T is for Takenoko

Happy Sunday, everyone!  I’m doing a little bit of catch-up for the A-to-Z Challenge, so expect to see a few “extra” (read: re-scheduled) posts from me today and tomorrow.  First, T is for Takenoko…

Takenoko is a light-to-medium weight euro-style game for up to four players.  In the game, you are a gardener in the employ of the Japanese emperor.  Unfortunately for you, the emperor was gifted a giant panda from his Chinese counterpart.  The panda is now living in the imperial garden, eating all of the bamboo you are trying to grow.

The gameplay of Takenoko is fairly simple. It is a tile-laying and point-taking game. At the start of a player’s turn, he draws three terrain tiles, chooses one, and adds it to the board.  Bamboo shoots automatically grow one segment if they are irrigated and/or next to the garden’s central pond.  The players are all dealt goal cards which offer up a certain amount of points when completed.  There are three types of goal cards: terrain, which offers points for laying terrain tiles in a certain configuration; gardener, for growing bamboo of certain colors and heights; and panda for eating certain colors and amounts of bamboo segments.

Each person is given a player mat (shown below) which lays out the possible actions that can be played each turn:

• Placing another terrain tile (by, again, drawing three tiles and choosing one to play)
• Taking an irrigation piece (which can be laid down at any time)
• Moving the gardener figurine (who, when placed on a tile, causes the bamboo to grow one segment)
• Moving the panda figurine (who, when placed on a tile, eats one segment off the bamboo stalk)
• Drawing another goal card

There is also a “weather die” which determines an additional action to be performed during the turn (such as allowing the player to perform two of the same action, causing all of the irrigated bamboo shoots to grow one segment, etc.)

The game is over when one person has completed a certain amount of goal cards (dependent on the number of players).  The points are then added up, and the player with the most points wins.

I was initially drawn to Takenoko because of it’s adorable design and theme. (I love pandas! They are so cute and pudgy!!) The thought of playing a game where a panda eats pastel-colored bamboo was just too wonderful to be ignored. What’s more, I thought the segmented bamboo stalks were brilliant. The game is just a box full of delightful colors and cuteness.

In my opinion, Takenoko is a perfect game for introducing people to designer boardgames. Sure, the mechanics may be simpler and a bit more random than, say, Settlers of Catan (thought by many to be the gateway game), but it’s also a game that grabs your eye. Takenoko is always the game that friends pull off my shelf and ask me to teach them. “I want to play the panda game!” they say. Who can resist those colorful components and that adorable panda figurine!

Earlier this year, game designer Antoine Bauza announced an upcoming expansion for the game, thought to be ready for release by GenCon 2015. It includes a female panda figurine, nine baby panda tokens, and is called Takenoko Chibis.  …Just take my money now, Bauza.

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Takenoko was designed by Antoine Bauza and is published by Bombyx, Asmodee, and Matagot (among other international publishers.)