INTRODUCTION

The first thing about any given board game that catches my initial interest and subsequent curiosity tends to be the artwork; not the pedigree of the designer, nor mechanisms or rules complexity but the visual presentation. Pretty or thought-provoking illustrations are definitive a figurative honeypot, exposing my Achilles heel for the whole world to see. Ever since it was first announced by publisher ThunderGryph Games I have been itching for the opportunity to take a closer look at Tang Garden, a game about the construction of the royal gardens in ancient China that has received its fair share of accolades for the visual presentation and featured components.

Full disclosure: a review copy of Tang Garden was kindly provided by publisher Lucky Duck Games.

COMPONENTS

Allow me to start off by saying that if I were to pass judgement on the qualities of Tang Garden based solely on visual flair the game would receive a near perfect mark. In terms of art style and component quality Tang Garden is unquestionably one of the most lavish board game productions I have ever seen, rivalled only by a select few. It is rather difficult to accurately convey just how visually pleasing this Zen-like tile laying design is when fully displayed on the table, one needs to experience it first-hand in order to truly appreciate the level of commitment and effort that was poured into this rather exquisite game. I have been a huge admirer of the illustrative work by artist Matthew Mizak for quite some time and Tang Garden is further proof that he is indeed one of the most interesting and talented illustrators currently working in the industry.

Unfortunately, similar to Everdell and the design of the fabled tree centrepiece Tang Garden falls victim to being a prime example where style takes precedence over functionality much to the game’s detriment. Several of the decorations that adorn the garden tiles are in fact three-dimensional set pieces of significant stature, as lovely as they are to behold individually once the main board becomes populated with trees, pavilions and bridges the overall game experience quickly evolves into a usability nightmare as I found myself constantly leaning over the game board like a vulture hulking over a carcass trying to get a clear view of where to add the next garden tile or decoration. Honestly, I would have vastly preferred if all decorations were designed using the small cardboard tokens as is the case with the Koi fish and the various flowers one can adorn the garden tiles with. And let us not forget the landscape tiles which makes the aforementioned Everdell tree look like a marvel of engineering and usability. Although they are stunning to behold, and I cannot emphasise enough the sheer visual flair of Tang Garden, once erected the taller landscape tiles completely obscure their smaller counterpart at the front of the line rendering them borderline impossible to behold depending on where you are seated at the table. Ultimately, the aesthetics of Tang Garden reminds me of a bag of sweets; colourful and initially intensely satisfying but by the end of it I am more or less sick to my stomach.

OVERVIEW

“Whoever loves and understands a garden will find contentment within.” – Chinese proverb

Emperor Xuanzong, seventh ruler of the Tang dynasty, has summoned his consortium of royal engineers and presented them with the task of constructing the most magnificent garden in all of China for him and his famous concubine Yang Guifei. The imperial garden, known as the Garden of the Majestic Clear Lake, is to be built as a homage to nature and a symbol of the dynasty. Players take on the role of imperial garden architects, trying to construct the most harmonious and beautiful landscape in order to earn prestige and the favour of the Emperor.

Over the course of the game, players will be adding tiles to the central board symbolising the construction of the royal garden. Each tile represents one of the elements rock, water, or greenery and is added to previously placed tiles in order to essentially score points based on adjacency and matching elements. The act of placing similar tiles next to one another is important not only for the purpose of creating a garden that is harmonious in terms of balancing the elements, but also for advancing on the corresponding tracks on your player board. During the construction of the Tang Garden, noblemen will visit the garden to admire the scenery and how the landscape is constructed so as to create panoramas of immense beauty. By reaching certain milestones in terms of adding the various elements to the garden, as an optional action player can influence a character which grants not only an ongoing effect but also the opportunity to earn additional points at the end of the game. Although you can have several characters on the main board for the final tally, only a single nobleman is eligible to grant you their special ability. This presents the player with an interesting tactical decision, seeing how each character has unique powers tailored for specific aspects of the game design. For example, the Empress rewards additional coins when placing a lotus or a peony flower decoration in the garden while the Merchant instead grants you the ability to draw additional decoration cards in exchange for coin.

While on the subject, in addition to adding new tiles to the garden players have the option as their main action for the current turn to place decorations onto the existing tiles. Depending on the number of available face-up garden tiles in the supply, the active player draws a number of decoration cards choosing one to keep and discarding the rest. Each decoration corresponds to one of the three elements, for example the lotus flower or Koi fish tokens can only be placed on a water tile whereas the visually impressive pagodas are added onto rock. In addition to potentially rewarding an advancement on one of the three element tracks on your player board, the decoration cards also provide avenues for end of game points in the form of set collection. Some like Koi fish only grant you points if paired with a bird decoration card, whereas trees score a certain amount of coins/points based on variety within each set. What is interesting about this particular aspect of the game’s design is the way it perfectly creates a sense of balance, echoing the concept of dualism found in the ancient philosophy of Yin & Yang. Seeing how decorations can only be added to specific tiles in terms of elements, and also given the fact that you are drawing the decoration cards blindly from the deck the game creates an incentive for players to strike a balance when choosing which new tile to add to the garden. This notion of harmony also connects rather elegantly to the progression on your player board, again emphasising the importance of balance in order to influence new characters.

The final and crucial aspect of becoming the most prestigious imperial garden architect in all of China involves the placement of landscape tiles. At the start of the game, depending on player count the main board will be seeded with tokens denoting either a large or small landscape. Whenever a player adds a new tile to a square containing the aforementioned token, a landscape tile will be added to the corresponding area on the four sides of the main garden board. Much like how the actual imperial gardens were designed, the idea is to create a backdrop which reads like a landscape painting where visitors of the garden are transitioning from one carefully choreographed scene to the next. This notion of using nature as a staging mechanism is tied to the characters one can influence, specifically what is known as their sight preference. Regardless of size, each landscape tile has one or more icons which corresponds to a nobleman which represents what the individual in question appreciates in terms of scenery and how balanced the garden is in terms of the elements. The interesting twist though is the fact that the nobleman in question must be facing the landscape tile in order to be eligible to grant the associated reward. And seeing how each side of the board only has a limited amount of slots for landscape tiles to be placed in the game quickly becomes a tactical race as players are trying to group tiles favouring their influenced characters more than the opposition. Unfortunately, the landscape tiles suffer the same usability issues as the rest of the components primarily as a result of the icons being incredibly tiny. Also, I cannot for the life of me understand why the publisher chose to use three incredibly similar shades of yellow to distinguish some of the character icons again making for an unnecessarily arduous gaming experience.

THE SOLO MODE

In my mind there are two distinct types of solo board game designs. One aims to recreate a sensation similar to the one you might experience when playing a game in the company of others, retaining much of the core mechanisms that constitute the overall design. The other provides a different experience, often deviating from the formula in terms of rules and components. The solo mode in Tang Garden, aptly named Yin & Yang, leans heavily into the second category. As a result, you do not incorporate the player boards nor the special abilities of each nobleman. The solo mode even strips away the mechanism of set collection, rendering the original purpose of the decoration cards obsolete. Instead, the game presents the solitary player with a challenge: try to construct a garden consisting of 28 tiles according to a predetermined grid pattern before any one stack runs out. This may sound simple enough but as is the case with most things in life there is more to it than meets the eye. When playing Tang Garden solo, each stack of garden tiles will be seeded with a face-up decoration card. In order to add a chosen tile to the garden you must be able to both adhere to the normal placement rules and be able to add the associated decoration!

Although playing Tang Garden in solitaire differs considerably from the multiplayer experience, the solo mode still manages to present its own interpretation of the act of balancing the elements. You cannot focus heavily on one stack because then you are essentially running out the game clock, also you need an even spread of different garden tiles so as to be able to add the decorations. Eventually though you will find yourself in a situation where you are unable to add both a tile and its decoration to the garden, luckily you have a trick up your sleeve: lantern tokens. These tokens grant special abilities, allowing you to break the rules to a certain extent like discarding and refreshing the tableau of decoration cards or placing a tile without the need to adhere to a decoration. But choose them wisely, it is very tempting to burn through them early on only to find yourself stuck in a figurative corner later in the game. Play continues until you are either unable to add a new garden tile or the Garden of the Majestic Clear Lake has been constructed in honour of the Emperor, upon which you will add the characters you have managed to influence in order to earn additional coins similar to the multiplayer experience.

FINAL THOUGHTS

In many ways I find Tang Garden to be something of a strange beast, a game design comprised of contradictions which after playing left me in a state of internal conflict. The actual notion of placing tiles in order to build a lush garden of tranquillity is in theory incredibly straight-forward and very pleasing, yet I constantly found myself returning to the rulebook to make sure that I scored tiles correctly by the proper rules as a result of the graphical design making several of the tiles difficult to assess. The game is an absolute jewel to behold, a tour de force in terms of art style and component quality. But at the same time, playing the actual game becomes an experience fraught with frustration due to style and flair taking precedence over functionality. Also, and this is definitely more of a personal reflection rather than any actual fault of the design, but personally I am not a huge fan of solo modes in board games that strip away much of what makes the game fun and interesting in the first place. However, there is a silver lining amidst the clouds: apparently there is a new solo mode in the works which according to designer Francesco Testini will feature an automa styled artificial opponent. Here is hoping for a more fleshed out solitaire stroll through the Tang Garden.