Review: Butterfly Garden (Capstone Games)

Watching spring flowers begin to bloom outside feels deliciously appropriate since this month’s game focuses on flowers, gardens, blooms, and butterflies. (There’s also plenty of strategy and decision tension, but let’s enjoy the flowers while we can.)

At first blush, Butterfly Garden, a Reiner Knizia design published by Capstone Games, looks a little like a train game, with hexagonal tiles containing three paths that criss-cross in several designs. But those paths only carry butterflies that you and the other players are trying to coax into your gardens.

So breathe deeply and luxuriate in the fresh smell of the season as we see what’s growing among the top five things you need to know about Butterfly Garden.

Starting down the Path

#

Butterfly Garden uses a prescribed setup based on the number of players. The board and the map tiles (more about those in a moment) are hexagons. Players share six goal areas positioned along the board’s edges.

With two players, that means each player owns three of the six goals, but things get very different with three or four players. Three players each get one goal all to themselves and share the other two. When four players take part, everyone shares goal spaces with other players. Shared goals become strategically important when we start talking about point scoring.

Assembling (and Adoring) the Butterflies

#

The translucent plastic butterfly playing pieces in this game look gorgeous. You get three colors of butterflies: the common blues, the uncommon pinks, and the oh-so-rare purple. During setup, you follow the prescribed steps and put six blue butterflies on small fountain hexes at each corner of the game board. In the center of the board, you place the large fountain hex. It gets five pink butterflies and a lone purple one.

An identical set of twelve butterflies stays in the box to be used for scoring during play. (Yes, this ties into the “shared goals” I mentioned in the previous paragraph. No, I’m not going to tell you about it yet. Be patient!)

Beginning the Game

#

Each player selects a color screen and takes all of that color’s player tokens. Following the detailed setup instructions, each person put their player tokens in specific areas along the outer edge of the board. These tokens mark which players either own or share each garden entrance.

The hexagonal tiles go into the handy (if slightly too small) mixing bag. You stir them up in there and secretly draw two tiles for each player. Those tiles go behind the player’s color screen and become each player’s starting hand. The color screen also does double duty as the game’s quick reference cards for each player.

Placing Paths

#

On your turn, choose one of your two tiles and put it anywhere on the board. If there’s a butterfly next to any of the tile’s three paths, move the butterfly to the end of the path. That simple instruction about playing a tile and moving butterflies sits at the heart of the strategic tension in Butterfly Garden.

What do you want to accomplish with your tile? Do you play the tile for the short-term gain of snagging a low-point blue butterfly? Do you think long-term and position it in the open with its paths angled toward your garden entrances? Or do you eliminate some butterflies by connecting two paths so the butterflies meet and fly off together? So many choices!

One of the game’s very few special conditions involves the purple butterfly. It starts the game in the board’s center space with five pink butterflies. As players connect paths to the central tile, pink butterflies take wing. Once all the pink butterflies are gone, the purple butterfly will follow the last available path.

Turning Butterflies into Points

#

Every time a player completes a path and moves a butterfly to a garden entrance with their player token, they take the butterfly off the board and put it behind their color screen.

If the player shares that garden entrance with someone else, the other player takes an identical butterfly from the game box and puts it behind their color screen. After moving the butterfly, draw a replacement tile from the bag.

When the last butterfly leaves the board, the game ends immediately. Players total the points for their butterflies (1 for blue, 2 for pink, and 3 for purple). The highest total wins.

Verdict

#

With a simple premise, beautiful table presence, and killer strategic tension, Butterfly Garden won us over. We love it! Knizia wrings an unbelievable amount of strategy from the simple act of putting a tile onto the board.

The follow-the-steps setup process ensure a completely balance game every time you play. The setup also creates some interesting scoring decisions, especially in three and four player games. Butterfly Garden is one of those rare games that’s fast to learn, easy to play, and still hurts your brain a bit (but in a very positive way).

By the way, the game requires an “assemble all the pieces” step that takes about 10 minutes. On the positive side, you only do this once. We recommend sliding two empty cardboard sprues underneath the box insert so the insert fits tightly against the lid.