Tea Garden Components Overview and Impressions
Tea Garden has intrigued me ever since it was announced, and last week Capstone Games sent over a copy of the game for us to review! As always, we want to review the games components and let you know whether the quality is!
There is a lot of cardboard to punch here, including dozens of little tea leaves. I was concerned at first looking at them, but as I began punching I was really impressed. These came out of the punch board with ease, and while they are smaller than I would like a game piece to be, they are fine. All the other cardboard bits are nice as well, very sturdy and will easily hold up long term.
The game has player boards that hold your small pagoda pieces and has little baskets printed on them to denote the level of the tea leaves placed there. I really wish these were dual layered with recessed spots for the tea leaves. On the few occasions we’ve had people accidently mix their tea leaves by bumping them from one basket to another, or not being exact enough with their placement and then wondering which basket they belonged in. It might be a minor gripe, but I feel like I’m not alone in this.
The main board is beautifully detailed and has great iconography. We never had issues seeing what regions provided which benefits, and with little spots for players to place their pagodas during the game. The central river is a nice feature, and is again detailed nicely. I like the art style of this game quite a bit, and all the chosen colours – main board, player boards, player pieces, etc. – all fit nicely together.
There are also a ton of cards in the game, and I found the card quality average. As you know from our reviews, average is good, no need to sleeve these if you don’t want to, but I would say that if you plan to play Tea Garden dozens of times each year, the amount you shuffle and draw from your decks might change your opinion on sleeving. Because of our vast collection, after this review period this will be a few times per year experience, so I’m OK not sleeving these cards!
The wooden player pieces are phenomenal. Each player gets a few pagodas, a few workers, a single boat, and a scoring disc. They are all screen printed which I think is yet another premium touch, and they look fantastic as they begin to get played out on the board. This has a really great table presence in my opinion, and is one that people will stop to gawk at as you play, guaranteed.
Finally, I’m so happy to see an insert included with Tea Garden. Too many games today come with no inserts, or really crappy cardboard inserts. Tea Garden isn’t a cheap game by any means, but there is value here, and having an insert with dedicated spaces for all the pieces is something I’m willing to pay a premium for.
Article By Adam
