Arcane Wonders

Building A Mystical Pagoda

to Please the Gods

By: Robert Geistlinger, Director of Sales & Marketing, Arcane Wonders

Four Gardens continues the trend of games in the Dice Tower Essentials line being accessible, beautiful and a must-have for any gamer’s collection. At the center of this game is the magnificent rotating tower that really amps up the table presence and invites gamers to want to see “what this game is all about”. The core of the game is a familiar hand management and set collection engine that is sure to engage both long-time gamers as well as casual or first-time gamers equally. Long ago, in a beautiful Eastern Kingdom, a queen and her people please their Gods by building a mystical pagoda. As time passed the queen fell ill and she summoned her people to compete for her crown, but the heir would be chosen by the four Gods themselves.

The goal of Four Gardens is to accumulate the most points by completing Landscape cards and finishing sets. The finished panoramas each being ever so slightly unique each time thanks to subtle differences in the cards throughout the game. The panorama cards serve as both the actions a player can take on their turn and the path to victory.

On a turn a player has only four actions that could be available to them depending on the cards they have in hand. Laying Groundwork allows a player to place a card in their garden to begin building a new panorama. Take A Wild lets the player collect one of any resource and place it in their cart or card they are currently building. Reallocate Resources gives the player a chance to move resources from their cart and garden cards. Finally, Rotate & Collect lets the player rotate floors of the pagoda and collect resources from the floor-up or top-down in order. These collected resources must go directly to the player’s cart, which can only hold 4 resources, so careful planning is needed.

When a panorama card is completed by having the resources needed on it, the card is flipped over and scores a point for the player on the Gods Track according to the color shown. But the scoring does not stop there! As a panorama is completed it also scores for any previously scored cards in the set! Get to end of a God’s track and you can begin to push your competition backwards (even off!) on the track.

When you are done playing the game everything goes back into the insert to make your next game that much easier to take out and start playing!

Four Gardens is one of those games that blends the familiar with the fresh. It truly is a game that is easy to teach to players of all skill levels. With bright colors and beautiful landscapes popping and three-dimensional pagoda, it is sure to delight gamers of all types. This was game that we knew we had to have here at Arcane Wonders in our Dice Tower Essentials line, and we hope that you will find a treasured new addition to your collection.