Gamehelpgardensofmars

Goal

Gardens of Mars is an abstract strategy game for 2–5 players designed by Néstor Romeral Andrés. Move your Martian gardener across the red Martian sands by rolling and drafting dice, cultivate clusters of exotic flowers, and advance furthest along the perimeter scoring track to win.

Components

Component	Icon	Description
Flowers		60 flowers (10 each of Blue, Green, Red, Yellow, White, Gray; Orange/Purple in variants) held in player reserves and planted onto hex spots.
Martians		Martian gardeners (Ali, Bob, Bot, Marty, Robby). Each player guides a Gardener on the board and a matching Scoring Martian on the perimeter track.
Peaks		Mountain obstacles (in Peaks variant) that block line of sight and gardener movement.
Board	—	91-hex garden surrounded by a numbered perimeter scoring track (0 to 50).
Dice	—	Up to 6 standard six-sided dice drafted each round to dictate movement distances.

Setup

• Flowers: Distributed evenly from the bag into secret/public player reserves (2P: 30 flowers each; 3P: 20; 4P: 15; 5P: 12).
• Martians: Each player receives a Martian character ( Ali, Bob, Bot, Marty, or Robby).
• In turn order, each player clicks an empty board hexagon (excluding the central space) to place their Gardener. Scoring Martians start on space 0 of the perimeter track.

Your turn

Turns proceed in anticlockwise order. On your turn, execute the following steps:

1. Rolling dice (when table pool is empty)

• If no dice remain on the table, count the number of hexes adjacent to your Gardener that contain no flowers (the central hex counts as empty).
• Roll that many dice (up to 6) into the common pool. If your gardener is completely surrounded by flowers (0 empty adjacent spaces), no dice are rolled and your turn ends.

2. Moving and planting

• Select an available die from the table pool.
• Move your Gardener in a straight line along any of the 6 hex directions by exactly the die value. No turning is permitted.
• Movement restrictions:
  • The central space cannot be occupied, but may be passed through.
  • You cannot pass through or land on another player's Gardener.
  • Peaks (if enabled) cannot be entered or traversed.
• Outcome on arrival:
  • Empty hex: You must plant a flower from your reserve. You immediately score points equal to the total size of the connected group of that color (1 point for an isolated flower, 2 for a group of 2, etc.). Your Scoring Martian advances along the track.
  • Existing flower or no legal moves: If you land on an existing flower or have no valid moves, you take a -1 point penalty (Scoring Martian retreats 1 space, minimum 0).
• The drafted die is discarded.

3. Bonus turns

• Last Flower: If you plant the 10th and final flower of a color, you immediately receive a bonus turn if an unused die remains on the table.
• Track Leapfrog & 25+ Landing: When advancing on the scoring track, landing on an occupied space jumps forward to the next open space. Landing on a space above 25 occupied by another player's marker grants an extra turn (if dice remain).

End of the game and scoring

The game ends immediately when:

• Any player runs out of flowers in their reserve.
• All players are unable to move or roll dice (stalemate).

The player furthest along the perimeter scoring track wins!

• Tiebreaker: The tied player who planted the most total flowers breaks ties.

Controls on BGA

• Dice Selection: Click any available die in the dice pool to see valid destinations.
• Moving: Valid destinations show a dashed orange highlight ring. Click a highlighted spot to move.
• Planting: A flower picker dialog displays available colors from your reserve. Select a flower to stage your placement, then click the blue Confirm button (or red Undo to change choice).
• Tooltips: Hover over any spot, track space, or Martian to view cluster point previews and coordinate info.