It’s been just over a year since we reviewed the absolutely fantastic Vicious Gardens from Pops & Bejou Games, and after the absolutely abhorrent drought period we’ve had, it seems fitting that we’re now back to discuss the Chaos Critters & Fancy Plants expansions for it.
Before I start, I’m going to assume that you’ve played the core version of the game, but if not then here’s a quote from our review where I stated: “Vicious Gardens is absolutely beautiful, all of the artwork and iconography is fantastic — even the manual is constructed to imitate an almanac. I love the clever use of fonts and the puns that populate every pocket of (non-instructional) text. The manual appears daunting as a six page document, but barely a page of that is instructions, and it’s incredibly carefully written and constructed. I can’t begin to state how refreshing it is to have a clear manual in a board game.”
With you all caught up on the reason that you’d keep coming back to Vicious Gardens, let’s talk about what the combo-box of Chaos Critters & Fancy Plants adds to the gameplay of this beautiful botanical board game.
Fancy Plants adds in 7 Fancy Plants Cards which give new end-of-game goals to the gardeners. These cards are shuffled before play, with one given to each of the players before play. These are hidden objectives that award eight bonus points at the end of the game if they’re successfully completed and they’re all subtle enough that most players won’t get smart to what you’re working toward. Cards include the likes of Afflictum Terribellsium, which rewards you if you finish the season with a pestilence affecting your garden, and Grandflora Petalosia which rewards you if you have the largest flower plot at the end, even if it has an affliction on it.
Chaos Critters adds two different types of components into play: Critter Cards get added to gardens in play and work as a new type of modifier. Meanwhile the new Critter Victory cards slot in alongside the existing ones and can change up gameplay with rewards such as gaining he end of season token regardless of whoever concludes it, or the chance to redraw a plant from your hand each turn. The critters are especially fun, with amazing artwork that matches the core game but have game-changing results such as blocking victory card bonuses or drawing fewer cards.
The fact that the Chaos Critters & Fancy Plants expansion contains only 15 cards, but they can change the core game so much simply underlines exactly how well balanced Vicious Gardens was when it launched.
As a review, there’s not much to add. If you really enjoyed the core game then adding these critters and extra objectives into the core game can only make it better.
Vicious Gardens: Chaos Critters & Fancy Plants is available now, including from Amazon.
