The Hanging Gardens Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Preparation
• Playing a Game Round
• Garden Building
• Groups - Temples - Point Tiles
• Other Important Rules
• Breaking Up a Group
• Moving a Temple
• Game End and Scoring
  • The Point Tiles
  • Determining the Winner

Components

• 1 game board
• 60 building cards
• 4 start cards
• 49 point tiles:
  • 4 x queen
  • 4 x king
  • 6 x tiger
  • 6 x garden
  • 6 x statue
  • 10 x chalice
  • 8 x gate
  • 1 x animal handler
  • 1 x gardener
  • 1 x sculptor
  • 1 x priest
  • 1 x guard
• 20 wooden temples in 4 colors

Preparation

Place the game board in the middle of the table.

Each player takes one start card and places it in his play area (the space on the table before him). With less than 4 players, return the others to the box.

Shuffle the 60 building cards and place them face down as a supply stack on the space provided for them on the game board.

Shuffle the 49 point tiles and place them in two approximately equal stacks on the spaces provided for them on the game board.

From these, draw 6 and place them face up on the spaces provided for them on the game board.

Each player takes the 5 temples in his color, placing them in his play area.

The players choose a starting player who takes the start player flower.

Playing a Game Round

At the beginning of each round, the start player draws cards from the building card stack and places them on the spaces provided on the game board in the number shown below.

# of players	# of cards
4 players	4 cards
3 players	3 cards
2 players	4 cards

The start player begins and takes his turn. The other players follow in clockwise order. When each player has had a turn (or 2 alternating turns with 2 players), the round ends and the start player passes the start player flower to his left neighbor. Until the game ends, all rounds are played this way.

Garden Building

On a player's turn, he must take one of the face up building cards from the display and place it in his play area. Each card has 6 squares. Each square shows either a building space or one of the 4 motifs.

Follow these rules when placing building cards:

• A player must always place a motif so that it covers either a building space or another motif.
• A player may not place a card so a motif lies directly on the table.
• A player may place a building space anywhere. He may place it on another building space, on a motif, or directly on the table. In many cases, the best choice is to place building spaces directly on the table so that the player has more choices for later placing motifs.
• The player should try to place motifs of the same kind next to each other in order to establish large groups of the same motif.

Groups - Temples - Point Tiles

When a player plays a card such that he creates a group of at least 3 adjacent (horizontal or vertical, but not only diagonal) motifs of the same kind, he can place one of his temples on the group and take a point tile. These points, and only these, determine the winner at the end of the game (see descriptions of these point tiles later on in the rules).

These rules apply:

• If a player creates a group of 3 of the same motif with his card placement, he may place a temple on any one of the 3 and may take one of the 2 point tiles from the 1st column on the board.
• If a player creates a group of 4 of the same motif with his card placement, he may place a temple on any one of the 4 and may take one of the 4 point tiles from the 1st or 2nd columns on the board.
• If a player creates a group of 5 or more of the same motif with his card placement, he may place a temple on any one of the 5 or more motifs and may take one of the 6 point tiles on the board.

(We assume here that the player chose not to place a temple when he created the group of 4 parks. A player may only place one temple on each group, see below: "Other important rules", point 5.)

Additional bonus with larger groups:

When a player creates a group of 6 or more of the same motif, he may first take 1 point tile from one of the face down stacks. He looks at the tile and then places it face down in his play area. Then he may take one of the 6 face up point tiles from the game board, as described above.

Other Important Rules

1. Each player collects his point tiles face down in his play area.
2. After a player takes a face up point tile from the game board, the player immediately draws a new one from one of the stacks and places it on the now empty space.
3. A player may place a temple (score a group) only if one or more of the sections of the associated group are on the card the player just placed. A player may not choose to score a previously created, but unscored group.
4. A player may score only one group per turn.
5. A player may place only 1 temple per group.
6. A temple cannot be covered by a card.
7. A player is not required to place a temple (starting with a group of 3) when he first creates a group. When a player places a temple, then he must take a point tile. It is often wise for a player who has created a group to wait to score it until it is larger, giving him a better choice of point tiles.
8. In the rare case that a player takes a card and cannot add it to his garden, he must place it in the box, ending his turn. This means if no card in the display can be played, the player must select one to discard.

Breaking Up a Group

A player may break up an existing group by placing a card that covers two sections in the group. At the same time, this can create a "new" smaller group (without a temple). He may place a temple on one section of the new group and take a point tile according to the size of that new group.

If, however, the new group created by breaking up an existing group already has a temple on it (see "Other important rules", point 5), or the new group has no section on the card the player just played (see "Other important rules", point 3), the player cannot place a temple and take a point tile for it.

Moving a Temple

If a player has used all 5 temples and has the opportunity to place another temple, then he may move one of his 5 temples. If he chooses to do so, he must always move the temple which is on the smallest group. If there are several tied for smallest, he may select freely from those groups' temples.

Game End and Scoring

The game ends when all building cards have been played.

In very rare cases, the stack with point tiles can be exhausted before all building cards are played. In this case, the current round is played to the end. Any player who should have gotten a point tile when none were left adds 5 points to their score for the missing point tile.

Now the players turn over and score their point tiles.

The Point Tiles

The 49 point tiles are divided into 44 series tiles and 5 person tiles.

The 44 series tiles in 7 kinds:

• 4 x queen
• 4 x king
• 6 x tiger
• 6 x garden
• 6 x statue
• 10 x chalice
• 8 x gate

All series tiles are structured as follows: the number on the top right shows how many tiles of this kind are in the game (e.g. the garden 6 times). The numbers below show the possible points for the tile (e.g. the garden 2, 8, or 16 points).

Scoring the series tiles:

The points for the series tiles increase with the number of like tiles a player has collected. The first number shows the points for a single tile, the second number gives the total points for two like tiles, and so on. When the highest score shown on the tile is reached, the series is complete. If a player has more tiles of a completed series, he scores the additional tiles as a second series. With 5 garden tiles, e.g., he gets 16 + 8 = 24 points.

The 5 person tiles:

The 5 person tiles go with 5 of the 7 series kinds: for the tigers, the animal handler; for the monuments, the sculptor; for the gardens, the gardener; for the chalices, the priest; and for the gates, the guard.

• 1 x animal handler
• 1 x gardener
• 1 x sculptor
• 1 x priest
• 1 x guard

All person tiles are structured as follows: there is 1 of each person tile in the game. The numbers below show the possible points for the tile (e.g. the gardener 3 or 11 points).

Scoring the person tiles:

Each person tile (except the guard) scores 3 points if a player has the tile alone or with an incomplete series of the related kind. When the player has a person tile and at least one complete series of the related kind, the player scores the number after the "/" on the person tile.

Scoring the guard and the gates:

The guard is an exception to the rule for scoring the person tiles. It scores points only together with gates. The guard scores 3 points for each gate the player has. This is in addition to the points a player scores for the gates themselves. It is not important whether the player has a complete gate series or not.

Determining the Winner

The player who scores the most points with all his point tiles is the winner! If players tie for most points, the player among those tied with the most collected tiles wins. If players are still tied for the most tiles, they rejoice in their shared victory.