Arboretum

About this board game

Arboretum is a strategy card game for 2–4 players that plays in about 30 minutes, combining set collection, tile-laying, and hand management as players create beautiful garden paths.

The deck contains 80 cards in ten colors, with each color representing a different tree species. Every color includes cards numbered 1 through 8, while the number of colors used depends on the number of players. Each player begins with seven cards and builds an arboretum by placing cards on the table.

On every turn, draw two cards from the deck or from one or more discard piles. Then lay one card into your arboretum and discard another card to your personal discard pile. Choosing what to play, what to keep, and what to leave available for others creates constant tension throughout the game.

• 2–4 players
• About 30 minutes of play
• Numbered cards in ten tree colors
• Set collection, tile-laying, and hand management

When the deck is exhausted, players compare the cards remaining in their hands. For each color, the player or players holding the highest total value in that color earn the right to score a path in their arboretum that begins and ends with that color.

A scoring path is an orthogonally adjacent chain of cards with increasing values. Each card in a qualifying path is worth one point; if every card in the path matches the color being scored, each card is worth two points. A player who does not have the highest hand value for a color scores nothing for a path that begins and ends with it.

In Arboretum, every card has competing uses: it can extend your garden, strengthen your hand for scoring, or become a discard that another player may need. The player with the most points at the end wins.