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When Panda in garden you have, Confucius says "Check local Wanted Ads for new job"

A review of Takenoko

By Alan WalkerPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
1
This has potential to be the definitive definition of Kawaii

Imagine if you will it's Heian Period and you have been hired by the Emperor of Japan to cultivate the Imperial Bamboo garden to make it the most beautiful garden in all the land. Imagine if you will the Emperor of China has come on a mission of peace and unity and given the Emperor a very strange gift, a Giant Panda.

Strap on your sandals, grab your amigasa and gardening tools as we push back the black & white menace.

Welcome to Takenoko

The game's components

Story

You are the Emperor of Japan's personal gardener. Your job is to cultivate the garden's plots in line with the wishes of the Emperor. The only problem is the sacred bamboo munching menace, the Panda.

Game Mechanics

Action Points

Dice Rolling

Grid Movement

Modular Board

Network and Route Building

Set Collection

Tile Placement

Number of Players

2-4

Play Time

45 minutes

Down Time

Action Selection and Planning

How Does It Play

It's an incredibly simple game to play. The rules are short and to the point. The game is easy to set up as it involves shuffling tiles and cards to stores them in piles next to the playing area, as well as creating piles for improvements and irrigation markers. Don't forget to give players a board, actions markers and one of each card.

Once your set up, make sure the Gardener and Panda are on the Water Feature tile, you can begin.

1. Roll the Weather Dice .

The weather dice depicts what happens on your turn. Each face has a different function.

Sun - You can perform up to 3 different actions this turn

Lightning - Scares the Panda to any tile on the board you choose, except the tiles with the No Panda Improvement

Rain - Grows the bamboo by one piece, tiles with fertiliser improvement get 2 pieces. Bamboo can not exceed four pieces in height!

Wind - The player can perform the same action twice

Cloud - The player can gain an improvement tile to place on any tile they wish

Question Mark - The player can choose any face of the dice they choose

The Gardener seriously rethinking his career choices

2. Perform Actions

In the game you can perform 2 actions, 3 if you rolled a sun, the actions you can choose from are: -

Place Tile - Taking the top face down tile and placing it in the garden. Tiles must either be placed next to the Water Feature or next to 2 existing tiles in the garden, any tile placed next to any irrigation automatically grows 1 piece of bamboo

Draw a Card - Completing the objective on the cards is the only way to win, each card has a different value and objective, see below for card types.

Irrigate - The player can place an irrigation marker next to the tile of their choice. Irrigation markers must be connected to another irrigation marker in order to grow bamboo. Any new irrigated spaces grow 1 bamboo piece

Move the Gardener - The player moves the gardener to a space of their choosing providing it is directly in line with the gardener's current tile, no skipping tiles. The space the gardener lands on immediately grows one piece of bamboo as do the spaces around that tile. The tile has to be irrigated first, any fertilised spaces get 2 bamboo.

Move the Panda - Similar to the Gardener, with the exception of the panda eating the bamboo on the space it lands on. This bamboo piece is stored on your card for scoring objectives later.

3. Pass turn and repeat.

Each player takes it in turn rolling the die and completing objectives until such time as one player triggers game.

4. Endgame

When a player has completed their last objective they get the Emperor's Bonus Card and trigger endgame. Which means all players have 1 turn to score what point they can in order to win. The player with the most points wins

2 Players - 9 Objectives

3 Players - 8 Objectives

4 Players - 7 Objectives

Game Components

46 Card in 4 Types

Emperor Card which grants +2 points to the player that triggers endgame

Gardener Cards which depict how much bamboo is needed to grow on what tiles for the card to be scored

Panda Cards which tell you what bamboo is needed for you to score that panda card

Tile Cards which tell you how what the layout of tile combination should be in order to score that card

1x Gardener

1x Panda

28x Plot Tiles

36x Green Bamboo Sections

30x Yellow Bamboo Sections

24x Pink Bamboo Sections

9x Improvements (3 Each)

20x Irrigation Markers

4x Player Boards

8x Action Markers

1x Weather Die

Theme

A Japanese Gardening Game in the Kawaii Style

Replay Value

Loads. It's fun and the artwork is cute, combined with the strategic elements of the game makes it accessible to anyone. Both adults an children will have fun playing this game.

Favourite Part

The Panda

Least Favourite Part

The number of irrigation markers. You always need an irrigation marker in the late game and there are never any when you need them.

The Bottom Line

This is a fun, simple game that anyone can pick up and play with ease.

I'd recommend this game to anyone wanting a fun lightweight game to play. It's one of the four games I'd recommend for new players along with Pandemic, Catan and Ticket to Ride

I love this game, I give it 10 Bamboo Pieces

product review
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About the Creator

Alan Walker

Part-time Avid Gamer, self appointed nerd, and volunteer Karate Instructor

Long time reader, first time blogger

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