Turning Green with Verdant and the Art of Tending to Plants
Arrange rooms, items, and the right level of sunlight to grow a variety of lovely, thriving houseplants in Verdant.
Last one in the trilogy! Verdant is the newest game in this family, at least of right now, and I remembered quickly playing it when it arrived… But it didn’t quite grab me. Still, this one is beautiful and I was excited to dive back in! With so many different plants, there seemed to be lots of possibilities to create this checkerboard play area. Onward!
Game Overview
Game Name: Verdant
Publication Year: 2022
Designers: Many (5 Credited)
Artist: Beth Sobel
Publishers: Alderac Entertainment Group & Flatout Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Beginning with a fairly open area, a cozy living area takes shape with rooms and plants. Finding ways to align sunlight or collect bonuses adds verdancy, ensuring each plant thrives! Scenarios offer more difficult challenges, yet it’s all a relaxing world of tending to houseplants.
First Play
December 8, 2022
Complexity
2
Latest Play
December 9, 2023
Expansions
1
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
8
Play Time
20 Minutes
High Score
93
Game Area
30" x 18"
Low Score
64
All the Green Ever!
When the main goal is to enjoy the lush beauty of all the plants, it’s usually a good idea to lean into the theme… And this one accomplishes that with so much color!
In actuality, it’s more about every shade of green possible. Many indoor plants don’t flower, yet they come in a rainbow of greenery. Tons of variety!
Oddly, I have trouble with some of the room colors. With 2 blue hues, I sometimes mix these up or forget them.
At least the plants themselves have all sorts of details on their cards that get across the information at a glance!
Complete Living Space
Beautiful! I didn’t fare too poorly at first, and even recognized a matching plant… My snake plant! It needs a little more work to look this good, I suppose. Ha ha!
Although I enjoyed the spatial challenge, there was so much to keep track of. This didn’t feel as smooth as it could be, as there were a lot of layers to keep track of.
I lost the item tokens on the rooms, too, which made some choices hard to figure out… Along with scoring, too.
There were definitely some enjoyable moments! Yet after the other recent games, this felt a bit less streamlined.
So Much Thinking
The added components also made things even more complex in ways that felt like a lot of extra. And a mix of wooden and cardboard seemed a little off to me.
Each turn, I had to look at rooms, plants, sunlight, green thumb tokens, items, bonus actions, verdancy, scoring goals, available pots, and how my play area was built out.
With a market that cycled out, I had some control and could plan ahead to a certain extent. Still, it was a lot.
It wasn’t necessarily more complex, either. For me, it was all very much a lot to think about for not a great payoff.
Another Similar Space
Each play will progress a little bit differently, but I was kind of surprised how I felt like I saw it all after a couple of plays. Lots of cards, but not a lot of overall variety.
I loved how the pots aligned with the artwork to blend in so nicely, yet I had to keep them flipped over to show the victory points. Otherwise, they were a little easy to lose!
This one is lovely and pleasant in its own ways, which I appreciate. Maybe it won’t be a solo choice, though.
My husband enjoyed it 2-player quite a bit, so at least it has a good chance of returning to our table some more!
Visual Clarity and Reducing Confusion
Even as I type up this post, I keep getting confused about the room colors. The patterns might be easier to tell apart, but my mind just doesn’t believe that all 5 colors are there! I’m probably in the minority with an outlier complaint, yet this made it really difficult to play at times. I constantly had to count and re-count the room colors I already had.
Above, I can easily pick out the mismatched chair in the bottom right, but that cockatiel? I found myself taking extra time during scoring to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Even I don’t consider this an overly busy play area, but I struggled. Sometimes, blending in too much can hurt functionality over the use of contrasting colors or outlines.
Session Overview
Play Number: 7 & 8
Expansion: Verdant: Potless Plants Mini-Expansion
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Scenarios 1 & 2
Outcome: 76, 93 (2 Wins)
I considered these to be learning games, yet I still did pretty well! Looking ahead at the scenarios, some of the conditions seem a bit too restrictive for the issues I have with keeping track of everything. I may return to these solo someday, but I’m still glad I tried it out… And even found a way to have more fun with it multiplayer!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
9
Originality
Design & Theme
4
Quality
Components & Rules
8
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
8
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
4
+ Pros (Positives)
- All of the plant artwork is charming and lovely, particularly when paired with the flavor text on all of the cards.
- Finding interesting ways to ensure maximum verdancy is a fun sort of puzzle with arranging the play area.
- Scenarios work up the difficulty level over time to help teach the concepts before getting too challenging.
- The reference cards provide almost all of the information needed so that the rulebook is rarely needed.
- Arranging the rooms and plants in a checkerboard pattern offers some freedom and choices in the early rounds.
- Choosing when to take plants over rooms is an interesting strategic process that rewards experience over time.
– Cons (Negatives)
- There are a lot of elements to keep track of that don’t necessarily make the game more interesting or fun.
- Some of the components match too well, which can make item tokens blend in too easily to see from afar.
- Despite the large number of cards, there isn’t a lot of variety and most of the game is experienced after a few plays.
- With the more complex market and pots in the solo mode, the conveyor belt mechanic is a bit cumbersome.
Victory Conditions
Meet the Scenario Requirements
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Complete scenario 1.
Complete scenario 2.
Complete scenario 3.
Complete scenario 4.
Score at least 80 points.
Score at least 90 points.
Continue the Conversation
What do you think of Verdant? Have you managed to create the perfect combination of rooms and plants? Such a calm theme with excellent artwork! I think this one took a step in a more complex direction that might not work for me all that much, yet it’s going to be a lot of fun for the right audience. Glad I had a chance to play it solo and multiplayer!
Seems like the Game Overview section was copy/pasted from the Cascadia review.
Ah! You’re right! Sorry about that: Clearly, someone was not with it over here. This was been updated now and should be correct. Thanks for pointing it out!