Cottage Garden

Objective of the Game:

The goal in Cottage Garden is to strategically place flowerbed tiles on your garden boards to score as many points as possible. Points are earned by completely covering specific areas on the garden boards, as well as by collecting cats and flower pots.

Setup:

1. Each player receives two garden boards, which show the areas where flowerbed tiles can be placed.
2. The main game board, composed of the dice track and the central garden, is placed in the middle of the table.
3. Each of the six rows in the central garden is filled with flowerbed pieces.
4. Each player gets a flowerbed depot.
5. The cat wheelbarrow is filled with cat pawns, flower pots, and dice for the center area.
6. Choose a starting player and give them the gardener figure.

Gameplay:

The game is played in clockwise order until a player can trigger the scoring for both of their garden boards.

1. Move Gardener: The active player moves the gardener figure one space clockwise in the central garden. This movement determines from which of the six rows they can take a flowerbed piece.

2. Take a Piece: Choose one of the four flowerbed pieces from the row and place it on one of your garden boards. Flowerbed tiles can be rotated and flipped to fit properly. Alternatively, the player can use a cat from the cat wheelbarrow to cover an empty space on the board.

3. Optional Planting or Cat Usage: You can also buy a flower pot or place a cat if the chosen piece does not fit.

4. Scoring:

5. If a garden board is completely covered with flowerbeds, pots, or cats, scoring occurs. Each completely covered flower pot counts as one point, and each covered cat as two points.

6. Players can place flower pots on already completely covered garden boards at any time to gain additional points.

7. Complete Board Replacement: Once the current board is completed and scored, the player receives a new garden board.

8. Round Marker Advancement: Progress a marker according to the completed rounds on the game track when needed.

End of Game:

The game ends when the round tracker returns to the starting point of the central garden. A final round occurs, allowing players one last chance to take actions and score their remaining points. The player with the most points wins the game.

Strategic Tips:

• Placement is Key – Be mindful of how you place flowerbeds to maximize your score.
• Timing Board Completion – Sometimes it’s better to delay completing a board strategically to have more flower pots in play.
• Use of Cats – Employ cats smartly to bridge challenging gaps without fitting flowerbeds.