USD ($)
EUR (€)
Build your own puzzle of pathways through the Vadoran Gardens. On your journey, you will be tasked with collecting relics, cultivating plants, and feeding animals. Compete against your rivals to win the title of High Priestess of Vadoran Gardens. To be a worthy ruler however, players must study the lessons of Life, Nature and Wisdom.
Vadoran Gardens is another highly rated game from designer Frank West and The City of Games publishers. A game of Vadoran Gardens is pretty quick, usually taking around 20 minutes. Although with the maximum amount of 4 players, you can expect a game to last up to 40 minutes.
Vadoran Gardens is based within the same vibrant universe as the other fantastic titles from The City of Games publishers. If you are familiar with other titles from The City of Games, Vadoran Gardens is most comparable to The Isle of Cats. Both games focus on geometric placement puzzles with a very wholesome narrative based in the beauty of nature.
Vadoran Gardens – The Game
Vadoran Gardens is essentially a picture-based puzzle game. Pathway cards are the focal element of the game. Consisting of grass, water, sand, and soil tiles, these pathway cards will form your journey. Place cards together to create your unique pathway through the gardens.
As you build pathways, you will earn points based on how many of the same type of pathways connect. Whilst forming your pathways, you will also be working towards specific achievements which are chosen randomly at the start of a game. Within your pathways you may find animals, relics, or plants. Achievement cards may ask players to find 3 different animals within one pathway or perhaps find 4 of the same plants.
This allows players to form various strategies. As some players may work towards achievement cards, others could focus on building vast pathways. This also adds to Vadoran Garden’s great replay-ability!
A random Lesson card will be revealed each round. Players must play pathway cards that match the lesson of the round. For example, if the lesson card of the round is a wisdom lesson, then players must place a card on their pathway which contains a wisdom symbol.
After ten rounds of each player placing a pathway card, it’s time to total the final scores.
Components
Although packed within a small box, Vadoran Gardens its bursting with high-quality components. The attention to detail is flawless throughout every aspect of the game. The small animal tokens are especially precious!
As we can expect from The City of Games publishers, the art is exquisite and very charming. The peaceful, almost tranquil vibe of the game is certainly enhanced through its visuals.
Another important note is that the rulebook is very thorough. Detailed explanations/ examples of set up specifics and victory score totalling is provided. This really helps players get up to speed with the various depths of gameplay. If players desire further explanations, then there are various groups and pages that are always happy to help. Many of these are listed on The City of Games official website.
Final Thoughts
Vadoran Gardens is quick, simple, yet great. Definitely an ideal warm-up game for a board game night. If you’re itching to play a game, but you have less than an hour to spare then Vadoran Gardens is an ideal choice.
There is certainly great replay-ability to Vadoran Gardens. You may find yourself playing multiple games of Vadoran Gardens again and again. Players often find that the 10 rounds of each game simply are not enough.
The premise of the game is super simple, and yet the puzzle solving of the path placement is so in depth and well designed! That’s why Vadoran Gardens is a highly recommendable game for board gamers of all ages and experience.