Board Game Arena

Hello all,
I've been playing Queen's garden for a few years now and have played with quite a few people. I found myself quite 'wrong-footed' when trying out the BGA version, when it would not allow me to pay to place tiles with a mixture of different types of tiles. For example, paying for a dark green 5 tile, with a dark green 6, a dark green 3, a joker and a purple 5 tile. This being the way myself and those I have played with have always performed payment.

I am aware that the rule book states that discarded tiles must be either - the same patterns but of different colours to the placed tile, or - the same colour but of different patterns to the placed tile. My interpretation of this was that payment tiles had to fall into one of these categories in order to qualify as payment tiles, rather than all having to belong, exclusively, to one or other of these categories.

Having searched online I can see there are a couple of forum discussions that do agree with the current BGA interpretation of the rules, however I cannot see anything, as clear as that, in the rules themselves.

I am a bit confounded as to how the game would ever see high levels of scoring if the rules are used as this BGA version applies them. The tabletop version has score markers that allow scores in excess of 180, (and also over 240 although I have never managed to get that high). I struggle to see how any score would get anywhere near that high using the BGA model, as it is a challenge to collect enough tiles to place 5s or 6s in the version I have been playing, let alone with this as an additional constraint. Which makes me question why the game designers would have included those components in the original game, if this was how the rules were meant to be interpreted. The only realistic way to score that highly is to double score some of those higher value tiles, something which seems much less likely with these restrictions.

I am by no means an authority on this game, just an enthusiastic player, but I'd like to put it out there that possibly this version is more limited and as a result has less playability than the version where mixtures, of the two types of payment tiles, are permitted. I'd just like to see what other players think at this stage, also if anyone else has been playing the same way as myself and my friends? Having mused over this unexpected difference with my most regular Queen's garden opponent, we won't be changing our approach in tabletop games, but are feeling quite sad that we can't replicate this via BGA for the times we aren't able to get together in the non-digital world.

Looking forward to reading other people's thoughts on this

pg 4 of the rule book:

The important part is “Pay the cost according to ONE of the following options:” followed by the two alternatives.

The first option is:

All discarded hexagons have the same pattern but different colours.

The second option is:

All discarded hexagons have the same colour but different patterns.

Because the rules specifically say “ONE” and then separate the options with “OR,” I read this as requiring the player to choose one payment method or the other. You can't combine tiles from both categories to make up the cost.

So, for example, if you want to place a dark green 5, you would need either:

Four other 5s in different colours, or
Four other dark green tiles with different patterns.

You could use jokers as substitutes within whichever of those two payment methods you've chosen,
but you couldn't, for example, use two other 5s plus two other dark green tiles to make the payment.

Your interpretation—that the discarded tiles simply need to individually qualify under either category—would effectively turn the rule into a mix-and-match payment system. If that were intended, the rule might say something like “each discarded hexagon must either…” rather than “according to ONE of the following options.”

Hope that helps.

as a side note for our home games following these rules a winner regularly scores 150-180 and our top score recorded is 224

BGA My - 119 games my average score 141
All BGA - winners average - 130

My top score on BGA was 233