August Game of the Month
Race against the Queen of Hearts in a cooperative puzzle game of 'Paint the Roses Red', avoiding incorrect guesses to win.
Paint the Roses Red
I have been a fan of the classic Alice in Wonderland characters for many years so when I found a game where you get to be one of the garden painters trying to best the Queen of Hearts, I was eager to learn this game.
Paint the Roses red is a 2-5 player cooperative game where you race to solve the puzzle of finishing the garden before the Queen catches up to you. If you incorrectly guess the cards other player’s (garden painters) have in their hands too many times, then it is OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!
Game Setup
Place the game board in the middle of table so that the garden area is best visible.
The painters start on 0 / Queen starts on 44 / White Rabbit between 9 & 10
Place the starting garden shrub tiles on their numbered spots
Place the Whim cards at the top of the board accessible to all players
Each player takes a color of clue tokens
Place the 4 flower tokens near the Queen’s side - these are used to indicate how fast the queen moves throughout the game
Draw 4 shrub tiles from the bag to start the greenhouse board - you will put a new shrub in the greenhouse after every guessing phase
Game Play
Each player draws a Whim card - only 1 painter can have an Easy card at a time
Easy - can only be color flowers
Medium - can only be shapes OR color flowers
Hard - can be shapes, color flowers, or a combination of both
The last player to water a plant goes first by placing a shrub tile on the garden board in an attempt to give the other painters a clue of what their whim card is
The player who laid the shrub tile then places their clue tokens on the tile to indicate how many times their card matches with a shrub tile the placed tile touches (example - 2 green clue tokens are placed indicating the whim card is either purple/pink or spade/club - it is unlikely to be spade/club because placing the shrub tile in the spot that only touches the clubs would have been a stronger clue)
All other painters also place clue tokens for how many times the placed shrub matches the card they are holding
Use the notepads to mark off the combinations that are not possible based on the clues and discuss with the other painters which whim card they would like to guess. You have to always guess 1 whim card, but you can also guess more cards. Be careful because the Queen doesn’t like incorrect guesses!
Once a guess has been successfully made, you move the painters around the board the number of spaces indicated by the whim card
Then the Queen gets to move. She moves 1 + the number of flower tokens she is standing on. If you guess incorrectly, she moves twice her normal speed
Every time you pass the white rabbit on the board - character moves forward each time you pass them - the Queen gets a flower token that increases her speed
The game continues until the garden board is completely full of shrub tiles, but ends abruptly if too many incorrect guesses allows the Queen to catch the painters
This is the only cooperative game in my collection, and it requires the players to determine a strategy, get to know how others think, and creates a fun, critical thinking experience. It’s rewarding to solve the puzzle as a team and a little nerve wracking when the shrubs don’t provide easy solutions. Thinking outside the box and creatively for placement is probably my favorite aspect of the game. The garden challenge is different with every game play. Grab a few friends who like puzzle solving games, and don’t let the Queen catch you as you paint the roses red!