North Star Games - Paint The Roses Board Game - Alice in Wonderland Strategy Puzzle Board Game - 2 to 5 Players - Average Playtime 60 Minutes

Product Information

Every turn, together as a team you must guess at least one of these secret whim cards. You can't say what your card shows, but by carefully placing a new shrub tile into the garden (taken from those available in the Greenhouse) you are able to reveal clues, tokens that will show any matches between the arrangement in the garden and the secret whims each player holds in their hands. These cards represent the Red Queen’s whims regarding how she wants her garden arranged. Easy, Medium, and Hard cards.

Well, there’s the small matter of The Red Queen, who would be just as happy to chop your head off as she would see you arrange her garden correctly.Guessing is just that—making a guess as to what is on a player’s card. After that, depending whether the guess was correct or not, The Red Queen will move a little or a lot. The Red Queen starts with a single red rose under her. This means for each correct guess she’ll only move one space closer. For each incorrect guess, she’ll move twice that number, or two spaces. As players move around the board, there are set spaces where, once you pass over them, The Red Queen acquires another rose. And another rose. Two roses means two spaces for a correct answer and four for an incorrect guess; three roses means three spaces for a correct guess and six for an incorrect guess.

Ideally, you’re looking to place your tile such that it meets only one possible condition—an idea that’s harder than it may seem. Easy card example. Finally, the game and greenhouse boards are both double layered and they feel very sturdy. The overall graphic on them is pleasant but I personally feel the art here is a bit less detailed and less whimsical than the one used in the rulebook and on the expansion cards. Hard cards complicate things even further because they can be color to color; shape to shape; or color to shape. Hard card example. After a successful guess, players may also choose to guess another player’s card. If they do so, The Red Queen only moves once players either choose to stop guessing or when they make an incorrect guess. In addition, most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of targeted advertising. If you would like to find out more information, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/or http://www.youronlinechoices.com.The first impact of opening the box is amazing: the box is nicely done, sturdy, and with a great aesthetic. I especially love the rendering of the characters and the overall art by Jacqui Davis. Note: Players must still complete all phases of a turn, including guessing a Whim and moving the Queen, even on the turn the garden is fully filled. Set in the puzzling world of Alice in Wonderland, you and your friends are the newly appointed Royal Gardeners. You are working together to finish the palace grounds according to the whims of the Queen of Hearts. Use strategy, logic, and teamwork to finish the garden whilst staying one step ahead of the Queen, otherwise, the last thing you hear will be, "Off With Their Heads!" The strategic and challenging aspects of the game are its biggest selling point although I found I love how balanced it is. Paint the roses plays pretty much the same with 2 or with 5 players where 3 is probably the most balanced challenge. The additional players add the opportunity to make more points but also increase the noise and the difficulty to guess the whim cards so that the two aspects even out. In this example, the player has drawn a Hard card that features a heart-shaped hedge and purple roses. Placing a diamond-shaped hedge with a purple rose on the board next to two heart-shaped hedges, they also place two cubes on the tile.

This is a co-operative game to beat the Queen and fill the garden before she catches up and beheads you all! You’ll have three opportunities in the game to not make a guess. The Red Queen will still move as if you guessed correctly. Mix all the other tiles in the bag and draw four at random to be placed in the Greenhouse. Four random tiles make up the Greenhouse. Final Score: 4.5 Stars – Beautifully produced deduction game that has some more depth than what you see on the surface. Once the garden is full, the players win. If the Queen ever reaches the gardeners, their beheaded bodies are probably dragged into the bushes. All we’re told is that they didn’t win. When a new tile is placed you’ll add cubes for how many adjacent tiles match your whim card. Game Experience:

5. No Clue Tokens is a Great Clue!

The review copy NorthStar Games sent me is the deluxe edition which comes with the Escape the Castle expansion. Just take a look at the artwork: The six expansions (plus the Queen of Hearts cards) of the Deluxe Edition. Here, the tile with the spade-shaped hedge and the red rose has been placed adjacent to two tiles: another spade hedge with a red rose and a heart-shaped hedge with a red rose. The player who placed this tile has placed two cubes on the tile to indicate that the tile they placed contains two matches with the adjacent tiles. The first player will then choose one of the four tiles in the Greenhouse—featuring a combination of a hedge shape (spade, heart, diamond, club) and a color (red, pink, yellow, purple)—and place it adjacent to another tile on the board.

Have you ever wanted to be a gardener for a royal palace? Sounds like a pretty cush job, right? Well this particular palace, inhabited by the Queen of Hearts, has some pretty strict guidelines to follow. And if you don’t? Off with your heads! It also doesn’t hurt that the deluxe edition also has some nice minis and acrylic tiles that give everything a nicer presentation. At the end of each turn, two things will happen: players must make a guess and The Red Queen will move. As in, move closer to you with her axe raised.While a guess must be made at the end of each turn, that guess can be for any player’s card. The guess does not need to be for the active player’s card. Everyone draws a new Whim card if they need one. Don’t forget, only ONE player can have an Easy Whim card at any one time. To add more to the strategic aspect of the game, you need to remind that a player is not allowed to discuss their whim card. Contrary to a lot of other games, a very good player will not be able to take the lead every turn and they will need to patiently see the rest of the team fail or succeed without their help. After my first play of Paint the Roses I was a little put off by what I perceived to be the imperfect information the game insists you play with. Color to color was fine, but the Medium and Hard cards presented too many choices with no clear idea as to which choice was correct. This was, I think, more of an issue when playing the game with two players. Having the consequences of a wrong guess, along with the possibility of losing the game, resting solely with my guess, didn’t sit all that well with me. Although the trays look quite nice, I feel only the bottom tray adds some value to the game by organizing the cards and the expansions. All tiles could probably be better stored in the bag to be ready to be used instead of in the tray. Also, the tray does not have space for sleeved cards which for me is a big fail.