Garden Nation
- Designers: Nathalie and Remi Saunier
- Publisher: Bombyx
- Players: 2-4
- Age: 10+
- Time: 60-75 minutes
- Played with review copy provided by Flat River Group
In Garden Nation, players take on the role of one of 4 factions of garden denizens; each working to have the most influence over the garden. The garden itself is made up of 7 territories, in a familiar hex pattern, and each of those territories has 7 action spots, which mirror the orientation of the larger territories. The territories are numbered, and they are randomly placed in the frame. Each player gets a scoreboard, the building pieces in the matching color, and each is dealt 4 secret missions, of which they need to keep 2 different ones. A display of 4 common projects is placed on the board. The torticrane is placed near the board; you will use it soon. A starting player is chosen, that player starts their population counter at 38. All other players start at 35. The starting player places their turn order marker on the first spot of the turn order track, and the other players place theirs next to the track.
Mark’s Bundle of 2022 Essen Game Thoughts
Unless otherwise noted, these are FIRST impressions… I only had the opportunity to play most of these games a single time with a physical copy and four of my Opinionated Gamer friends. I’ve left out the older (read: non-2022) games we played to keep this Essen- and Tokyo Game Market-focused and noted where I was able to play a game more than once.
If you’re interested in my Essen (well, post-Essen) impressions from 2018, 2019, and 2020, you can find them at the following links. (I’m not sure why I didn’t do one of these in 2021.)
For those of you who haven’t read a lot of my reviews, they may give you a better insight into my board game tastes and what I’m likely to enjoy. (Which, of course, may or may not line up with your choices. Your mileage may vary.) I’m also linking to OG articles about the games when they are available.
After Playing 51 Different Games in 4.5 Days…
…I have some thoughts. Well, rules, I guess.
- 1. Publishers should have their rulebook and components blind playtested before approving for print.
- 2. Good iconography and clean presentation are more important than being artsy… not everyone has perfect eyesight and/or hi-tech lighting around their state of the art gaming table.
- 3. If your game is going to take 2+ hours of my life, it needs to tell a story and/or help me tell a story. I do not want to do mechanical stuff over and over to harvest points for that long.
- 4. If you’re not going to tell me a story, at the very least make sure your game has an arc to the game progression… rather than a flatline.
- 5. Stupid and fun is still worth playing.
- 6. Don’t be creepy. (I’m looking at you, Girl Glasses Collection.)
- 7. I will excuse a lot of weird design choices and even unclear rules if I’m having fun. If I’m not having fun, I don’t feel particularly charitable.
- 8. More people should take the chance to play with folks like Dale, John, Ryan, and James. It was a great weekend.
Continue reading →Share this:
Like this: