Tang Garden

To set up Tang Garden, place the main board in the center of the table with the starter tile in the middle. Sort landscape tiles by size and place them in stacks along the board's outer tracks. Shuffle decoration cards and place them face down, with two face-up cards available. Shuffle character cards and place two face-up. Each player receives a player board, cubes, starting lantern tokens, and a starting character card with its miniature. Randomly determine the first player.

Players take on the role of garden engineers during the Tang Dynasty, competing to build the most magnificent and harmonious garden. The goal is to maximize your final score by carefully placing landscape tiles, decorating the garden with pavilions, bridges, and flora, and positioning characters to enjoy specific views.

On your turn, you must choose one of two main actions: build the garden or place a decoration. To build, place a landscape tile onto the board following matching terrain rules, then advance your cube on the corresponding track to earn coins or bonuses. To decorate, draw decoration cards, choose one matching an available symbol on the board, and place the corresponding 3D miniature. You may also use lantern tokens for extra actions.

At the end of the game, players score points for coins earned, majorities in decoration types, completed sets of trees and flowers, and how well your characters' sight preferences are met. Characters score based on what elements (sun, moon, water, rocks, buildings, or other characters) are in their direct line of sight.

The game triggers its end condition when one of the landscape tile stacks is completely depleted or when only three landscape tokens remain on the outer tracks. Players finish the current round so everyone has an equal number of turns, then proceed to final scoring.