Review: Topiary (Renegade)

Gazing across a garden of sculpted plants known as topiary brings joy to most any heart. In fact, it even entertained hearts during the days of ancient Rome. Those who crafted such gardens were known as topiarus, but it was the great orator Cicero who bestowed the name opus topiarii on the lush green sculptures themselves.

Of course, history also tells us that Rome was known for backstabbing, treachery, and a general theme of conquering those around them.

Surprisingly, Topiary from Renegade Game Studios weaves both of these themes together into cute yet cutthroat strategy game. Don’t let the dinosaur bushes distract you: This game packs some pretty sharp pruning shears, so you’d better know how to use them if you want to win.

Let’s look at the top five things you need to know on your way to victory in the world of competitive garden viewing.

Fast to Learn, Quick to play

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When we unpacked Topiary, we found one double-sided page of rules. That’s always a good sign.

Learning the game took only a few minutes. Our first few plays lasted about 10 minutes each, separated by three minute tile shuffling sessions. Topiary definitely hit our “let’s play one more time” buttons thanks to a fun mix of skill, strategy, and luck.

Lots of Replay from these Tiles

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The game comes with 40 plant sculpture tiles numbered one to five, each showing one of eight adorable topiary shapes. A few random tiles sit out every game because you build a square 25-tile board with all but the center tile face-down and then give each player three tiles for their hands.

That random element adds a dash of luck to the game’s skill system, giving it strong replayability.

Choose Your Action Well

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Each turn, players put a visitor around the edge of the garden, looking down a row, column, or a diagonal line. What those visitors see scores you points at the end of the game. (More about that in a moment.)

After placing your visitor, you can choose to pick up any face-down tile in that visitor’s line of sight, add the tile to your hand, and then play it or any other tile from your hand into that space on the board. You can use this action to improve one (or maybe more) of your visitor’s scores, go defensive by playing an out-of-numeric-order tile in front of an opponent’s visitor, or sometimes accomplish both at once.

Limited number of turns

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We really liked the tension built into the act of placing your visitors because of the limited number of pieces you get to play.

In a two player game, each player starts with eight visitors. That number drops to six for three players and only five for four players.

Those strict limits turn Topiary into a surprisingly strategic challenge as players try to optimize each visitor’s placement and potential points.

Scoring at the End

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Another delightful twist to the game comes from the fact that all scoring happens at the end of the game, after all players finish putting their visitors into place. Although you can estimate your score as you play, you really need to focus on picking strategic sight lines for your visitors and letting the points fall where they may.

You score points in three ways. First, each visitor earns points for the row, column, or diagonal line they’re facing. They get points for each tile they can see, from one point for the smallest bush to five for the biggest. But the tiles only score in ascending order, so if your visitor faces a five tile first, his view is blocked so he only earns five points.

You also earn bonus points if one of your visitors sees multiple sculptures with the same theme, like whales, dinosaurs, and swans. Finally, the tiles left in your hand score points if any of your visitors can see a higher numbered bush of the same type. That means level five tiles never score in your hand, so get them into play as soon as possible!

The Verdict

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Our table doesn’t see a lot of games that involve direct competition (aka “screw your neighbor”), but we enjoyed Topiary enough to add it to our regular playing rotation.

We loved the tension from the limited number of plays that could both earn points and sabotage your opponents’ positions. The game’s three scoring opportunities took the sharpest edges off of its “screw your neighbor” mechanics and maintained the game’s family-friendly experience.

Still, every group reacts differently to direct competition games. If your people love them, then they’ll love this one. If you aren’t sure, give Topiary a try at your friendly local game store. Those charming dinosaur sculptures may well win you over.

BIO

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John Kaufeld often frets about whether the word “meeple” has a proper plural form. This rarely worries Isaac Kaufeld at all. Recently, the two of them threatened to launch a father and son podcast about gaming, movies, and family life called “And Maybe a Lemon.” Who knows what might happen next?