Our Review

Gardens for Courtiers

Sanssouci

Design the Emperor's Garden

In a game of Sanssouci you try, contracted by Emperor Friedrich the Great, to design a magnificent garden, in which noblemen can feel at ease and at home.

The noblemen should be enticed to promenade in the garden that you created and thus provide the reward for your work.

Sanssouci is a very simple placement game, in which a player chooses one garden tile from those tiles available in a display and puts it into his own garden, of course on the best possible slot. Then he lets a nobleman walk along the garden parts that are already laid out and thus tries to win victory points in the further course of the game.

The box cover features, in the foreground of the picture, two noblemen who take a look at a plan for a garden, in the background a lot of gardeners are busy with creating a garden in beautiful castle grounds.

In the box we find a board, four individual gardens for players, 36 noble men, 81 garden tiles, 90 cards and four scoring markers as well as four expansion boards.

Each player is given a garden board and tasked with creating a most efficient and beautiful garden. Cards in the game are four victory point cards, nine order cards, 5 replacement cards, not used in the game, and 72 cards for playing.

Garden boards feature nine columns and each column has six rows. In the first row of each garden there are already garden objects on show in each of the columns. Those Garden objects are also pictured on the garden tiles, there are: Labyrinth, Statue, Pavilion, Figurine, Staircase, Fountain, Rose Bow, Spice Snail and Vines. All those tiles must be acquired by players and placed into their gardens.

In relation to the number of players garden tiles are laid out face-down on the eight slots provided on the main board. In the middle of the board there are 10 slots on which you place on garden tile each, but open-faced. Those ten slots are divided into five colored areas.

At the start each player is given 18 playing cards, one victory point card, nine noblemen and four scoring markers in his chosen color. Then the nine order cards are shuffled and each player is dealt two such cards face down; he looks at them secretly and then lays them out face-down.

The order cards show garden objects which a player should place in his personal garden.

Each player shuffles his 18 playing cards, stacks them face down and then draws the top two cards. The victory point card is also placed on the table. If you are the active player you play one card in your turn: In case of a color card the card shows two different colors and enables you to take garden tiles from the main board that are placed on slots that show the two colors of the card. So you always have a choice from four garden tiles. If the card you played show a garden object instead, you can choose a garden tile that pictures such a garden object.

Should there be no suitable garden tile available from the display you can take any tile of your choice. Then you place the tile in your garden. The color of the slot where you took the tile from, determines the row in your garden, the object on the tile determines the column. You must place the newly taken garden tile on the slot corresponding to those coordinates. When the spot is already occupied you turn the tile over and shows a gardener. This gardener can now be placed into the same row, horizontally, or the same column, vertically, onto a free slot.

After placing the garden tile or maybe a gardener you can now move one of your nobleman. You must pay attention to the fact that the noblemen can only move across tiles that are already placed in your garden. During his movement a nobleman may leave the column in which he was placed at the start of the game, but at the end of his move he must be back in this column and at least one row underneath his starting position. A nobleman may also never end his move on a slot with a gardener, but he can move across slots that are occupied by a gardener or another nobleman.

As a nobleman must, at the end of his move, be at least one row beneath his previous position, it is obvious that a nobleman can only be moved up to a maximum of six times. Usually it is the case, that he has already reached the bottom row after two or four movements only.

For the movement of a nobleman you always score a number of victory points equal to the number of the row in which the nobleman is positioned at the end of his movement.

Then the next player does his turn.

When a player has finished his turn, he draws the top card from the stack of his cards. Before the next player starts his turn, you fill the gap on the main garden board that was created by the tile you took, with a new tile.

The game ends as soon as all players have played all their cards and have completed all their turns. The game is won by the player who acquired most victory points by scoring 10 victory points for each completely filled horizontal row and 5 victory points for each completely filled vertical column. Then each player scores points for those two tiles that he hopefully has managed to lay out in his garden, showing the two garden object depicted on the two order cards. The victory points for those tiles are equal to the number of the row in which you placed the tile. SO it would make sense to try and place those tiles into row 6 of your garden.

My conclusion: Sanssouci features very simple basic rules and is therefore very well suited for families. The different garden objects in connection with colors and cards provide a very varied game that definitely does not get boring very often.

Of course, it is very rare that the optimum garden tile is on display and still available for you, but this is a circumstance that all players have to cope with during the 18 rounds of the game. Sometimes your two cards in hand force you to take a tile that you really do not want at all. In such a case it is important to create a good basic situation for the next rounds, so that you can move your noblemen well to earn you victory points.

For strategists it is important to keep an eye on the end of the game, as it is very important to close gaps in the garden in the last rounds, as complete rows and columns earn many victory points.

Sanssouci is a nice simple placement game which is easy to learn and that can be played very quickly. It is especially suited and recommendable to casual gamers, but even experienced players can be lured into a game and so it can provide an entertaining evening for those playes, too. Due to the short playing time and the nice, varied flow of the game it usually happens that several games are played in a row.

The rules are written very concisely and very clear and allow for easy and quick access to the game.

Actually, the game offers now new mechanisms as to game technique, but can be recommended due to the simple play and the different elements in the game. The graphic design is magnificent and especially the garden objects carry across the ambience very nicely. It is fun to place those objects and to create a beautiful park or garden.

As regards to mechanisms it is an abstract placement game with a small element of movement, in which the topic was beautifully implemented.

Maria Schranz

Players: 2-4

Age: 8+

Time: 45+

Designer: Michael Kiesling

Artist: Harald Lieske

Price: ca. 35 Euro

Publisher: Ravensburger 2013

Web: www.ravensburger.de

Genre: Tile placement

Users: For families

Version: de

Rules: de

In-game text: no

Comments:

Simple basic rules, very clearly structured

Very good family game

Very beautiful, attractive design

Compares to:

Der Prestel Schloßgarten

Other editions:

Currently none

My rating: 5

Maria Schranz:

The topic has been beautifully implemented, mechanisms and components render a neat product that is easy to learn and easy to play, ideal for families or casual gamers

Chance (pink): 3

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 1

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0