When I was young, board games had some very simple (and often re-used) themes: finances, racing (be that auto or horse or what-have-you), military conflict, and so on. This, of course, was true only where a theme was even considered. Themes were mostly an afterthought. That said, many, many abstracts fall into the box that contains my youthful board gaming memories. Theme was (and is) not always needed.
A lot of modern games lean heavily into their theme. Theme comes first, with the mechanics to follow. When this works, theme and mechanics elevate each other into something special. Other times, the theme and the mechanics are not in sync; they manage to get in each other’s way and create something far less than the sum of its parts
Botany is something very, very special.
Theme—Plant-Hunters
In Botany, you are a Victorian-era English botanist (a plant-hunter) searching for rare and interesting plant specimens from around the globe to bring back to your estate. Being a plant-hunter is not for the faint of heart, however. Locating these plants requires that you delve into remote and dangerous places while negotiating perils which test your agility, charm, cleverness, prowess, and fortitude.
You can find aid in the form of hirelings (crew), animals (pets), and equipment (items). But none of this is free. While you are globe-trotting, you are cut off from the income of your estate; you only have access to the funds you brought with you. Thus, returning home periodically is a requirement! Not only do you need to replenish your funds, but you will want to ensure the plant specimens you have collected are properly tended to.
Your aim is to collect specimens (preferably live) and get them back home, make improvements to your estate’s garden, and grow your reputation in the Botanical Society circles. If you can do all of this better than your rivals, then Queen Victoria herself will declare you her personal botanist—and victory is yours!
Game-Play—Global Adventure
Setup
The setup for Botany is rather simple. The main setup consists of:
- Place the game board (a beautiful antique-stylized world map) in reach of all players.
- Shuffle the three game decks (the event deck, the expedition deck, and the specimen deck) and place them on their designated spots on the board. With the expedition deck, reveal the top three cards and place them beside the deck. Each of these decks has a space dedicated for discards.
- Shuffle the bonus cards and deal out three for use in the game.The “Queen Victoria” card can be placed out as well (this card is given to the winner at the end of the game).
- Place the Garden Features cards near the board, along with one Wardian Case card for each player. These Wardian Cases are in addition to the ones each player starts with (see below).
- Place the coins into a central supply.
The player setup is no more taxing:
- The Character cards are shuffled and each player is dealt two. They choose one of these personalities and return the other to the box.
- Players select a pair of like-colors pawns. One goes on the board in the Estate space and the other goes on the ‘1’ spot of the reputation track.
- Players take 10 coins, an Estate board, a Wardian Case card, and a Botanical Press card.
- Players are each dealt four Specimen cards. Before the game begins, they may discard any number of these and then draw until they have four Specimen cards in hand.
- Players are each dealt two Expedition cards.
Setup is complete.
Game Turn
A game turn is also simple. The game comes with a set of nice player-aid cards that briefly cover the sequence.
- Pay—as a plant-hunter, you are constantly on expedition. This means having expenses to pay (carriages and trains, ships, etc.). The start of each turn is paying those expenses. If you do not have the money on you to pay, then bad things start to happen (e.g., you have to move directly towards the Estate space, you must give up Expedition or Specimen cards you have collected… or worse). Do not run out of money if you can help it!
- Event—players may elect to resolve an event at the start of their turn. To do this, they draw the top card of the Event deck and follow the instructions. These instructions will include what kind of event it is (e.g., events will test one of six skills; events are either land or sea-based).Each character has a skill in which they excel, and receive a +1 bonus on all rolls associated with that skill. Various Expedition cards (see below) will grant bonuses on skills or events that meet certain conditions (e.g., sea-based events). Each even card describes a situation the character has gotten themselves into. Roll a die and add (or subtract) all modifiers. Roll too low, and you will suffer the consequences; roll high enough and you will reap the rewards.Players may opt to not resolve the event at the start of the turn. If, however, they collect a specimen in their travels and they have not yet experienced an event, the event will take place at the location where that specimen was collected. If they go through their turn, had skipped the event at the start, and manage to collect no specimens, then their event will take place during Step 6 (see below).
- Move—players may move their pawns up to three spaces along the lines connecting the location spaces on the board. Thus, there will have been up to four locations on which they travelled (their starting space, their ending space, and the one or two spaces they travelled through). Players may backtrack, move in circles, or any other sort of movement they desire.Each specimen card has three or four main pieces of information: the name of the plant, the place on the globe where that plant can be found, how many points that plant is worth as a live specimen, and finally, some specimens have special rules (e.g., bonuses, costs, etc.) associated with having acquired or carrying the specimen live. If a player’s pawn starts on, moves through, or ends on a location that matches the location of a specimen in their hand, they may collect that specimen and place it either on their Wardian Case card (live), or on their Botanical Press card (pressed).A Wardian Case can hold up to three live specimens. A Botanical Press can hold any number of pressed specimens. Live specimens are worth more points, but you have to get all specimens back to your estate for them to count for anything! If you run out of money, you may need to sell off a bunch of your possessions (on the cheap) in order to get back. So be careful!
- Specimen Cards—after you have concluded your moves and collected any specimens, you draw from the Specimen Deck until you have four cards in hand. There are abilities on characters and Expedition cards that can adjust the hand-size limit. Always draw up to your current limit.
- Collect Income—as an upstanding member of society, you are earning an income back home. Unfortunately, that income gets collected at your estate, and you have no access to those funds while you are out gallivanting around the globe looking for rare flowers. So your income is collected at your estate… where you can gain access to it only when you return home. The amount of income collected depends upon your reputation (i.e., 1–3 = 1 coin; 4–8 = 2 coins; 9–12 = 3 coins). The good news is that when you get back home, you can put your live and pressed specimens into your garden where they will be well attended to (read: get you points at the end of the game). Any and all specimens, both live and pressed, that do not make it back to your estate at the end of the game are worth no points and do not count toward the bonus card goals.
- Buy—at the end of your turn, you have the option to buy one (and only one) card from the Expedition market. If none of these are appealing, you may pay 2 coins for whatever the top card of the Expedition deck happens to be. Purchasing is entirely optional.Expedition cards come in three flavors; crew (people that can help you), items (useful tid-bits and tools), and pets (exotic animals). Every Expedition card provides some bonus or special ability. There is no limit to the number of Expedition cards a player can have.Remember: if you did not have an event in Step 2, did not collect any specimens (which would have forced the event to take place with the first acquisition), then you must resolve an event at this time.
This sequence is repeated for each player, each turn. There are some modifications that take place if the player has returned to their estate. During the Move step, if a player moves to their estate, their movement immediately ends. Then:
- The player transfers their collected specimens to their personal collection and garden. The player collects 1 coin per live specimen delivered; they gain +1 reputation for each full 3 live specimens delivered (i.e., 1–2 = +0 reputation; 3–5 = +1 reputation; 6–8 = +2 reputation; and so on). Although there are no monetary or reputational rewards for delivering pressed specimens, they are each worth 1 point at the end of the game.
- The player transfers all estate income into their personal travelling money.
- Once only, the player may discard any number of Specimen cards and refill their hand.
- Once only, the player may discard one card from the Expedition market and draw a new card.
- For the cost of 1 coin, a player may send a poisonous live specimen they have brought back with them to another player’s estate instead. Poisonous specimens are worth negative points at the end of the game!
- During the Buy step, a player may opt to buy a Garden Feature instead of an item from the Expedition market. These are expensive, but they are worth points and reputation. There is a Garden Feature called a “Poisonous Path” that, when purchased, turns the negative points from poisonous specimens to positive points. There are a limited number of each Garden Feature; players can have more than one of each which could make it impossible for a competitor to acquire.
End Game Trigger
The end of the game is triggered when one of two things happens:
- A player acquires their 12th Reputation Point.
- The Specimen deck has run out of cards, and there are no discards with which to refill it.
When either of these happens: the current player finishes their turn then each other player takes one more turn. Afterwards, players check the bonus cards and award those to the player that has won them. If two or more players tie when it comes to a bonus card, they each get the points for it.
A player’s score is the sum of:
- The point value of all live specimens that have been returned to their estate, plus 1 point for each pressed specimen that has been returned to their estate. Any and all live or pressed specimens that the player has that have not been returned to their estate are worth no points.
- The point value of all Garden Features that have been purchased for their estate. Note that some Garden Features will provide bonus points based on the live specimens in the player’s estate.
- The point value of all bonus cards the player won.
If there is a tie, the tied player with the most money wins. If there is still a tie, the victory is shared. The winner is declared, by Queen Victoria, to be her personal Botanist.
Oh My!
I backed this game on Kickstarter because I thought it was pretty. And it is. It is one of the most gorgeous games in my collection. Because I am the sort of person I am, I backed the game at a level to get all the expansions, the metal coins, and so on. And I am very glad that I did!
Everything about the game feels luxurious. The cards (both the sizes and the finish) are perfect. The art seems pulled right out of the Victorian era. Even the two six-sided dice have an aged and almost regal appearance (and they feel great in your hand). Nothing in the game was done half-way. Fortunately, this care extends into the rules and the game-play. The game is amazing.
All the original expansions were of the “more stuff” type. These added cards in each of the decks that were centered on a theme (e.g., trees, poisonous plants, etc.). All these are wonderful and interesting and can be included in a game without adding any real complexity to things. The most complex elements are new Garden Features, and these create only a minute level of overhead.
The most recent expansion, Orchid Obsession, adds a whole new Specimen Deck for Orchids, a board for them to go on, and some special rules about how the three orchids on display are effectively in everyone’s hand. This creates an interesting race as everyone knows where on the map these (sometimes high scoring) plants can be found. But only one of you can get it. A very fun little element.
When my wife and I played our first game, we were laughing and having a great time while we carefully poured over our turns trying to figure out if we could get another specimen (or two, or three, or…) and manage to get back to our estate before our funds ran out.
And speaking of funds: one of the things I found refreshing is that the game has money, and money is important, but money is never the primary focus. Money is never more than a means to an end—a tool in the goal of discovering and collecting more plants and improving your botanical garden. At the end of the game, money is not worth points at all (although there is a bonus card that grants two points to the wealthiest player). It is only used to break ties. Even your reputation is not used in the final points calculation, as that score was just a method of measuring your access to funds to finance your expeditions and as a very satisfying end-game trigger.
The short scenarios on the Event cards are ecovotive and fun! From having “Indiana Jones” like adventures swinging on rope bridges in some isolated jungle, to trying not to insult some member of the Royal Family at a meeting of the Botanical Society, each one is a delight. We have truly been enjoying the immersion these cards and this game can provide. For a while, I was Lord Augustus Wright, sailing on the seas where I would tell the Captain to stop the ship because I discovered a rare breed of Red Sea Algae just off the starboard bow and this is a matter of national pride!
All of the specimens, characters, events, and so on are beautifully illustrated. Even the card backs feel like something from another time.
The game has a solo mode (and a special solo character). I have not yet tried this, but what I am reading suggests it will be a good romp!
The box insert is exceptionally well designed. Everything for the game, and all the expansions, fits comfortably inside. The only box lift is caused by the special board for the Orchid Obsession expansion (this is no more than a few millimeters). Beautiful.
Minutia
Even in a game as close to perfection as this one, there are going to be things I feel are almost, but not quite, truly perfect. In this case, it is a couple of exceedingly minor nit-picks. My issues are tri-fold:
- It does not take too long before you can see bonuses on a particular skill reach +3 or more.
- The game provides you with two dice although you only ever use one.
- The regional colors for Europe and Asia are too similar.
The first one is the scale of the skill check system. This system is such that a character can be tested on one of six skills on an Event card. The skills are Agility, Charm, Cleverness, Fortitude, and Prowess. The Event cards will call for a check on one of these skills and will have two possible outcomes: failure on a low roll (i.e., 1–2, 1–3, or 1–4) and success on a high roll (i.e., 3–6, 4–6, or 5–6). This is where I think the game should have had skill checks roll two dice or perhaps have used a d12. It feels like the game needs some additional granularity in the scale of these checks so as to keep failure a possibility at all times.
The second one is just a question: if the game only ever uses one die, why provide two? It just seems one die would have sufficed and that, if you are going to provide multiple dice in a game for 1–5 players, why not include one for each player?
The third… well this is something a lot of games struggle with (e.g., Mayfair Cosmic Encounter). The colors, when placed next to each other, are easy to distinguish. Alone, however… Given the level of care that obviously went into the graphic design, one has to wonder how this happened.
Like I said… exceedingly minor.
Other than this anal-retentive take on an aspect of the game, Botany is perfect. It is just perfect.
Botany details
- Designer: Amy Droz, Dusty Droz
- Artists: N/A
- Publishers: Dux Somnium Games
- Release Date: 2024
- Player count : 1 - 5
- Age range : 8+
- Time range : 45 - 90 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Dice Rolling, End Game Bonuses, Events, Investment, Pick-up and Deliver, Point to Point Movement, Variable Player Powers
- BGG Geek Rating: 7.05283 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 3.5.
- More articles about Botany.
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