A long time ago at the Japanese Imperial court, the Chinese Emperor offered a giant panda bear as a symbol of peace to the Japanese Emperor. Since then, the Japanese Emperor has entrusted his court members (the players) with the difficult task of caring for the animal by tending to his bamboo garden.

In Takenoko, the players will cultivate land plots, irrigate them, and grow one of the three species of bamboo (Green, Yellow, and Pink) with the help of the Imperial gardener to maintain this bamboo garden.
They will have to bear with the immoderate hunger of this sacred animal for the juicy and tender bamboo.

The player who manages his land plots best, growing the most bamboo while feeding the delicate appetite of the panda, will win the game.

Players will cultivate land plots, irrigate them, and grow one of the three species of bamboo Use the help of the Imperial gardener to maintain this bamboo garden Dice rolling game Feed the panda and irrigate the land!

Ages 8+ Box Includes 28 tiles (plots) 90 bamboo sections 20 irrigation channels 9 landscaping cards 46 objective cards 4 individual boards

VIDEO

BLOG: REVIEW
SPOTLIGHT
REDDIT
BLOG: REVIEW

Takenoko is a tile laying, strategy and resource management game designed by Antoine Bauza, published by Bombyx and Matagot Games. It does not strictly fall into any of those categories, but brings some of the best elements from each of those genres together into a captivating experience.

Takenoko – The Game

The setting is Japan, a long, long time ago, and the art style perfectly represents this. Each component of the game contributes to the style whilst being a functional game piece. The narrative sees peace brokered between Japan and China, with the Giant Panda gifted as a symbol of peace and the commercial alliance between the two nations.

The goal is to cultivate beautiful gardens by commanding the Imperial Gardener, while the Giant Panda wistfully devours all the bamboo it can reach. Who doesn’t love bamboo devouring Pandas? The Imperial Gardener, that’s who.

Components

Takenoko consists of a considerable number of individual components, all of which are well constructed and visually appealing. It includes two miniatures (Imperial Gardener and Giant Panda), tiles for board construction, wooden bamboo shoots, player board, weather dice, objective cards and a few smaller components to contribute to gameplay.

All of these lively little components come packaged in a neat box for storage and easy access during setup – with a bright box insert included!

The Setup

At the beginning of the game each player is given the following components:

• One Player board to keep track of objectives, actions and resources.
• Two action chips to indicate intended actions.
• Three objective cards, one of each type (Gardener, Plot and Panda).

The starting tile is placed in the centre of the playing area, with the Panda and Gardener being placed on the starting tile. The remaining objectives and plot tiles are shuffled and placed faced down to draw from. All remaining components are set aside in various draw piles.

Playing Takenoko

In a unique little move, the makers of Takenoko decided that it should be the tallest player who gets to start the game. He or she will then complete the following steps in order:

Determine weather conditions by rolling the weather dice.

Each of the six sides of the die represent a unique weather condition that will affect the players turn:

• Great sun shines on the bamboo garden.
• A fine rain nourishes the young bamboo shoots.
• A refreshing breeze blows through the bamboo garden.
• The sky rumbles and lightning strikes – frightening the panda.
• Grey cloud darken the sky. Never mind, it’s time to go on and perform some handy work.
• ? – Pick the effect of your choice.

This is the most random aspect of the game, which is good for players who like to have more control over their experience.

Perform two unique actions (from a possible five choices) indicated by the action chips.

The following five actions are available to choose from, and they must always be unique. The only time this is different is if the weather dice allows the player to choose more than two actions, or to perform the same action twice.

• Select and place a plot.
• Select and place or store an irrigation channel.
• Move the gardener.
• Move the panda.
• Select a new objective.

At any point during the active player’s turn, when an objective is met, this objective can be claimed for victory points. Based on the number of players, the “game end” will be triggered after a pre-defined number of objectives have been completed by a single player. All other players get one final turn to attempt to complete more of their objectives.

Strategy

The gameplay for Takenoko initially struck me as simple and fun (both these points are important aspects for ANY game attempting to get people playing). After playing a couple of games, it became clear that there is a hidden depth to the strategy elements.

The first step is identifying the power plays available within the confines of the rules.

As you identify each of these power plays, the dynamic of the game shifts. For experienced players, this is where Takenoko can be extremely rewarding. A battle of wits to test your individual skill against your opponents.

Just make sure everyone is playing at the same intensity/level or it will become an unpleasant experience for the more casual players.

Final Thoughts

Takenoko is a fantastic game to grab from the shelf for a quick-play session, or as a warm-up to your game evening. This game also provides a great gateway to introduce fresh players to the concept(s) of complex board games. This does not mean that Takenoko is not enjoyable for experienced players, because the game can be rewarding for carefully planned strategies.

This is one of the most visually rewarding gaming experiences in a box you can get. From the comical gardener to the detailed plot tiles, each element will catch your eye in a unique way.

Overall this is a good game to have in your collection and will always be fun when it’s laid out, though it will eventually be relegated to the new player gateway shelf.

SPOTLIGHT

In the latest of our board game spotlights, Zatu Games gently teases open its encrusted lids and directs its viewholes at Takenoko, the 2011 release from designer Antoine Bauza and publisher Bombyx.

The Game

A lot of games grapple with trivial subjects like city construction, disease and the Cold War. It can leave you yearning for a title that centres on life’s more intellectual and taxing truths. In answer to that plaintive call comes Takenoko, a game in which you feed a chubby panda bamboo.

The concept stems (lol) from a story about the Chinese Emperor giving a large panda to the Japanese Emperor as a symbol of peace, which is far better than the Twix I gave the last person I punched. Players are members of the royal court, tasked with cultivating and tending the creature’s bamboo garden.

The rules are simple: each turn, a player may take two out of five possible actions. They can take an objective card, which will give them a goal to accomplish like growing a specific type of bamboo; draw three plot tiles and place one down, creating land they can later cultivate; use irrigation canals to provide existing tiles with water; move the gardener and his excellent haircut to grow bamboo on existing tiles; or move the panda to eat some of those juicy shoots.

Completing objectives gives you points. Having the most points at the end wins you the game for some reason. The objective card mechanic makes for an interesting game dynamic. If one player’s card urges them to feed the panda only blue bamboo, while another’s suggests pink, then the obviously the two must compete, ideally in single combat. However, one may have the objective to grow a certain type of bamboo while the other must lay down plots of a specific type, meaning in some instances players’ actions are complementary.

The Publisher

Bombyx are a French company known for competitive word guessing game Wordz and, of course, for Panda gullet stuffer Takenoko.

The Designer

Antoine Bauza is perhaps best known for his extremely successful title 7 Wonders. Originally a student of chemistry and computer science, since turning to game design he has won a number of prestigious awards.

Like the sound of Takenoko? Buy it right here from Zatu Games!

REDDIT

We have delved into the world of Reddit once again to see what the gamers are saying about our favourite board games. This time round we asked them to comment on Takenoko and the response was great!

There were around 50 comments for me to choose from for this piece, both for and against the game, and here are the ones I chose:

The Good

RSburg says:

“I think it’s a lovely gateway game. It does what it does. Great appeal to the eye. Expansion is lovely. Makes the game not overly complex. The extra rules provided in the expansion are nice. They balance the game out.”

CaTaxAuditor says:

“It’s fun if you’re in the mood to dance tiny pandas around a colorful garden and piece together cute little bamboo stalks. If you’re looking for a game that is deep, competitive, and will stand up to high level play day in and day out, there are other options. But you’re not always looking for steak. Sometimes popcorn is what you’re looking for.”

DatLancedJack Says:

“I played it for the first time very recently and it shot up as a must buy for me. Showing people who don’t normally play this game is just asking them to ooh and aww over the various pieces and to watch that light flick on behind their eyes when they, very quickly, get it? Incredibly satisfying.

“It’s not about to become an analysis in tactical masterpiece or strategy development but it’s incredibly fun and that’s all I really want my games to be.”

meatwhisper says:

“Beautiful and fun little game that is great to use as a gateway game or as something to play with people who aren’t “hardcore” gamers. The bits and colorful tiles make it a pleasing little game for most people.”

benbernards agrees:

“I love it. One of my favorite gateway games.”

The Bad

tydelwav Says:

“I was so enamored with this game when I first saw, and played it, for the first time… but that love quickly turned to hate. One of my most despised game mechanics is when point cards are drawn randomly. Not just that, EVERYTHING in this game is random!

“Random die roll, random location draw, random card draw… worst of all, every other player is messing up your plans on their turn, and they don’t even know it. I just find myself continually frustrated when playing, despite that adorable chubby panda smile.”

PrWNed Says:

“Personally I find it to be too luck dependent. The objective cards you draw and the weather die together basically decide whether you win or lose the game and these are entirely luck based. My fiancé once almost exclusively rolled the 3 actions symbol on the weather die giving him a huge advantage.

“I also think that with the full player count, there’s so much chaos that you can’t really plan your turn in advance. For these reasons, I don’t enjoy the game as much and will be looking to sell my copy of the game.”

G8kpr Says:

“Overall, the game is merely ok in my opinion, but got a lot of hype from TableTop. I find it’s usually pretty easy to accomplish goals and there never feels to be worry over what to do or what other players are doing.

“I find it only really shines with 4 players, I wouldn’t play with anything less, it’s just dull with 2 players.”

Improvise 

RadicalDog Says:

“Takenoko is built to be house-ruled. Fact is, there’s a huge swing in how well you draw on the objective cards; it works much better if you do it Ticket-to-Ride-style and lay out 4 publicly to be grabbed by people, or letting people draw 2 and choose, etc. By house-ruling in a decision on what specific objective you go for, the game gets a lot better. Wish something like this was done by the original designer.”

RSburg agrees:

“This game needs house rules. If you do not want that, it’s fine. I personally think with house rules, this game is better. So even before the expansion I already used the set bonus, because of an unbalance in goal cards.

“I even tried to make the landscape cards a bit better to score them without irrigation and if they are irrigated they’re +2 points extra. That was a bit too fiddly to explain (for a gateway game) so I let that one go.”

Buy Takenoko

If you are interested in playing Takenoko, you can buy the game from our online store now!

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