Spring has sprung! The weather is getting warmer, the garden is sprouting and producing, and the birds are making their presence known all around us here at The Cardboard Cantina. In honor of this newly arrived season, we are playing Herbaceous Sprouts from Pencil First Games. As they set about the task of planting a combination of flowers and herbs in a community garden, players compete to earn points in order to acquire the title of Head Gardener.

Herbaceous Sprouts is a card and dice drafting game for 1-4 players that made its debut on Kickstarter in May 2018. Focusing on set collection, the game was designed by Steve Finn. Finn is known for many of his other works including Biblios, The Little Flower Shop, and the upcoming Floriferous. The solo variant was designed by Keith Matejka with art by Beth Sobel. These three creators have come together with Eduardo Baraf to present players with a well-thought-out and enjoyable game set in the gardening world of Herbaceous.

Each game of Herbaceous Sprouts begins by setting the game board in the middle of the play area, handing each player a Wheelbarrow card and matching Sprout Tokens, and shuffling the Tool deck. Depending on the number of players, a set number of tool cards are returned to the box, leaving enough cards for a predetermined number of rounds. The Tool deck should be placed near the game board, but with enough room for a discard pile and at least 3-5 cards to be placed in a row next to it (for the “Tool Shed”). The Lemonade Card should be placed within easy reach of all players. If playing with less than four players, the Rival Sprout Tokens will also need to be set out. Lastly, beginning with the first player, each gardener will draw two seed dice from the dice bag, roll them, and place them in their Wheelbarrow.

The round begins with the Lead Gardener preparing the Tool Shed by drawing a number of cards equal to the number of players plus one. They will then fill any dice slots on those cards, one card at a time, by drawing and rolling seed dice from the bag. Once this is done, they will draft a card from the available choices in the tool shed along with any dice on the card. These dice are added to said player’s wheelbarrow, though they will need to discard dice if they end up with more than seven. Before finishing their turn, they will use any tools at their disposal and plant Sprout Tokens in garden spaces per their requirements. The first player to have planted a Sprout Token into each of the four quadrants of the garden will earn the Lemonade card, gaining an automatic two points at the end of the game. Play then passes clockwise until everyone has had a turn, at which point the Lead Gardener is reassigned and play continues until no cards can be drawn from the Tool deck to replenish the Tool Shed. It should be noted that in games using the Rival Sprout Tokens, the unchosen Tool card for each round will dictate where to place those tokens on the board.

Pencil First Games has done a terrific job of carrying over the spirit of Herbaceous into a unique and fun to play iteration of the genre. With several solid games having come out in recent years, gardening has become as prominent at the game table as in the actual garden. It was no surprise to us that Herbaceous Sprouts was another hit from this publisher. It implements its mechanics together flawlessly to create a really enjoyable game that everyone can enjoy. With a whole game taking roughly half an hour it can easily get a few plays alongside other game night contenders. The hardest part of this game is convincing more hardcore gamers to play a game about plants, but it’s hard to deny the solid mechanics that have been put into play here. If it sounds at all interesting we highly recommend picking up a copy of Herbaceous Sprouts from your local game store or online before your next gaming get-together.

All photos of Pencil First Games LLC product were taken and edited by Krista.