The Queen's whims are shared via cards, secret instructions each player is given into how the garden should be arranged. Her whims are always changing, so as soon as you solve one, a new one is in your hand. I’ve found that Paint the Roses is a difficult game to win, but it rarely feels unwinnable. I have lost the game with each of the groups I played with. Those games were often close, with The Red Queen lopping our collective heads off with only three or four tiles left to complete the board. What’s most telling, though, is that despite losing, everyone I’ve played it with has been eager to play it again. And again. Guessing is just that—making a guess as to what is on a player’s card. After that, depending whether the guess was correct or not, The Red Queen will move a little or a lot. Deluxe edition adds nice upgrades and mini expansions add some longevity once you get the hang of it.

Although the trays look quite nice, I feel only the bottom tray adds some value to the game by organizing the cards and the expansions. All tiles could probably be better stored in the bag to be ready to be used instead of in the tray. Also, the tray does not have space for sleeved cards which for me is a big fail. All player pieces, tiles, cards, and miniature are of good quality. The miniatures in particular are nicely designed and each of them feels very unique. The acrylic tiles add a great value to the game compared to cardboard ones in the retail version and are definitely an upgrade to look after. If the active player places, say, two cubes, on the tile they place, that gives you a lot of information about their card. If the other players don’t place a cube on the tile, it also tells you a lot about their cards. That information (“It’s not this color or this shape.”) only builds with each subsequent turn—and helps mitigate the feeling I initially had of dealing with too much imperfect information.

Can you outsmart the Queen of Hearts?

After my first play of Paint the Roses I was a little put off by what I perceived to be the imperfect information the game insists you play with. Color to color was fine, but the Medium and Hard cards presented too many choices with no clear idea as to which choice was correct. This was, I think, more of an issue when playing the game with two players. Having the consequences of a wrong guess, along with the possibility of losing the game, resting solely with my guess, didn’t sit all that well with me. The Deluxe Edition includes upgraded components like acrylic tiles, a custom GameTrayz insert and the Escape the Castle expansion all in one box. Note: Players must still complete all phases of a turn, including guessing a Whim and moving the Queen, even on the turn the garden is fully filled.

In the lower left corner of each card is a number. This is the number of spaces you’ll move forward on a correct guess. With an Easy card you’ll move one or two spaces; Medium cards will move you ___ to ___ spaces; Hard cards will move you four to five spaces. I Am Not Crazy; My Reality is Just Different From YoursWhen the active player places a tile on the board, all players look to see if the placed tile and the surrounding tiles match what is on their card. If so, they place their cubes on the tile as well. And of course, as the game goes on you have fewer options on where to place. So along with everything else, you’ll also want to try to keep open as many combinations as you can as you play. However, this is where the game gets interesting. Do those two cubes mean a match between the diamond and the hearts? Or the diamond and the spade? What about the yellow rose and the two red roses? Or the two purple roses? The strategic and challenging aspects of the game are its biggest selling point although I found I love how balanced it is. Paint the roses plays pretty much the same with 2 or with 5 players where 3 is probably the most balanced challenge. The additional players add the opportunity to make more points but also increase the noise and the difficulty to guess the whim cards so that the two aspects even out. If you guess correctly, move the Gardeners mini forward a number of spaces equal to the number on the Whim card. If you pass a white dotted line, move the White Rabbit forward and add a Flower token to the Queen. You may guess another card or pass.