Ever wanted to run your own 19th century botanical garden? That’s a silly question, of course you have! I got to live out my green-thumb dreams thanks to Botanicus, a brand-new board game from Hans im Glück. Last week, we checked out Chandigarh from distributor Asmodee USA, and now they've sent along a copy of this bright, engaging new board game for me to try out. But does it bloom, or wither on the vine? Read on for my thoughts in my Botanicus Review!
What Is Botanicus?
Designed by Samuele Tabellini and Vieri Masseini, with illustrations and graphic design by Marcel Gröber and Franz-Georg Stämmle, Botanicus is a game for 2-4 players where you’ll take on the roles of competing owners of a botanical garden.
With a unique action-selection mechanic, you’ll play through two large phases of the game, gathering victory points as you go along. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.
How Do You Play Botanicus?
The key feature of Botanicus that makes it stand apart from many other action-selection games is the way in which you select said actions. In Botanicus, you’ll use a flower token to gain one-off benefits or choose one of three action tracks to move along per turn. But you’re not making these selections in a vacuum, which I find incredibly satisfying while playing the game.
Let’s start with the tracks. First, there’s the money track, which generally gets you coins needed to move your gardener around (more on your gardener in a moment). Below that, there’s the wheelbarrow track, which helps you water, grow, and tend to your plants. And finally, there’s the shovel track, which you can attempt to move along to acquire new plants.
I say “attempt to move along” because of a fun element to the game - turn order. Turn order is determined by which player has their action marker highest on the current column of action-options. If you want to take the same action as another player, you’ll have to pay 3 coins to do so - and coins can, at times, become a very rare resource!
And while at first this action selection system can feel slightly overwhelming, as I continued my first play through (and certainly after subsequent plays), I ended up truly appreciating the design at play here.
Without getting too in the weeds (haha) describing the game any deeper, all I’ll say is that this all creates a very interesting play loop, where you’re constantly jockeying for position with your opponents while measuring if it’s more important to get a certain action this go-around, or be the first to get to choose next time.
You’ll do all of this action management to help your gardener on a separate, personal board. On that board, you’ll pay coins to move your gardener around, plant your plants - usually starting with a Level 1 plant (just a seedling) - and water those plants to upgrade them to bigger (and more valuable) specimens. Pair these restricted movement abilities (you can only plant and water in diagonal spaces) with randomized bonus scoring tiles, and you’ve got a game that keeps you looking all over the board.
Botanicus Artwork and Components
Perhaps my favorite aspect of the game is the fact that, aside from the shrink wrap on the outside, the game boasts the fact that it’s plastic-free! In a world where we’re becoming more aware of (and scared of) micro plastics, this move to all wooden and cardboard pieces feels very current and needed.
The artwork is bright, colorful, and has a bouncy, jaunty feel to it, and the wooden components are satisfying (I’ve alway wanted a wheelbarrow meeple, haven’t you?) and distinctly colored. And the best part of the components, by far, are the little tuck-boxes used to store everything! Needed because there are no plastic baggies included, these tuck-boxes do such a wonderful job of organizing all the components included.
Botanicus Review - Final Thoughts
Though Botanicus may initially feel a bit overwhelming with its breadth of options, it’s an incredibly innovative new entry into the action-selection genre. With its fun theming that partners well with the mechanics of the game (you take a water action to upgrade a plant in size), its inclusion of a more experienced mode which adds some more modularity, and its plastic-free components - this is a game that I truly enjoyed from game one, and it only continued to grow on me the more I played it.
Botanicus retails for MSRP $49.99 USD, to learn more about the game - check out Asmodee's official Botanicus page.
The copy of the game used for this Botanicus review was provided by Asmodee USA. All photos courtesy the author.
Review Summary
Pros
- Innovative action-selection gameplay invites tactical thinking
- Plastic-free components provide a welcome relief from the norm
Cons
- May initially feel a bit overwhelming with its breadth of options
- Is not quite as mechanically light as the artwork would lead a gamer to believe