Game Review: Aqua Garden

 

The week I got my new job, I also backed my very first Kickstarter. As a game where you take fish meeples and make aquariums, well I wasn't not going to back it. A couple weeks ago, it arrived! Now, I am going to share this beautiful game with you.

Aqua Garden by uchibacoya

The aim of the game is to create the best aquarium in town, using the available resources. It plays up to four, in addition to having a solo mode. (Always love a game with solo modes, because Human doesn't always want to play with me.) Over the course of three or four rounds, depending on how many players there are, you gather fish from the market or sea board and place them into your aquarium. At the end of the game these fish are worth different amounts of points which you tot up. Whoever has the most points, has the best aquarium. Winner, winner!

There are more ways of gaining points, too. Placed by the central board, are four goal cards. If any one of your tanks meets the conditions set out on the goal card - ie. two seahorses and a shark - you can claim up to five points at end game. However, fish cannot be placed willy nilly. Each fish uses a different amount of oxygen and the tanks only come with four. This is where seaweed comes in. At any point during your turn, you may purchase seaweed from the seaboard for two coins. Seaweed bumps your tank's oxygen up by two, allowing for more exciting combinations of fish to match the goal cards.

Other placement rules include not being able to place sharks with smaller fish (for obvious reasons) and sea turtles can only be placed in a tank with seaweed. Additional, fish can only be placed in tanks next to your employee who moves across a series of patches each turn. They can move up to three spaces, really giving you brain a workout as you try to figure out their best placement.

To earn money, you put on feeding events every time your employee moves passed the feeding event icon. Passing over this automatically gets you one coin. If your event tanks are filled with the same combination of fish as your event card, then you get an extra coin for every time it occurs. For example, if I had the shark event card, requiring a shark and coral in my event tanks, and I had three sharks and two corals, I would get two additional coins. By the next time I go round, I have an additional coral in my tank, so it would be three extra coins.

The central board is how most fish are supplied. It is broken up in to five segments of three fish tiles and an advertising tile. The player at the back moves first, choosing either a fish or to gain income by advertising your aquarium. Advertising gains you one coin per specified fish type and you are free to select any of the four options - whichever gets you the most money! When collecting fish from a tile, you ove your owner meeple onto your destination and take all the fish from the space. Usually it is only the one fish, but in later rounds when the board gets refilled, unclaimed fish remain. You cannot move your owner onto a space another player has chosen.

This process repeats as you work your way around the board, until you return to the starting line. When all players are back, you move the round tracker on one and go again! This happens until all the rounds have been completed and you tot up your scores.

My Thoughts

It will come as no surpirse that I funking love this game. The theme is right up my street, the artwork is incredibly beautiful, and it is delightfully uncompetitive. Weird thing to point out for a game, but I enjoy the games where you focus more on your own board rather than sabotaging the other players. I am very uncompetitive by nature.

This game strikes the right balance between putting your brain to work trying to figure out what you're going to place where and how you're going to achieve it, whilst also being quite relaxing. As you aren't actively competing against the other players and can't interfere with their board (beyond picking the fish they want), it is very chill. 

Every game I have played so far has been really different too - and I haven't even gotten to the advanced rules yet. Nor the expansions. Playing solo is wildly different to playing two player. Playing three is different still. And playing four player really changes the gameplay and tactics! So replayability is never going to be an issue.

Then there are the expansions and advanced rule which add new fish and ways to score at the end game. I am very excited to try them out!

Of course, one of the things I love best about this game is that it plays solo. Sometimes - a lot of times - I want to play board games and Human doesn't fancy it. Having solo modes means I can crack out a game or two, and he doesn't feel obligated to play. Plus, it also means I can have a play through and get to grips with the rules before I bring it to the table at games night. 

 

Any Flaws?

Nothing major. It is fiddly to set up and dismantle, with all the fish meeples. But that is just a case of working out the best way to organise the game pieces. Already, on Carole's suggestion, I have separated out the pieces you remove when playing 2 or 3 player games. That's one less thing!

The only other thing to mention was that it was designed and made by a Japanese man. In some places, you can tell. You don't come first, you come firth. It's no real issue though, it provides a good giggle, and the rest of the rules are written well enough that you know what you're doing.

That or I completely misinterpretted them and I am playing entirely wrong. It still works though!

Overall

Overall, I am very happy with this game. It was worth the wait - the Brexit blackhole and worldwide shipping issues may have tested my patience, but that's good for me. This game is going to be one I bring to the table a lot, and so far everyone I have taught it to has enjoyed it as much as I have! Plus, all those expansions to play with! There are sea otters and penguins! 

Watch this space for more game reviews, I have a growing collection of games that I love to talk about. And if anyone has any suggestions for games I should try, do drop a comment. And shout up if you want to try Aqua Garden. I will bring it over. In a flash.