Gardens of Babylon Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Set Up
• How to Win
• Player Turn at a Glance
• Player Turn in Detail
  • Place
  • Move
    • Stopping when moving onto unplanted tile terraces
    • Boosting when encountering allied gardeners
  • Plant
    • Cascading on connected lower-level pools
  • Draw
• Game End
  • Scoring
• Solo Rules

Components

• 12 Scoring Tiles
• 78 Ziggurat Tiles
• 12 Red Guild Gardeners
• 36 Red Hibiscus Seeds
• 12 Yellow Guild Gardeners
• 36 Yellow Marigold Seeds
• 12 White Guild Gardeners
• 36 White Lily Seeds
• 12 Purple Guild Gardeners
• 36 Purple Lavender Seeds
• 5 Base Tiles

Each ziggurat tile shows a terrace on top, a pond in the middle, a staircase (leading up or down to the terrace of an adjacent tile), an archway (leading laterally to the terrace of an adjacent tile), an incoming water channel and an outgoing water channel. Some tiles also show a flower panel.

Set Up

1. Assemble the base tiles into a single piece.
   • For a full game, assemble a 13-tile base piece.
   • For a quick game, assemble a 10-tile base piece.
2. Shuffle the indicated number of ziggurat tiles into a pile.
3. Give each player all 36 seeds of a single color.
4. Give each player the indicated number of gardeners (same color as the seeds).
5. Draw 4 tiles from the pile and place them face up. These form the initial tile pool.
6. The player with the most colorful shirt goes first.
7. Players take turns in clockwise order.

The number of ziggurat tiles to shuffle into the pile and the number of gardeners each player receives depend on the player count and on whether you are playing the full game (13 base tiles) or the quick game (10 base tiles):

Players	Full Game — Ziggurat Tiles	Full Game — Gardeners per Player	Quick Game — Ziggurat Tiles	Quick Game — Gardeners per Player
1	78	12	44	6
2	78	12	44	6
3	78	8	45	4
4	76	6	44	3

How to Win

The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. Each seed planted on the ziggurat is worth points. Seeds closer to the top are worth more points than seeds closer to the base. Seeds on tiles with panels are worth bonus points, as many as the flowers on the panel.

Player Turn at a Glance

On their turn, each player does the following, in order:

• Place: they must place a tile from the tile pool.
• Move: they may move a gardener.
• Plant: they may plant a seed. This may start a cascade!
• Draw: they must draw a new tile from the pile, if possible, and add it face up to the tile pool.

Player Turn in Detail

Place

Pick any tile from the tile pool and add it on top of two previously placed tiles on the ziggurat. Make sure the tile is placed upright, with the terrace on top (trees and plants on the tile will also help you orient it correctly).

Once you have placed a tile, you may move a gardener.

Move

Place a gardener from your hand onto any terrace on a base tile, or choose one of your gardeners already on the board. This is your planter.

Your guild's safety rules stipulate that a planter may move up to 3 times each turn, to avoid the risk of heat exhaustion. Each movement must be from the terrace of one tile to the terrace of an adjacent tile, and it must follow a valid pathway, up a staircase, down a staircase, or laterally through an archway.

Stopping when moving onto unplanted tile terraces

Gardening under the scorching Babylonian sun is thirsty business. Whenever your planter moves onto the terrace of an unplanted tile, they stop and dip their drinking gourd into the empty water pool, quenching their thirst, but losing any remaining movement in the process.

Boosting when encountering allied gardeners

Whenever your moving planter encounters an allied gardener on the terrace of any tile, unplanted or otherwise, they receive a refreshing drink of water straight from their ally's drinking gourd. This boosts your planter's morale and resets their movement, allowing them to move up to 3 times from that terrace (provided they don't stop for another drink along the way).

Plant

If your planter ends their movement on the terrace of an unplanted tile, they may plant a seed from your bank by placing it in the water pool in the middle of the tile.

If you didn't move a gardener this turn, you may select any gardener on an unplanted tile as your planter, and use them to plant in the water pool on that tile.

Cascading on connected lower-level pools

Seeds flow downhill: if the pool where you just planted connects to any lower-level pools via unbroken water channels, then you may plant on those pools in the same turn. The stream gently carries your seeds down to the lower pools, knocking any previously planted seeds out of the water and back into their owner's hand.

The only way you can replace a planted seed, including your own, is by cascading on it from above!

You may continue planting as far down as you want, splitting in either or both directions each time, as long as each subsequent pool is connected via an unbroken water channel. You cannot skip any connected pools, but you can cascade over your own seeds if need be.

Draw

Draw a tile from the top of the pile, if available, and add it face up to the tile pool.

Game End

The game ends when the last tile has been placed. The last player completes their turn and the game moves to the scoring phase.

Scoring

At the end of the game, each planted seed in row 1 is worth one point, in row 2 two points, in row 3 three points and so on and so forth. Seeds planted on tiles with flower panels are worth additional points equal to the number of flowers on the panel.

To calculate each player's score, place the scoring tiles next to the gardens, starting by placing scoring tile 1 next to the first row (not counting the base tiles), scoring tile 2 next to the second row, and so on and so forth, until all ziggurat rows have a corresponding scoring tile next to them.

For each player in turn, place one of their gardeners on the first scoring tile at position 0. Move the gardener up the scoring track as you count out the points from the seeds to keep track of that player's score. Don't forget to add the bonus points from the flower panels to the total!

The player with the most points is the winner, and may lead the other players on a victory lap through the garden (or nearest local park if preferable).

In case of a tie, the player with the most leftover seeds wins. If the players tie again, the player with the most flower panel bonus points wins.

Solo Rules

A solo game is played like a two-player game, between you and the king, with the following rule adjustments:

• The king has no gardeners, only seeds.
• Before starting the game, you must place each of your gardeners on a different base tile terrace.
• You then shuffle the ziggurat tiles into a pile.
• Draw 4 tiles from the pile and place them face up. These form your initial tile pool.
  • For a more challenging game, you may reduce your tile pool to 3 or 2 tiles.
• The king always plays second.
• The king always picks the top tile from the pile and adds it to the ziggurat.
  • If no more tiles are left in the pile, shuffle the tiles in the tile pool face down under the table and draw a random tile for the king.
• The king must plant a seed on the tile he has just placed.
• When placing a tile, both players must do the following:
  • The tile must be placed on top of two existing tiles and immediately to the right of the most recently placed tile.
  • If that is not possible, the tile must be placed on the leftmost position of the next row.
  • The ziggurat is therefore assembled one tile at a time, left-to-right starting from the first row.
• If the planting of a seed has the potential to trigger a cascade, players are obligated to take it.
  • Players must complete a full cascade, i.e. they must plant in all pools connected by the cascade.
  • If they don't have enough seeds for a full cascade, they must select those paths that will secure them the most points.
• The game ends like a normal game and the winner is once again the player with the highest score.
  • Can you exceed your previous highest score?