“I’m back, Baby!”. Okay so you won’t have realised that I had even been away, but a month without writing feels like an age to me! And this blog post is a bit of a landmark moment. It is my first written using voice recognition software. Not going to lie – it has taken a lot longer than kicking it off on a keyboard, but this is my new norm. And both work and creative writing has basically become me versus homophones. But we shall battle on to give you great game recommendations! So without further ado, here are 5 super suggestions to get your green, gardening fingers tingling!
Village Green
In Village Green you are gardeners competing for the Village Green of the Year competition. And you win by arranging features in your 3 x 3 tableau according to specific Village Show Awards. But each feature Village card you lay down can only be placed adjacent to another Village card if it has a matching flower type and/or colour symbol. And with such a small game space, this becomes incredibly tight incredibly quickly!
Award cards you pick go around the left and top edge of your Green and contain the scoring objectives for that particular row/column. And whilst you cannot cover up placed Village cards, you can reserve spots for later covering using lawn cards and overlay Awards with different ones if more appropriate ones become available for picking from the market! Village Green is a brilliant small box game, and the solo mode (my personal favourite way to play) works very similarly with a few easy tweaks.
Verdant
Light on rules but tricky to master, Verdant is about growing houseplants. During the game, you will create a grid of cards made up of rooms and plants. In checkerboard style, never the twain shall touch. But there is an essential interdependency. Plants require specific light conditions to thrive, and different rooms offer a variety of sun and shade options. As such, you’ll want to surround your plants with places that suit their sunny or shady side best. In addition to that, there are household items to place which will earn you bonus points at end game. Furthermore, utilising tools that help you to manipulate what you draft, you’ll be mastering your monstera and cultivating your carnations in no time!
Delicious
Delicious is a gorgeous flip and fill about planting up containers in your garden that produces yummy fruit and veg. The deck is divided into two; top and bottom gardens to match the two halves of the scoring sheet. Every round, everyone then chooses and marks their own sheet based on what they have picked. Planters want specific produce, and tokens dictate where things can go. And in a creative twist, you will be drawing the relevant fruit or veg onto a box in an appropriate planter in your garden rather than dashing off crosses or ticks. With a few one-time tools, you can mix up where and what you plant. But there are 12 rounds to plan out, so you don’t want to use your powers too soon. Bountiful bonuses await if you get your green fingers going. But these only apply to the first player to reach them, so gardeners get set, go, go, go!!!
Floriferous
Beautiful gardens require a lot of hard work. But wandering through one marvelling at all the effort is a sweet scented moment indeed. beautiful garden. And Floriferous is a romp through a space resplendent with beautiful, watercolour blooms! Played over 3 rounds, each round players pick flowers, bouquets, and scoring objectives that will turn petals into points by end game. Some cards have bonus stones to boot. Floriferous is an excellent set collection, card drafting game with a brilliant (dare I say even more interactive) solo mode. The light but thinky decision space and sense of push your luck is wonderful, and the artwork is amazing, possibly even more impressive than the real thing!
Three Sisters
Another roll and write game, but this time we have dice instead of cards. Gorgeous orange hued pumpkin dice to be exact! Used to pick crops (beans, corn, and pumpkins aka the Three Sisters of agriculture!), harvest fruit, collect honey, and select tools from one seriously stuffed shed, this game is combo-riffic. In fact, there is a chance of a cascade so large that one of the sheets contains a “notes” section so that you can keep track of your eleventy-billion effects! And whilst it may appear as generous as a glut of gooseberries, making the best decisions to maximise those goodies is crunchier than a crinkle cut cucumber! And the solo mode is excellent. Farmer Edith tears through your sheets like an inky tornado. Not having to manage her own sheets is a bonus in and of itself, but her cruel disregard for well-meaning planting plans is addictive! Three Sisters is one game in a series of brilliant “strategic roll and writes” which also includes the fantastic Fleet the Dice Game, French Quarter, and Motor City.
So there we have it – 5 great gardening games and a step into the keyboard-lite age! I hope you enjoy these green inspired games at your table this week.
