Wednesday 27 August 2014

Friday night is panda night

Another Friday, another games night. This time - Takenoko. Our host had picked this up for about £30, from (i think) The Works, and he felt that it was a bargain. I had seen this played on Tabletop, though it was quite a while back, so i was familiar with the concept.

The idea is to build up the game "board" by drawing tiles, and take cards which give you outcomes that you need to achieve. The panda character eats bamboo, and the gardener can grow bamboo.





Here you can see that I have to get the Panda to eat two yellow bamboo for 4 points, and for 7 points there needs to be three sticks of yellow bamboo, three pieces high.




This is the board in action with plenty of tiles down and some bamboo growing, and some irrigation going on!  The parts of the game are very nice quality, with wooden bamboo and water and some well printed tile pieces. It is a pretty quick game to play, we played for no more than an hour, but one that still has elements of strategy and yet would be appealing to non, or new gamers. Who doesn't love a panda, right?

I didn't win, in fact I came last, but it was good fun and I'm sure we'll be playing this again!

Then, in a change from our normal games, the host suggested poker. I've played exactly once, but who am i to turn down a game when there is a proper poker set to use?





Those chips had a nice weight about them!




The only time I played poker before was at a charity event at a previous job. I think we all put in a small amount of money (maybe a fiver) and played. I lost and was out fairly early on. This time round, even though I couldn't really remember how to play, I did managed to bluff my way and won a round! However, there were some much better players around the table, and I was second to leave the table.

I'm not really one for gambling games. I know I have an addictive personality, and something like this would be very easy for me to go down a slippery slope. I'm more than happy to bet a pound or play for pennies, something where if (when?) i lose, it doesn't really matter. I enjoyed the game itself, but there was talk of playing for higher stakes and for me I think that would be a no-no. 


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