New Kingdom: Gardeners (2024)

About this game

The Master Gardener is coming soon to choose a new Head Gardener for his new kingdom. You and your fellow Gardeners are working hard planting seeds, pruning thorns, and hiring workers to produce the most fruit to earn this honor. Will you be the head gardener in the master's new kingdom? This 1-4 player fast-paced Tableau-building game is designed for ages 10+ by Jack Dunbar and plays in 30-60 minutes or less. The objective of New Kingdom: Gardeners is to be the Gardener with the most Fruit in their Garden when the Master Gardener card is drawn from the main draw pile. Players know the Master Gardener is in the bottom 10 cards of the deck but not exactly where. To gather Fruit players play Fruit and Worker cards throughout the game into a tableau called a "Garden" and prune (remove) Thorn cards from their Garden or from others' Gardens for additional points. Building sets or teams of workers furthers the amount of Fruit a player can earn throughout the game. Workers as well as player roles known as "Gardeners" have special abilities that can be activate by components called 'doves' which are placed each turn. -description from designer

Does it fit your group?

• Group size. Works with 1 to 4. It has a designed solo mode.
• Rules load. At 1.8/5 this is a light game — explain it in a few minutes, good for a table that has not played much.
• Age. The publisher suggests 10 and up. That rates the rules rather than the artwork, so judge the box yourself for younger players.