Saturday 1 April 2017

Takenoko: Strategy Discourse (AAA18G Tabletop Game Design I)

  Takenoko is a fun 2 to 4 family game created by Antoine Bauza. Despite its colourful game components and cute theme, its mechanisms help push it as a strategically interesting board game.

  The game employs Dice Rolling, Grid Movement, Modular Board Pattern Building, Set Collection, and Tile Placement mechanisms to play.


Feasible Winning Strategy

  One tactic for increasing one's winning chances would be to start the game by playing on the Plot objective cards. This would allow the irrigated lands to expand in order to grow bamboo, and at the same time allow the player to collect victory points geared towards wining the game.


How to start: Plot building

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/44124362019@N01/22276524518

  After establishing different colored plot lands and earning points from them, the player can move onto specializing in completing the Panda and Gardener objective cards. These cards offer higher points and will allow the player to have a higher chance of winning. Furthermore, these two types of objective cards work hand in hand as the Gardener grows bamboo while the Panda eats them. Hence, players can strategize to achieve their Gardener objective cards first to grow enough bamboo; which can be used to feed the panda and complete the Panda objective cards later on.

How to proceed to earning points strategically: Panda + Gardener objective cards

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/annethelibrarian/16226461539

  Furthermore, other players will be growing and eating bamboos as well, hence panda objectives can be easier to accomplish by feeding on other players' choices.

  Hence, this proposed winning strategy focuses on planning which objective cards to play throughout the game in order to quickly gain points and clear as many objective cards as possibly, which will end the game.