Four Gardens Board Game Review

We talked at lengths in the past about Four Gardens having a gimmick that we were not sure was going to work. You can read all about those thoughts in our components overview and impressions . But after putting a dozen or so games behind us, not only does it work, but it’s rather brilliant as well. Four Gardens might not win any awards for its collect-and-deliver gameplay, but the spinning pagoda definitely sets it apart from the competition, even if the gameplay loop feels relatively familiar.

In Four Gardens, players will attempt to collect resources (they are limited to what they can hold) and play cards. The pagoda sits in the centre of the table and each side faces a different player. Everyone will have a variety of cards in their hands, and they serve a few purposes. One side of the card is a panorama card that will score points for you at the end of the game, while the other side will have actions the player can take (moving the pagoda, and collecting resources) and the cost of building the panorama.

What I love about Four Gardens is the collection of resources. And when you do choose to take the gather action, it’s all about what faces of the pagoda are facing you.

This is a VERY interesting decision space, because you have a limit of four resources to collect. When you collect from the pagoda, you will take either from the top going down, or the bottom going up. Resources are collected in order, so if you don’t need a ton of wood but it’s the first pagoda you are collecting from, it just sucks to be in that situation!

So rotating the pagoda so certain resources that you need are going to be available to select is a big part of the game, and will ultimately decide how well you do. As you build panorama cards you will advance on a few different tracks, all of which will score you points and potentially earn you bonuses should you reach the end, like more points for the end of the game, or perhaps a 5th slot to hold resources.

Deciding which panorama cards to play is important here as they all have different colored symbols that match different tracks. And these symbols stack over time. Your first panorama card might let you advance on the yellow track, but when you place the second blue icon panorama card, you advance on both the blue AND the yellow track.

I love that Four Gardens is not an overly difficult game to play, and it can be taught fairly quickly to a wide variety of people. Whether they’ve played games for a long time, or are new to the hobby, Four Gardens is a simple, yest interesting game that will keep everyone at the table entertained.

There are some decently deep decisions to be made which will keep long time board game players invested in the experience, but is simple enough to be very accessible. New players might not win on their first or second play, but they can play. And that’s a pretty big deal in a hobby saturated with complicated, medium-heavy experiences.