Basic Information
Number of Players: 2-4
Age: 8+
Time: 45 minutes
Price: High
Introduction to Takenoko
Takenoko is a great game to play with kids and adults alike with its colorful art style and fun game mechanics. The story for the game of Takenoko is that the Japanese emperor was gifted a Panda by the emperor of China. The gardener is trying to maintain and grow the garden with plots and irrigation so that bamboo will grow to feed the hungry Panda. There is plenty of strategy to keep the more hardcore gamers happy and the rules are easy enough to understand that any child over the age of 8 should be able to pick this game up and play in no time.
How to Play Takenoko
To start the panda and gardener are on the positioned on the starting pond tile. On each of the player’s turns they roll the dice and take two actions plus whatever bonus action that get from the dice. Players can chose to either; take an objective card from the objective decks, place a plot tile, pick up an irrigation stick (which can be placed later for free), Move the gardener to grow the bamboo, or move the Panda to eat the Bamboo.
The players take actions based off their objective cards as the first to finish 7 objective cards wins bonus points with the emperor’s favor and at the end of that round the player with the most points is the winner. You complete objective cards on your turn only so as soon as your turn starts and one of your cards is competed you can place that card face down in front of you on the table. If there completed on other players turns but then suddenly disrupted before getting back to you, you must then re-create the completion condition on your objective cad before placing it down.
Notes on Takenoko
Takenoko is a surprisingly strategic game. There are multiple strategies you can try to use to win the game, each as valid as each other. Depending on events around you there may be a need to adapt these strategies as well which keeps the game play always fresh. Takenoko is also a great game for couples as it plays just a well with 2 players as it does with 4. So for any birthday board game, Valentine ’s Day board game or just one to play with the family, I highly recommend getting Takenoko.
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