The Hanging Gardens Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• How to Play
  • 1. Construct your hanging garden (mandatory)
    • A. Select a Garden card
    • B. Place your Garden card
    • C. Resolve your Garden card
  • 2. Reveal a new Garden card (mandatory)
  • 3. Buy a single Enhancement tile (optional)
  • 4. Complete a single Royal Objective (optional)
  • 4. End of round
• Anatomy of a Garden Card
• Scoring
  • Scoring Example
• Credits

Components

• 2 double-sided mini-boards
• 75 Garden cards
• 5 Irrigation cards
• 18 Automaton cards (Solo mode only)
• 10 Objective tiles
• 25 Enhancement tiles
• 30 tools
• 1 double-sided gameboard
• 1 first-player marker
• 15 Gardeners (3 per player)
• 20 Objective markers (4 per player)
• 20 gold coins
• 1 scorepad

Setup

1. Place the main gameboard in the center of the table, with the side for your player count face up (shown on the top right).
2. Place the mini-board for your player count at the bottom of the main gameboard. This is where you will place your Gardeners.
3. Shuffle the 75 Garden cards to form a deck. Place the top 12 cards face up at random in the spaces on the main gameboard, forming 3 columns of 4 cards.
4. Shuffle each type of Enhancement tile separately and put them in 3 faceup stacks on their corresponding spaces on the gameboard.
5. Shuffle the 10 Objective tiles. Draw 4 at random and place them on their spaces at the top of the gameboard. Return the remaining Objective tiles to the box.
6. Shuffle the 5 Irrigation cards and give one to each player, face up. Keep these cards visible during the game. Return any remaining Irrigation cards to the box.
7. Each player chooses a player color and takes the 4 Objective markers and 3 Gardeners in that color.
8. The player who last did yard work starts their garden first. Give them the first-player marker.
9. Finally, give each player 2 gold coins and 4 tools. Give the last player 1 extra tool. Place the remaining tools and gold coins near the playing area.

How to Play

The game consists of 4 rounds. In each round, you use your 3 Gardeners to select 3 Garden cards to add to your hanging garden.

The first player starts the round and follows these steps in order:

1. Construct your hanging garden (mandatory) a) Select a Garden card b) Place your Garden card c) Resolve your Garden card
2. Reveal a new Garden card (mandatory)
3. Buy a single Enhancement tile (optional)
4. Complete a single Royal Objective (optional)

Then play passes to the next player clockwise.

1. Construct your hanging garden (mandatory)

A. Select a Garden card

Place your Gardener on an unoccupied space below one of the three columns and take a card from that column. You must pay the tool cost indicated on the gameboard. You do not need to pay anything if you choose the card on Level 1 of the column.

Return any spent tools to the reserve.

Example: In this 3-player game, Raphael can only place his Gardener in the left column. He places his Gardener there and chooses the Garden card on Level 2 of the column, so must spend 1 tool.

B. Place your Garden card

Simply place your first Garden card in front of you. It must remain on the first level of your garden.

Subsequently, whenever you add a new card to your garden, you must respect these 3 constraints:

1. You must place it adjacent to another card in your garden.
2. A card can only be placed on a higher level if it rests on a base of 2 adjacent cards.
3. Your final garden must have three levels, with 5 cards on its first level, 4 cards on its second level and 3 cards on its third level.

Note: You can find a reminder of the final structure of your garden on your Irrigation card.

Important: You do not need to complete a level to build on the level above.

C. Resolve your Garden card

Some Garden cards give you an immediate bonus, which is shown on the frieze at the bottom of the card. There are 3 types of bonus: Crown, Gold Coins and Tools.

Crown

Immediately take the first-player marker. While you hold it, you will be the first player in the next round and benefit from a reduction on all Royal Objectives (see the Royal Objectives section).

Example: Raphael places a Crown card in his garden and takes the first-player marker from Emily. While he holds the first-player marker, Raphael will be able to achieve Royal Objectives more easily and will be the first player in the next round.

Gold coins

When you place this bonus, you immediately gain the same number of gold coins as the level on which you place it. Gold coins can be used to buy enhancements (see below).

Example: Raphael places his card on the second level of his hanging garden. This gives him 2 gold coins.

Tools

Like for the gold coins, when you place this bonus, you immediately gain the same number of tools as the level on which you place it.

2. Reveal a new Garden card (mandatory)

In the column from which you chose your Garden card, slide the cards down by one level, if required, to free up the top space. Then draw a Garden card and place it face up on the highest space in the column.

3. Buy a single Enhancement tile (optional)

After you place your card in your garden, you can spend gold coins to buy a single enhancement.

Enhancements are always placed on an Empty Garden card, i.e. a card that does not contain a tree, animal, visitor or enhancement.

Enhancements

• Enhancements that cost 2 gold coins give you flowers, animals or trees.
• Enhancements that cost 3 gold coins give you a bonus that functions like a Garden card bonus.
• Enhancements that cost 4 gold coins always provide irrigation.

4. Complete a single Royal Objective (optional)

At the end of your turn, you can complete a single Royal Objective. To complete a Royal Objective, your garden must feature the same item more than once on the same level. That item may be flowers, animals or even bonuses (see reference for the list of Royal Objectives).

Example: Gregory has 5 red flowers in his garden. However, he cannot complete the Royal Objective for having 4 red flowers on the same level because he has 2 red flowers on his first level and 3 red flowers on his second level.

First-player marker

If you hold the first-player marker, you can complete a Royal Objective using 1 fewer items.

Example: Let's return to the example with Gregory. This time, Gregory holds the first-player marker. This means the 3 red flowers on his second level are enough to complete the Royal Objective for 4 red flowers on the same level, because the first-player marker gives him a reduction of 1 item, so the 3 red flowers on his second level are sufficient.

When you complete a Royal Objective, place one of your Objective markers on one of the free spaces for that objective.

If there is a gold coin icon or a tool icon on that space, you immediately gain that bonus.

Example: Gregory completes the Royal Objective, he places his Objective marker and immediately wins a gold coin. He scores 2 victory points at the end of the game.

Important: You can only complete each Royal Objective once during the game.

Note: In 3-player and 5-player games, some Royal Objectives may no longer be available.

4. End of round

The round ends when all players have placed all their Gardeners. Take back all your Gardeners and begin the next round. If you have played 4 rounds, you have all finished constructing your hanging gardens. Proceed to scoring.

Anatomy of a Garden Card

Each Garden card can show: an Irrigation marking, Flowers, an Animal, a Tree, a Visitor, and Victory points. A card can also be an Empty card, or carry a Bonus.

Irrigation

The Irrigation card you were given at the start of the game shows you where you need to place your irrigated Garden cards to score those victory points at the end of the game. You may place irrigated cards elsewhere in your garden, but they will not score as part of your Irrigation layout.

Flowers

Your goal here is to create the largest bloom of flowers you can. At the end of the game, you only score points for your largest connected group of flowers in each color.

Tree

Your goal here is to group trees of the same species in your garden. A single tree scores the first value, two adjacent trees of the same species score the second value, and so on. When you reach the maximum group size, you start a new group.

There are 3 species of tree:

• Socotra dragon tree: Maximum 2 trees for a total of 7 points.
• Cedar of Lebanon: Maximum 3 trees for a total of 9 points.
• Date palm: Maximum 4 trees for a total of 18 points.

Animal

The points an animal scores depends on which level they are on in your garden. Each of the 3 species has a preferred level:

• Lions, who like to lounge on the first level.
• Monkeys, who prefer to play on the second level.
• Peacocks, who like the calm on the third level.

Visitor

Each visitor brings you victory points for each feature they would like to see in your garden, wherever it is situated.

For example, the visitor who likes to see water in your garden scores you 1 victory point for each irrigated card in your garden, even if it does not match your Irrigation card layout.

Empty

During the game, you can purchase enhancements. These improve your Empty cards, to help you build the best garden possible.

Scoring

Score your victory points as follows:

• Irrigation: Count the number of irrigated Garden cards in the places specified on your Irrigation card. Score the corresponding number of victory points.
• Blooms: Only your largest connected group in each flower color (red, yellow and blue) scores. Gain 1 point per flower in those groups.
• Trees: Score the number of points shown for your groups of connected trees of the same species.
• Animals: Score the number of points for the level on which your animal is placed.
• Visitors: Score the points shown if the features your visitor wants to see are in your garden.
• Royal Objectives: Score the same number of points as Royal Objectives you have completed.

The winner is the player with the most victory points.

If there is a tie, the winner is the player with the most tools and gold coins. If there is still a tie, the tied players both win.

Scoring Example

• A — Irrigation: Gregory has 5 irrigated Garden cards, but only 4 of them match the diagram on his Irrigation card. He scores 7 victory points for irrigation.
• B — Flowers: Gregory's largest connected groups of flowers are: 5 blue flowers, only 1 red flower, and 4 yellow flowers. He scores 5 + 1 + 4, giving him a total of 10 victory points for his flowers.
• C — Trees: Gregory's group of 2 Cedars of Lebanon on his first level scores him 5 victory points. The single Cedar of Lebanon on his second level scores him 2 victory points. He also has a Socotra dragon tree, which scores him another 2 victory points. He scores a total of 9 (= 5 + 2 + 2) victory points for his trees.
• D — Animals: Grégory scores a total of 7 victory points for his animals: 2 points for the monkey on his first level, 3 points for the monkey on his second level, and 2 points for the lion on his top level.
• E — Visitors: Gregory's first visitor likes yellow flowers, which scores him 5 victory points. His second visitor likes Crown bonuses, scoring him 4 points. This gives him a total of 9 victory points for visitors.
• F — Royal Objectives: Finally, Gregory has completed 2 Royal Objectives during the game. He scores 6 more victory points.

His final score is 48 victory points.

Credits

• Design: Grégory Grard & Matthieu Verdier
• Artwork: Miguel Coimbra
• Editorial Manager: Alain Mihranyan
• Development/Editing: Joseph Foussat
• Graphics: Simon Watel