Herbaceous Sprouts Review

“Oh what a lovely garden, you have!” If you have never heard this before, because you don’t have a green thumb, there is help to be had. In board game form. But you still have to put in some effort to be the best gardener.

 

Game overview

You start with a completely empty community garden – together but also against each other you will make this the most beautiful garden known to man. Maybe this is saying to much, but you will try your best. 

You also get your very own wheelbarrow, where you will collect seeds to turn into herbs and flowers (luckily you start with 2 already in your wheelbarrow).

To plant the herbs you need to either have x amount of different herbs, x amount of the same herbs or pairs of herbs. Flowers are special and can only be found on one of the dice (green one) and require a trowel to be planted. The other dice also have 1 special side specific for the color of the dice, but all dice contain herbs. 

There is a race to be the first to plant in the various spots (some only have one spot, but many have two) and if you manage to diverse your planting and plant in all 4 different areas of the garden, you earn yourself a nice cold glass of lemonate (and some extra points). 

At the start of the round a set of cards depending on the player count, which will give you some tools but most importantly some seeds (dice).

The game is set at a specif amount of rounds, again based on the player count, but basically you play until the deck of tool cards are empty. 

For scoring you score for leftover dice and pots, the planting spots in the garden.

 

 

How is it?

(5 / 5)

This little dice game came to be from Kickstarter end January; 4 months earlier than expected – this is how it should be. I had really enjoyed the previous game they made “Sunset over water” (well only played it solo as of now), so was excited for this one (and ordered the bundle with the original Herbaceous – card game).

This is a gorgeous, wellthought little game that plays quickly (setup time is also quick), but yet still with some strategic elements of when to plant, what to plant and pushing your luck.

I think this game could be taken on holiday also when flying as the components doesn’t take up much space and the foot print, when playing is fairly limited.

 

Strategy & complexity

(4 / 5)

With dice involved there is usually a lot of luck involved and that is true in this game as well, but it’s never really bad and there are cards and abilities on dice that can help you manipulate the dice, which is where the strategic element comes in. How do you optimize the dice rolls you are given (or if you have the option to re roll, which to re roll). Also you have to decide if you want to go for dice with the same values or different as this is how you score points.

There is also some strategy involved when deciding which card to take – do you take a card that can help you or maybe one that can sabotage your opponents. In the solo version it seems like there is more strategy involved as if you leave the right cards for the Automa it might not get to place it’s token to score points, giving you a better head start. Also trying to avoid the Automa from getting the higher value spots in the garden if possible.

I like the aspect of both waiting to collect more dice to fulfill the goals and to be the first to score this.

 

Replayability

(5 / 5)

A very good amount of replayability. It even comes with team rules and expert variants (both for solo, multiplayer and team variant). And since you take out a amount of cards based on player count each game, there is always the unknown of which cards are not in this game. There are so many different variants of the cards, so I never felt like I always got the same cards.

The game comes with some advanced rules and some team rules; I have not played any of these yet, but I like how much variety is in this fairly tiny game.

Green thumb mini expansion

4 cards which just gives you from 1-4 victory points, 2 of them makes you discard some of your dice in the wheelbarrow, but only if you have them; so if your wheelbarrow is empty, it’s will be worth getting.

I played this a few times solo, and it kind of made it a bit easier unless I was unlucky the AI took it, but of course you might be going for something else, you don’t want the AI to take.

 

Scalability

(5 / 5)

This game works really well with all player counts. The 4 player is the one that stands a bit out as there are no rival gardener to take care of. The solo mode (as described in the section “Solo Variant”) as a simple AI, yet still ruining your every move. I like the simplicity of rival gardener for the 2 and 3 player games; there is not much upkeeping with this rival gardener, yet it makes the game more tight – you can’t just sit around waiting to plant, as the rival gardener might take it.

I have not played a 3 player game, but I would imagine playing without the rival gardener would be ok, but for the 2 player game I wouldn’t play without it.

There is a different tension when playing multiplayer, yet the solo mode still has it; you just know that the AI will never keep taking the same card, but switching between the 3 cards used for a solo game. In the multiplayer it could be any card, but keeping track of your opponents might give an indication of which card.

 

Rules & accessibility

(5 / 5)

Very very straightforward, no questions about rules, and I could just dive right in to playing. I started with the solo game, which had an extra set of rules. But they where very clear as well, and the reference cards that come with the game and the iconography is very well made.

 

Solo variant

(5 / 5)

Setup is easy, with only a few minor changes. The AI has a stack of 9 Automa cards which you draw for every turn. They are simple and straight forward; it just tells you which card it takes, and where it plants seeds. The good thing about this solo variant is, there are 2 different rounds and the AI behaves different in the first round (where you are the first player or Master Gardener) and the second round (where the AI is the first player and you are the Assistant Gardener). This is a nice touch.

I played 10 games straight and the first 4 games or so I was just completely beaten, but then I found some other strategy that seemed to work, which made me win. But there is still the luck of the dice, but I like that you can get some ways of altering these, so you are never really stuck on useless dice.

You can’t really focus just on what you are doing, but have to keep in mind, which cards to leave for the AI, especially in the round, where you are the master gardener. You might want to take a card mostly because the AI would get too many points. If the spot, where the AI wants to plant a seed, but it is already full, it won’t do anything – this is a very nice strategy to keep in mind, and I think this was what made me start winning the game.

 

Remote playability

(4 / 5)

This could very well be skyped, there is no hidden information and the player boards (including the main game board) doesn’t take up much space. Only worry would be seeing the specific icons on the dice, as they are screen printed with pictures of herbs and flowers and not just symbols. The rest of the iconography is very clear and big.

The components in the game are very well made. Nice and chunky dice and very colorful. Thick enough cards and the boards are also nice thick. I have not found something that seems like they skipped spending extra money on making it work. It’s a great quality game.

 

Portability

(3.5 / 5)

This is very portable. There is a small board, but then the rest are a few cards and a bunch of dice. Of course this does still take up a little space and weight, and surely not for someone looking for extreme portability.

 

Appearance & component quality

(4 / 5)

Very beautiful game, which just puts you in a good mood, especially if you like herbs and flowers. The dice are good quality (nice and chunky and feels good in your hands), although I think the screen printing is a bit off center on some of the dice, and it could look a bit blurry, but the symbols match the cards exactly so it shouldn’t be a problem.

The cards are thick enough that they should last for a long time and the boards have a nice thickness. The main board really looks like the cutest little garden with herbs and flowers.

 

 

 

Helge’s review

(and Birger)

The box is on the smaller side, but this just gives me a good challenge, as I can fit in there, I just have to find the best position. The quality is nice without being to thick.

Not enough components, only a few dice are out at the same time, and the human can better keep me from getting them as they are placed on the individual player board. The small cardboard tokens with your color do get placed on the main board, would require more work to get those spread out when I walk on the board. When playing there is only a few cards out at a time, so I would need to be quick and on the card kicking duty all the time to really upset my human.

The cards are not slippery enough to really mess things up, but it is possible.

Box Fitting:	(3.7 / 5)
Component Noise:	(3.0 / 5)
Component Count & Diversity:	(3.2 / 5)
Component Quality:	(4.0 / 5)
Human Annoyance Level (HAL):	(3.0 / 5)
Average:	(3.4 / 5)

 

Game info

Board Game Geek (BGG)

 

Rules explanation

Watch it Played