Author Topic: Takenoko (Read 2967 times)

dirk2112 · « **on:** March 03, 2016, 11:03:47 AM »

Takenoko is a tile placement game that has some worker placement aspects to it. I will say this game is very visually appealing and this is a great gateway game for non-gamer females. The object of the game is to complete 9 cards. Cards contain 1 of 3 different functions 1) Irrigated Tile placement (maybe 3 red tiles in a row), 2) Bamboo growth (Get the gardener to grow a 4 piece tall yellow bamboo stalk), 3) Feed the panda (2 green bamboo pieces). During your turn you roll a nice wooden dice to see what the weather will be like. Based on that you can take various actions. Most of the time we are hoping for the sun (which gives you 3 actions) or the "?" which lets you pick the weather. Afterward you can do any of the following actions 1) Place a tile 2) Irrigate a tile 3) Move the gardener 4) Move the Panda or 5) Take another card. The first player to complete 9 cards wins. In the original rules it was easy for a player to complete 9 Panda cards and win since those are the easier to complete. The expansion changed the rule so that you get 3 points for every set of cards (Panda, gardener, tile) you complete. We don't have the expansion yet, but play with the updated rules.

Pros:

Quality components
Great artwork
Easy to teach
A way to get the female non-gamer to play
Great theme
Inexpensive considering the components

Cons:

Small Ticket to Ride sized cards
Like Catan (and apparently Splendor $:-\$ ) it can feel a bit samey
There is a lot of luck involved in both the weather and the card drawing*
Check your man card at the door

* The game lets you complete cards through other people's actions. So if you have a card that says you get 4 points if there is a certain tile configuration on the board and someone else puts the tile down, you get credit for it. Even if that configuration has been down all game you get credit for it. We played a game where my wife completed her 9 cards and my son had his last turn to try to beat her score. He rolled the die and it turned to the wind symbol which lets you take the same action twice. He drew 2 cards and both happened to be already on the board and he won.

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2498.0

Halfling · « **Reply #1 on:** March 03, 2016, 12:07:34 PM »

I enjoy a game of Takenoko every now and again, but not enough to buy the Chibis expansion.

dirk2112 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 03, 2016, 12:15:08 PM »

Quote from: Halfling on March 03, 2016, 12:07:34 PM

I enjoy a game of Takenoko every now and again, but not enough to buy the Chibis expansion.

I agree and the expansion doesn't look great in my opinion. The wife wants it for an anniversary gift because the Panda is lonely or something. Anyway when it arrives I'll post on the I hate the postman thread.

Curt194 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 03, 2016, 01:01:00 PM »

Actually the chibis expansion addresses a lot of the issues I had with the base game and levels things out nicely. If gives a bit more to do objective wise and adds some interesting new tiles.

Also the base game rules do have a variant that if you draw an already completed objective then you must redraw which also helps to balance this out.

Overall I really like this game as a light evenings entertainment. It's a very relaxing game and is good when you don't want things to get too competitive.