A Journey to Sanssouci: Admiring a Scenic Garden
Build up a scenic garden to welcome visitors to view the different features in a very orderly fashion with Sanssouci.
Time for another delightful walk through the gardens of Sanssouci! I was thrilled when I found a copy of the original edition a few years ago, and I often forget how wonderful gameplay is. Talk about a relaxing little stroll through nature! In honor of making this game even better, I knew just who to invite for a little walk down these columns of tiles…
Game Overview
Game Name: Sanssouci
Publication Year: 2013
Designer: Michael Kiesling
Artists: Julien Delval and Harald Lieske
Publisher: Ravensburger
Solo Mode: Unofficial Solo Variant
With careful tile selections based on cards, a garden slowly grows. Visitors travel down the lanes to see more and more features, yet there is an interesting balancing act when it comes to scoring well. Every garden is a beautiful arrangement, but visitors must be impressed by the end!
First Play
September 23, 2022
Complexity
2
Latest Play
July 25, 2024
Expansions
0
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
10
Play Time
15 Minutes
High Score
93
Game Area
24" x 16"
Low Score
51
The New Noblemen
At last, I had a collection of very tiny Calico Critters in fancy outfits who could put the standard noblemen to rest!
Just setting this up with these adorable animals was enough to send me into cuteness overload mode. Ha ha!
I didn’t have to deal with too many mishaps with anyone falling over, either. The cat near the left was a bit catty, though, knocking over the goat a few times. Goodness!
Getting into the rules again was much simpler than I thought it would be, too. This is a very calm and relaxing game with a low-stakes puzzle that’s simply charming.
Making Choices
Turns consist of using 1 of 2 drawn cards to pick up a tile on offer. This is either based on the feature itself, or the color of the specific row. Ah, but there’s another option…
The grand sometimes-wild happens when a feature isn’t on offer, like this statue. That card then becomes a wild, which can be quite powerful. It’s nice to set those up!
I loved the simplicity of the solo mode, too: A single tile was discarded after each turn, adding a little uncertainty.
My little garden started to fill up and the Calico Critters slowly moved down the lanes, remarking on the sights.
A Delightful Journey
What a fun time! Plotting out some of the routes helped me get some of these visitors down to the lower rows, which granted more and more victory points.
I played with the expansion board, which simply added a little more strategic thought with bonuses and penalties for placing tiles in certain spots. Very nice addition!
It all came back to me as I moved these visitors down, careful to sometimes hold them up before the lowest row.
My scores looked pretty decent, too, and I loved seeing the different kinds of choices I could make. So delightful!
Specializing a Little Bit
I tried out a number of strategies as I wrapped my head around the nuances of final scoring. Specializing in some features seemed to help quite a bit. Look at the arches!
This also made me laugh a little bit about my visitor to the trees, who barely stepped inside the grounds. Not good enough by a mile, or she just found a cozy spot at the gate.
Scoring bonus cards provided some ideas of how to work on certain features, although I never maximized them.
Each play was very relaxing and engaging, and I was surprised to see how little time had passed before the end!
Figuring Out the Right Kind of Solo Variant
Although this isn’t an official solo-friendly game, I’ve enjoyed the unofficial solo variant from the beginning! It isn’t easy to create solo modes, but equally important is the ability to figure out just what’s being offered. Some variants create robust solo opponents with random actions to simulate a human player, and others reduce future options.
I tend to enjoy the simpler solo variants when a game isn’t designed for a single player. However, it also depends on the game. Sometimes, managing another player area is worth it for more complex games where it’s vital to simulate an opponent. Other times, as in this case, a relaxing game simply needs to ensure I can’t do everything I want to do!
That becomes the challenge: Making choices and knowing that what I want might disappear. It’s a very subtle sort of tension that doesn’t feel like pressure, but a puzzle to solve. So much fun, and this solo variant is so simple to use!
Session Overview
Play Number: 7-10
Solo Mode: Unofficial Solo Variant
Play Details: Expansion Board
Outcome: 78, 93, 91, 69 (2 Wins & 2 Losses)
So pretty! I loved admiring the little details on all of the tiles. Even those of the same type have different versions, like these little pavilions or statues. There are a lot of nice touches that make this one so much fun, and I was thrilled to bring along my Calico Critters! It isn’t easy to stay excited about all of the cozy games in my collection, yet this one continues to deliver an experience worth visiting!
%
10 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
10
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
7
Quality
Components & Rules
9
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
6
+ Pros (Positives)
- Gaining a temporary wild card through good planning or pure luck is an exciting part of nearly every play.
- The artwork is charming and beautiful with tiny, intricate details that help make every tile stand out.
- Placing tiles and moving noblemen offer nuanced strategies around building paths and maximizing scoring.
- Gameplay moves along quickly with a simple solo variant that removes tiles with practically no extra work.
- Everything is high quality with some of the thickest cardboard tiles and easy-to-understand iconography.
- A very calm, relaxing atmosphere comes through the choices and theme of creating a garden for visitors.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Luck plays a role at times and can spoil some plans, although this isn’t too prominent with gardener tiles.
- Although there are unique boards and expansion boards, they don’t necessarily add a lot of variety into the mix.
- Some of the scoring card combinations can be much easier or harder to earn a lot of victory points from.
- It’s a very minor detail, but it makes more sense to draw tiles from a bag than set them up in neat little stacks.
Victory Conditions
Score 90+ Points
- Overall Goal Progress 50%
Goals and Milestones
Complete at least 2 columns.
Score at least 90 points.
Complete at least 2 rows.
Score at least 100 points.
Continue the Conversation
What do you like about Sanssouci? Do you have a personal best score you achieved? This one is just a delight, and I’m so glad I brought it back to my table! Calico Critters can make any solo game better for me, but this one still stands on its own. A lovely theme and simple mechanics are too much to resist… Much like an adorable Calico Critter. Ha ha!
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