Pegasus Spiele | £32.99 | Tile-laying | 1-4 players | 60 minutes | Age: 8+ | pegasus.de
Upon first glance, it’s very tempting to compare Uwe Rosenberg’s Cottage Garden with the designer’s acclaimed family title Patchwork from a few years ago. After all, both prominently feature polyomino pieces picked from a central pool (surrounded by a ring of tiles) and carefully positioned on individual player grids. There’s even a comparison to be made in the quaint theming of both games; quilt weaving and flower arranging being the kind of gentle pastime traditionally associated with older generations, but now also blooming in popularity among hip twenty-somethings.
Make no mistake, however: Cottage Garden is far more than a greenfingered, four-player Patchwork. Yes, you are still attempting to maximise the placement of the vibrantly-illustrated pieces but, contrasted with the former’s obsession with plugging every gap on a single board, Cottage Garden encourages actical placement to leave flower pots and cloche uncovered to earn bonus points - fill every space and you’ll be able to exchange the completed flower bed for a new one. Cat tokens can be cashed in to fill a single square after a piece is laid (one-space flower pots can be used to plug a gap the cost of not gaining a flower tile), with the adorable felines earned as players track their flower pot and cloche points.