spoonofmilk

I love all of Antoine Bauza’s designs, either mechanically or graphically or, most times, both. Takenoko is another of his Asian themed designs and it looks lovely.

The little panda and gardener models are beautiful, the stacking bamboo pieces look and work great and the tiles are chunky and nicely designed. The oversized weather die is also lovely to use and look at!

Mechanically it’s more tactical than strategic, with players having to achieve their own objectives while having to keep an eye on what their opponents are doing. This means a lot of the time the pieces you want are unobtainable (panda or gardener in wrong place, improvements unavailable, garden plots placed awkwardly etc), leaving players having to react rather than make strategic movements in preparation for a longer term goal. Personally I prefer this type of game over the more strategic brain burner types, so this works fine for me and my friends.

Others also criticise the weather die mechanic, but again… I like the injection of chaos and within the theme of the game the weather die fits perfectly well. After all, weather is changeable!

I love this game, it’s great fun to play, looks great, plays quickly and leaves you wanting more!