Game Review – The Hanging Gardens

The Hanging Gardens
Number of Players	2 - 4
Play Time	45 minutes
Ages	8 years and up

This week we are going to take a look at The Hanging Gardens.  The Hanging Gardens is a tile placement game that also adds a set collection element to it.

The theme of The Hanging Gardens is the players are builders in Ancient Babylon trying to re-establish The Hanging Gardens as one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.  As they add on to their garden, the queen gives them gifts that provide them with the victory points in the game.  The more of a type of gift they get the more victory points the set of gifts is worth.  The play that has the most victory points at the end of the game will become the next wonder of the world.

The game consists of 1 game board, 4 start cards, 60 building card, 49 point tiles, 20 temples (5 each in 4 colors and 1 start player piece.  The game board is the place that the building cards and point tiles are kept during the game.  The start cards are where most of the action of the game takes place.

The start cards and the building cards are divided in to 6 sections.  In the case of the start card all of the sections are blank.  On the building cards one to four of the sections will have areas that have arcades, fountains, parks, or terraces in any combination on them.  The player will use these cards to build his garden.

The point tiles are divided into seven types and they are an additional 5 bonus tiles that will give bonuses to full sets in five of the different types of tiles.  Each type of tile progresses in value the more of the type of tile that a player collects.  For example, if you only have one garden tile, it is worth 2 points.  If you have 3 garden tiles the set of them is worth 16 points.

Set up for the game consist of handing a start card and 5 temples of one color to each of the players.  The point tiles are randomized and put in their place on the game board.  The building cards are shuffled and placed in position on the game board.  Then six point tiles are turned face up and placed in their positions on the game board.

Game play is simple.  A building card is turned face up for each player in the game.  The players take one of the cards in turn orders starting with the first player.  They will place the card in their garden (the start card) using the following rules.  The sections that have features on them must be placed on the player’s current garden area which is initially the start card.  The blank spaces may do not have to be on the start card and may be used to expand the garden in future turns.  The card may not cover temples in the player’s garden either.

Once the player has an area built in their garden that has three or more of the same type of feature, they may opt to score that area.  In order to score the area the player must place one of their temples on one of the sections in the feature thereby blocking the feature for future building.  Once an area is scored, the player chooses a face up point tile based on the following.  If the player scores a three section area, they may choose one of two possible tiles based on their position on the game board.  If the player scores a four section area, they may choose one of four possible tiles.  If the player scores a five section area, they may choose one of six possible tiles.  If the player scores a six or more section area, they take a tile from the top of the pile of point tiles plus one from the six face up option.

After each round the start player moves to the next person clockwise and the next round begins.  Play continues until either the building cards or the point tiles are all used.  The person with the most victory points wins the game.

While the rules of the game are simple, this game is not a good game to use to introduce people to board games.  The building card placement can potentially be frustrating to new players.  The way that the scoring is done is not traditional to the way that most board games score which can become burdensome as well.  The Hanging Gardens is a great game for intermediate and advanced game player and can be used as an introductory game for those that are interested in trying out abstract puzzle games.

The issue I have with the game is that there are not enough building cards in the game to give everyone in a four player game equal turns.  So the fourth player always has the disadvantage of being the last player to choose a building card on the first turn and does not get as many times to choose a building card first as the other players.  This can put them at a disadvantage versus the other players.

The game does play in the 45 minutes it states on the box even with inexperienced player.  It will take an hour only if you are explaining the rules to players.

I recommend The Hanging Gardens to people who like puzzle games or construction games.  If you like games like Factory Fun or Blokus this is a game you should definitely try out.