
2015Dan Cassar
Mainly reviews. Arboretum is covered on BoardGameVideo.com by 33 reviews, 9 how-to-play guides, 4 recorded sessions, 9 unboxings, and 3 other videos.
From BoardGameGeek
Arboretum is a strategy card game for 2-4 players, aged 10 and up, that combines set collection, tile-laying and hand management while playing in about 25 minutes. Players try to have the most points at the end of the game by creating beautiful garden paths for their visitors. The deck has 80 cards in ten different colors, with each color featuring a different species of tree; each color has cards numbered 1 through 8, and the number of colors used depends on the number of players. Players start with a hand of seven cards. On each turn, a player draws two cards (from the deck or one or more of the discard piles), lays a card on the table as part of her arboretum, then discards a card to her personal discard pile. When the deck is exhausted, players compare the cards that remain in their hands to determine who can score each color. For each color, the player(s) with the highest value of cards in hand of that color scores for a path of trees in her arboretum that begins and ends with that color; a path is a orthogonally adjacent chain of cards with increasing values. For each card in a path that scores, the player earns one point; if the path consists solely of trees of the color being scored, the player scores two points per card. If a player doesn't have the most value for a color, she scores zero points for a path that begins and ends with that color. Whoever has the most points wins.
Arboretum has 58 videos from 47 creators: 33 reviews, 9 how-to-play guides, 4 playthroughs, 9 unboxings and 3 other videos. They date from 2014 to December 2025.
To learn the rules, start with "Overview and rules explanation of Arboretum" by BoardGameGeek, which runs 10 min.
For an opinion before you buy, start with "The Game Boy Geek (Dice Tower) Reviews Arboretum" by The Dice Tower. 29 creators have reviewed it. To see it played, watch "Arboretum - GameNight! Se4 Ep14" by BoardGameGeek, one of 4 playthroughs.
If you like it, try Mischief and The Blood of an Englishman, also by Dan Cassar, or Copenhagen and Ticket to Ride: London, which share several of its mechanics.
8 of 47
2016Dan Cassar
2 players20 - 30 minLight weight
2019Asger Aleksandrov Granerud, Daniel Skjold Pedersen
2 - 4 players20 - 40 minLight weight
2019Alan R. Moon
2 - 4 players10 - 15 minLight weight
From BoardGameGeek:
Arboretum is a strategy card game for 2-4 players, aged 10 and up, that combines set collection, tile-laying and hand management while playing in about 25 minutes. Players try to have the most points at the end of the game by creating beautiful garden paths for their visitors. The deck has 80 cards in ten different colors, with each color featuring a different species of tree; each color has cards numbered 1 through 8, and the number of colors used depends on the number of players. Players start with a hand of seven cards. On each turn, a player draws two cards (from the deck or one or more of the discard piles), lays a card on the table as part of her arboretum, then discards a card to her personal discard pile. When the deck is exhausted, players compare the cards that remain in their hands to determine who can score each color. For each color, the player(s) with the highest value of cards in hand of that color scores for a path of trees in her arboretum that begins and ends with that color; a path is a orthogonally adjacent chain of cards with increasing values. For each card in a path that scores, the player earns one point; if the path consists solely of trees of the color being scored, the player scores two points per card. If a player doesn't have the most value for a color, she scores zero points for a path that begins and ends with that color. Whoever has the most points wins.
Designer
Dan Cassar
Artists
Philippe Guérin, Chris Quilliams, Beth Sobel
Publisher
Filosofia Éditions
Categories
Mechanics