Château Gardens

Chateau Gardens Print and Play game review

Bonjour!

You’re an 18th-century Architect in France, and a special project has been bestowed upon you- to build a garden for the capricious French Nobles. Fusing your expertise in designing gardens with the random demands of the nit-picky Nobles? Now that’s the challenge of a true garden guru!

Château Gardens is a flip and write game designed by Zach Sullivan and published by Grazing Bear Games, which 1 to 8 players can play. The game is Live on Kickstarter (12th November onwards) and I had the wonderful opportunity to take a first look at it, and give it a shot!

What you need to play Château Gardens

Is crafting or building a PnP game not up your alley? Then you’d be delighted to know that Château Gardens needs no assembly whatsoever. All you have to do is print out one play sheet per player, give each player a pencil, and grab a standard deck of 52 playing cards. That’s it!

Laminating the sheets is recommended if you don’t want to print over and over again. In that case, all you need is a dry-erase marker per player. Being an avid board game and PnP lover, I had a deck of cards at my disposal. In case you don’t, run to the store nearest to you! I also put some handy links at the end of the blog if you need them.

In case you don’t happen to manage playing cards, you can opt for a simulated one for free at deck.of.cards. Though keep in mind that it’s only recommended for the solo mode of Château Gardens.

Now, which path did I take? As I was trying a brand-new game, I chose to be a bit fancy and went for printing the play sheet on high-quality cardstock paper. The game involves drawing shapes, and I felt much more like an architect when I used a pencil!

Now for the playthrough video, I recommend sparing a moment and learning the game straight from the horse’s mouth- aka, the creators of Château Gardens. The live stream features the game designer teaching and playing through the game with Wizardofmoe Games.

It won’t take you long to learn the game, so sharpen your pencil- it’s time to build a garden!

The live stream is available at the end of the blog.

A round of Chateau Gardens!

What I liked about Château Gardens

Proper integration of the deck

It’s the first time I’ve come across a print-and-play game that involves using a deck of cards, and the way it’s integrated needs to be talked about separately. The suits, face cards, and the numbers of playing cards add variety to the shapes that you need to draw on the blueprint (play sheet) which makes the game quite repeatable.

Drawing a card from the deck is the only element of luck in the game mechanism, the rest is all on you! Where you place the shapes and how you score the most out of it is the ultimate test; and the better you are at it, the higher the chances of winning.

It grows on you

It’s not a game where things will just fall into place. Which cards are drawn, and where you allocate your shapes opens up endless possibilities. You won’t master the game right away, but with time you’ll start to get the hang of making the most of each card drawn. It took me a good three rounds of playing the game to make the most out of the face cards drawn in the game, and I ended up scoring the most points out of it!

A game with multiple modes

As I mentioned earlier, Château Gardens can be played by 1 to 8 players, and the gameplay experience shifts quite a bit depending on how many are on the table, and also with the modes that the game has in the offering.

The game has 4 modes:
+ Basic multiplayer mode
+ Advanced multiplayer variant
+ Basic solo play mode
+ Advanced solo play variant
So far, I have explored the basic multiplayer and the basic solo play mode. 

While I played the game alone in basic solo play mode, it felt like a game well suited for quiet evenings as I flipped cards and drew the best possible garden, as any decent architect would!

But upon switching to basic multiplayer mode, the game became highly competitive. All the players got curious about the points their opponents were scoring. Having a multiplayer mode really spiced things up among the architects, as we each sought to earn a bonus and prevent opponents from scoring some handy points while building le parfait garden! 

Being a graduate of Architecture, I could relate to the basic multiplayer mode very much!  

(Little to) No trips to the Manual!

Ah, how much I did NOT miss having to refer to the manual on every single turn! The play sheet, along with its perfect art (kudos to the artist Diego Sanchez), also has The Rules References. It guides you through drawing the shapes to create the garden, so you won’t need to keep checking the manual.

The play sheet overall is very compact and well-designed; with space to write your name and date, the scoring area, the beautiful walls surrounding the garden, etc.

C’est magnifique!

I took French in high school, I know what I’m writing!

It’s a part of a Universe

Monsieur, you are in for a delight! For Château Gardens is a part of the three-game series based in rural France. The other two games in this set are Volatile Vintage and Noble Escape, both of which are of the same format as Château Gardens. A play sheet and pencil per player, and a deck of cards. All you need for these 3 catchy games!

Where to get the game from?

Château Gardens, along with Volatile Vintage and Noble Escape, is now Live on Kickstarter as a 3-in-1 package. I had a great time playing Château Gardens, and I’m excited to try out the rest of the two.

A big shout out to Grazing Bear Games for sponsoring the content and giving me the chance to try out this amazing game before its release!

Au revoir! (goodbye)

Recommended Items

Game Overview

Publisher: Grazing Bear Games
Designer: Zach Sullivan
Artist: Diego Sanchez
Number of players:
1 to 8
Difficulty level: Easy (basic mode) to Medium (advanced mode)
Rounds of gameplay needed to learn: 1 to 2 rounds
Game duration: 30-40 minutes
Available on: Kickstarter
Theme: Flip-and-Write | Designing a Garden 
Number of pages and color: 1 to 8, depending on number of players (color print)
Assembling difficulty level: Super easy. No Assembly required
Lamination: Recommended for longevity, unless you want to use a pencil, like an Architect!
Additional elements required: A deck of playing cards, and a pencil/marker per player.
Time to learn: Within 20 minutes
Travel-friendly: 9/10
Shelving friendly: 10/10
Rating from PnP Time: 8.5/10

Scroll to Top