Garden Heist – All about what you can see

[Ad- gifted products] We play a lot of board games and often find mechanics we have previously seen, done in new ways. This week, when we went to Geek Retreat to play Garden Heist, we didn’t realize how different and unique this game would be! The setup itself already feels very different – using the bottom of the box, you basically set up a little house with a little window. Then, outside the house, there is a bunch of trees and garden items placed in a specific order. Meeples start off at the other end of the board, opposite of the house, so that you can see the garden from the house window.

Garden Heist is the sort of game where you probably want to put them on a small table, so that you all can walk around the table. One player starts off behind the house and needs to say a phrase about counting to three and racoons. This phrase, though listed in the rules, was very much improvised by all of us with Robin just saying very wacky phrases for fun. We all tended to be taking the same time to say the phrase when it was our turn, which is the important bit. While the phrase is being said by the person inside the house, the other players need to grab their racoons and move them across the board. There are paths between the different objects in the garden, so you will need to follow the paths. Some objects have holes in them, others are golden which require you to make racoon noises and rub your hands if you are behind.

The person in the house then needs to open the window when their phrase is done, and guess where the racoons are. They can only do one guess, which is then revealed, and if a racoon (or many racoons) are there, they get reset to the start. If anyone successfully hid behind a gold object, they get a point, and if the house player guesses correctly, they get a point. Then, we rotate and the next person goes behind the house. It might sound complex, but after a few rounds, it’s so simple to get into the flow of it. Score is also counted by tokens, but when someone gets to the top of the board and grabs the trash can, all of the tokens are counted and everyone gets points, which are counted along the bottom of the garden!

Garden Heist is really well made. The house itself is sturdy and makes sense, the garden and garden pieces are very fun, and it’s all very well planned. As we were playing this at Geek Retreat, several people actually asked us about the game and said it looked very fun – and it was! Sneaking peaks through the window, trying to see the different plants and furniture and then guessing is really a fun activity. Everything is also so fast moving – it’s not a game that gets boring!

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