Gamehelpgardensofmars

Overview

Gardens of Mars is an abstract strategy game for 2–5 players designed by Néstor Romeral Andrés and published by nestorgames. Martian gardeners plant flowers on a 91-hex hexagonal board representing the red sands of Mars, attempting to grow connected clusters of flowers and score the most points.

Components

• A hexagonal board of 91 hexes with an integrated perimeter scoring track (spaces 0 to 50).
• 60 flowers across 6 colors: Blue, Yellow, White, Gray, Red, and Green (10 of each).
• 6 six-sided dice.
• Martian figures (Ali, Bob, Bot, Marty, Robby): each player controls a Gardener on the board and a matching Scoring Martian on the perimeter track.

Setup

• Flowers are distributed randomly among players from the bag:
  • 2 players: 30 flowers each
  • 3 players: 20 flowers each
  • 4 players: 15 flowers each
• Each player is assigned a Martian character (Ali, Bob, Bot, Marty, Robby). In turn order, each player clicks an empty hexagon on the board (except the central space) to place their Gardener. Their Scoring Martian begins on space '0' (next to space 1) of the perimeter scoring track.

Turn Structure

The game is played in turns in anticlockwise order. Each player does the following in order:

1. Rolling Dice (if table pool is empty)

• If there are no available dice on the table, the player counts the number of spaces adjacent to their Gardener that contain no flowers (the central space counts as having no flowers).
• The player takes that many dice from the case (up to 6) and rolls them into the pool.
• If the gardener is completely surrounded by flowers (0 empty adjacent spaces), no dice are rolled and the player's turn ends immediately.

2. Moving and Planting

If there is at least one die available on the table:

• The player selects one of the available dice.
• They move their Gardener in a straight line along any of the 6 directions by exactly the die's value (no turning).
• Restrictions:
  • The central space cannot be occupied (landed on), but can be passed through.
  • A Gardener cannot pass through or land on a space already occupied by another Gardener.
  • If playing with the Peaks variant, Peaks (gray cones) cannot be entered or passed through.
• Outcomes:
  • Cannot Move / Land on existing flower: If the Gardener lands on an existing flower or has no valid legal moves, the player loses 1 point (scoring Martian moves back 1 position, minimum 0).
  • Empty Hexagon: If the Gardener stops on an empty hexagon, the player chooses and plants any one flower from their remaining reserve. They immediately score points equal to the total size of the connected group of that same color (e.g. 1 point for a single isolated flower, 2 points for the 2nd connected flower, 5 points for the 5th, etc.).
• The used die is discarded back into the case.

3. Extra Turns (Variants)

• Last Flower: If a player plants the 10th and final flower of a given color in play across the garden, they receive an extra turn immediately, provided at least one unused die remains on the table.
• Scoring Track Leapfrog & 25+ Landing: On the perimeter track, if a Scoring Martian would land on a space occupied by another player's Martian, it advances forward in the same direction to the next unoccupied space. Furthermore, if a player moves their Scoring Martian to a space above 25 points that is already occupied by another Martian, they earn an extra turn (if an unused die remains).

Game End

The game ends immediately when:

• Any player runs out of flowers in their reserve.
• None of the players can move or roll any dice (rare stalemate).

The player with the highest score wins! Tiebreaker: player with the most total flowers planted breaks ties.

Credits

Game design: Néstor Romeral Andrés. Published by nestorgames. BGA implementation: Jayadev Haddadi.