Pergola

• Designer: Michal Golebiowski and Przemek Wojtkowiak
• Publisher: rebel / Asmodee
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 10+
• Time: 45-60
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4nrFmIf
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

In Pergola, players develop their gardens, grow new plants, and attract insects and small animals. On their turn, a player chooses one of the four available tools, picks the presented items, and arranges them in their garden. Then they perform the action corresponding to the chosen tool. Since players have a lot of freedom in arranging plants in their gardens, after fifteen rounds each garden looks completely different and scores differently. The player who accumulates the most points wins.

Each player takes their garden, pergola, cascade and scoring board.  Each player also gets a pot which has 15 slots in it to hold tools. The small action board is placed between the players with one tool above each space.  Finally, the pond board goes on the table as well, with dragonflies organized on the lily pads.  All of the tokens for the game are kept in the tray  that surrounds the pond.

There are 15 rounds in the game, and each player goes through four phases in their turn: choosing a tool, enriching their garden, performing an action, and then clean-up.

Choosing a Tool – Choose one of the four tools face up above the action board.  Each tool has two icons on the handle, and you will collect the things shown.  Note that each tool is associated with one of the four action spaces on the action board; and this action will be the one you will do in the third phase of the turn.

Enrich your garden –  Place the tokens in the appropriate places on your board (each thing has its own placement rule).  Each type of flower has its own rules, and the flowers each stay in their own area.  The insects have particular places where they can land on these flowers.  Note that as you place bees, you can fill a honey pot with the 4th/7th/9th bee placed.

Perform an action

• Flutter of 0-2 Insects – move 0-2 insects on your board from their current location to any other valid landing spaces
• Water Drop movement – Move one of your two water drops down your cascade board. Take the insect shown on the new water drop space.  If a drop makes it to the bottom, you will gain a bonus

• Bird Flight – take the top leaf from any of the three piles; gain the plant/insect on it.  If the leaf has a flutter action, you can also move one insect.
• Frog Jump – jump your frog onto any adjacent lilypad on the pond board. Take the insect/dragonfly from the space you land on.  There are building requirements for the dragonfly spaces

Clean up -Slide the tools to the right to fill in the gap and place a new tool from the tool holder in the left most space.

After 15 turns, each player will have a full tool tray and points are scored.

• Hollyhocks – score for sets of different hollyhocks (1/3/6 for  1/2/3 colors in a row)
• Butterflies – score for the height of the hollyhock they sit on
• Magnolias – each bloom scores for the height of the bloom
• Ladybugs – value of the ladybug depends on the number of ladybugs at its level
• Buttercup – 3 points for each pair of small/large buttercup
• Bee – score points if they are on a plant fully occupied by bees
• Lavender – Each lavender leaf scores 2 points
• Dragonfly – score based on their size
• Leaves – each different colored lead scores 1 point
• Honey Pots – each has its own bonus scoring criteria

The player with the most points wins. There is no tiebreaker.

My thoughts on the game

Pergola is a very soothing game about growing the best garden that you can. It’s a multi-layered set collection game where you collect different things each turn, and at the end of the game, pretty much everything scores something.  Of course, you should strive to set things up so that your things score more points.

Each player ends up in their own little world; planting the different types of plants and installing the various bugs in their garden.  There is some indirect interaction in the “drafting” of the tools on the action board; but realistically this is a simultaneous solitaire game.  There aren’t even competitions for end game bonuses – players pretty much only score for the things they have built.

The turns are dead simple.  Pick a tool, get the things, do the associated action. There is a bit of decision making to be done as the action and the tool are tied together; so if you don’t get a set that matches your needs, you’ll have to weigh the options between your choices.  Of course, you could get the lantern which allows you to do any action- and then your decision is easy!

At first, it’s hard to know what the optimal strategy is – but as the game goes on, you can focus a bit based on which honey pot end-game bonuses you activate or what areas you’re able to monopolize due to the tools left for you.  As with many set collection games, there does seem to be a slightly higher payoff for specialization – so if you can grow a humongous magnolia tree, you should do it!

Some folks I have played with feel that this could be a great gateway game – it’s a self paced mostly solitaire game.  I would disagree with that sentiment as I feel that the scoring is way too convoluted for an entry game.  Yes, each thing is easily scored… but there are ELEVEN different things to account for at the end of the game.  That’s not necessarily something that you want a gaming neophyte to deal with.  It’s a lot of things to have to explain to a newbie and a lot for them to have to remember…  Sure, the opposite argument is that at least everything seems to score something, so there’s never a negative or wasted play – so YMMV on that.

With veteran gamers, this is the sort of game where the scoring system completely obscures the result of the game until everything is tallied up.  With all the various scoring mechanisms in place, it’s really impossible to look at your board and compare it to your opponents and figure out who is doing better.  I mean, sure, you could literally count everything up each turn to score the boards, but it’s not worth that amount of energy.

Speaking of the rules, they are well written and it’s pretty easy to teach and learn.  The majority of the rules are either reinforced with the components (i.e. place insects on the matching shaped outlines on the flowers) or with the scoring board given to each player.  As you teach the game, everyone else can follow along on their scoring board and that is all you need to do.

The bits are quite nice, and the way that your garden grows on your board is definitely a beautiful sight.  The game includes a tray that holds all the different pieces – but I would like to comment that I wish the Game Trayz came with a lid.  As someone who stores their games on their side, all the pieces will fall out of the trays.

Pergola is a good casual game that has very little interaction and definitely no conflict.  If you’re looking for a game to let you tend your own garden for about an hour, check this one out.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Neutral- Lorna: I love gardening and I love garden themed games. Pergola is a very pleasant low interaction game. I like a bit more challenge to my games but I would be happy to play this with folks that prefer low interaction games. It’s kind of fun and relaxing making a garden on your board. 

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4nrFmIf