consider your contingencies since the perfect seedling tile isn’t always available when you need it.
There are ways to advance further around the play area or even share a space with an opponent (which normally isn’t allowed), but the heart of the game is drafting and purchasing tiles in a carefully planned, efficient method to net the most points. Once the endgame is triggered, players get an additional turn, scores are added up and the player with the most points earns the title of Master Gardener.
ARTWORK & COMPONENTS
I previously mentioned the vintage artwork used in Gartenbau. It has an eloquent, timeless style that feels just as relevant and attractive today as it did over 100 years ago. The artwork really lays the foundation giving the game a charming presentation overall. The quality of the components are great and there isn’t anything cheap to detract from the experience. The game’s 2 cardboard wheelbarrows aren’t necessary, but who doesn’t want 3-D cardboard wheelbarrows in their game?
The rulebook is really well done and makes an accessible game that much easier to jump into.
PROS & CONS
➕ Beautiful, vintage artwork and fun, quality components provides a great table presence
➕ Simple ruleset makes teaching the game a breeze
➕ Quick playtime in under an hour works great for many families
➕ Satisfying tile system feels good and presents some interesting decisions
➕ Simple rondel board can feel a little limiting, but forces you to work within your choices. There are ways to circumvent the movement rules, but they are limited.
➕ Planning is key. While this is a fairly simple game, success is achieved through intentional pursuits and strategy and intense engagement.
➖ It can be frustrating missing out on the seedling tiles necessary for your plans, but this is the game and executing your contingencies can be exciting or a real bummer depending how you feel about it.
➖ The game takes up a fair amount of table space and you have to get creative with how you layout your garden tiles.
➖ Turns are played fairly quick, but the game overall, moves along at a slower, methodical pace. If you have someone who really wants to think through their turn, it can feel a lot longer between turns than it really is.
➖ While there are different goal sets and rule variants to keep things fresh, the replay-ability may lean too heavily on the charming theme and presentation.
WHY WOULD YOU LIKE THIS GAME?
The charming presentation is going to draw you in and even keep you to some extent. Fans of horticulture and vintage art are going to find the appearance of the game equally appealing. This is a game that’s easy to learn, has simple turn mechanics, but also provides a bit of bite. Success depends on your ability to plan and execute within the game’s restraints.
WHAT IS THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS GAME?
The best thing about Gartenbau is the tile-laying system. I really enjoy setting my garden foundation, building it up and then seeing it come to fruition by achieving my flower tile goals. There are also some interesting decisions as you try to pair symbols and maximize points, but in the end it feels very satisfying.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Gartenbau is the type of game where you come for the aesthetics and stay for the substance. The big, bright sunflower at the center of the board serves as a beacon calling out to all who appreciate the vibrancy and energy of nature. It’s when you really dive into the strategy that you uncover a fun, engaging system.
It’s a gateway-style game that’s easy to teach, learn and jump into. The limited rule set is smooth and simple without the wrinkles that over complicate many games. The actions, while straightforward, provide plenty of interesting decisions.
The tile-laying aspect to the game could easily have felt tired, but the planning and strategy force you stay engaged and focused keeping it fresh and interesting. Building up your garden through this multi-tiered tile system looks and functions great. When you’re finally able to lay that flower tile on the 3rd level, there is a real sense of satisfaction. While this seems like the pinnacle of your garden mountain, there were many times placing that final tile, even though available, wasn’t always clear cut. There are a number of different ways to score and it’s not always by racing to build your flower tiles. There are enough variabilities built into the game to keep you on your toes and keep the game from becoming too formulaic.
All that being said, I’m not sure how repayable Gartenbau really is. It does a lot of things other successful games are doing right now… but it does them very well. There are a number of different objective sets to help chart a unique course from the beginning. While these objectives are each unique on the surface, the differences aren’t all-together THAT different. So while I can plan for different approaches and pursue different goals the game does have its limits.
At the end of the day Gartenbau is good fun. It looks great and that adds a lot of value to a game that does some new things, but also a lot of old things really well. I think there is a ton of value here that should appeal to a large cross-section of gamers who like their games lighter with a little bit of bite. The mechanics and choices blend together nicely and if the theme appeals to you, I can’t see anyone being too disappointed they invested in Gartenbau.
