Imagine this… design your own Japanese styled garden pond, peaceful and elegant; Koi invites players to build stunning habitats, populate them with these symbols of luck, prosperity and good fortune. The design team of Battiato, Borzi and Chiacchiera, bring you this spiritual successor to Bonsai, giving players a familiar yet unique and once again chilled experience.
Dive into the depths
Inside the box you will find the central board, cards, punch out card boards containing all the components and of course a rules book.
The central board will be a little familiar, yet fresh, for Bonsai fans. There are spaces to place face up cards, from which players can choose from, underneath which provide indication (through symbols) of what players receive for selecting that card. The board also provides players with a visual reminder of the cost to purchase Koi for your pond.
Components wise, there is a lot to punch out! Player boards, expansions for player storage, water tiles, foliage tiles, water lilies, shorelines, 2D goal pieces and various 3D components, provided as standees on tiles, and of course, the all-important Koi. The Koi are provided on clear plastic pieces, in a variety of sizes, with colourful Koi printed on to them.
The cards, are split between, main deck cards, with additional cards for 3 players and 4 players, reference cards, and goal cards – which connect with some of the 2D and 3D components.
Designing your Koi garden
Each player takes a player board, 1 spring tile (which is the starting point for your pond), 2 coins, and 1 luck token. Players then take starting tiles and Koi based on player numbers, and whether you are player 1, 2, 3 etc.
The main deck is shuffled, and then 5 cards a dealt face up on the board.
The goal cards are shuffled and 3 are dealt, providing you with 3 randomly chosen additional goals to try and achieve. If you have played Bonsai, you will very quickly pick up the rules. Each turn you do one of two things; Meditate or Work. If the player choses to meditate, a familiar action for fans of Bonsai, you will select a card from the central board. Once selected, you get the bonuses indicated based on the board position and card. Cards include helpers, storage, market, parchment, rain and well cards.
The bonuses you might get include things like more coins, more water tiles, shoreline or foliage tiles, or the chance to purchase Koi. You also have a card slot that costs you 1 coin to take the card.
Helper cards add to what actions you could take if you chose to work. This is key to growing a decent sized and stunning pond by the end of the game.
Parchment cards provide additional end game scoring, based on what other cards, or features you have in your pond.
Storage cards allow you to expand how much you can store before having to work and add features to your pond. Storage can be a small puzzle in itself. Your player board, contains a limited number of tile shaped spaces, and all collected tiles must be able to fit on it. With storage expansion, not only do you expand how much space you have, but you get storage tiles that you can place next to your player board, arranged in a way to better optimise your space for your needs.
Rain cards allow you to add water tiles directly to your pond, whereas well cards let you take coins and/or water tiles for your supply.
The other action a player can choose is to work. The player board comes with a set of actions you can choose from, but if you have helper cards, they increase the number of actions you can choose from and play. Actions can include, playing a Koi, moving a played Koi, placing water tiles, placing a shore tile, upgrading a shore tile with a lantern for improved scoring, or playing foliage tile or upgrading one with a water lily.
Gameplay proceeds, placing tiles and building up your pond, hopefully scoring one of the bonus tiles to add, gaining additional end game scoring that could make all the difference.
Once all the Koi are used up or there are no more cards in the draw pile, the game comes to a close.
Points are tallied up, following the scoring rules for each type of tile and the person with the highest score wins… but everyone gets to marvel at their beautiful creation.
Final thoughts
When we heard this was coming out, we knew we had to get it. Bonsai is a firm favourite.
Knowing how to play Bonsai does help with picking up this game, but fear not, the games rules are cleanly written and easy to follow. The game is not complex, and offers a calm and relaxing gameplay experience, at the same time providing a thinky experience that allows players to develop their pond the way they want.
The components are nice. Particularly the Koi pieces, which look fabulous on top of the water tiles. The additional pond decorations add real beauty personality to your creation, being 3D just makes them pop off the table. It is such a shame the 3D pieces are card. This makes it a real concern how long they would last being taking apart and put back together again. Because of this, we have put them back in the box still constructed, but then you have the worry of if they will survive in the box, especially given everything is loose due to no insert.
Regardless of the concern over the 3D card pieces though, if you like calm tile laying games with a little challenge, this game is firmly for you. We will love playing this game and continually getting this one to the table.
It is a brilliant next step from the groundwork laid in Bonsai. Everything new adds something of interest, whilst still keeping the core soul from its predecessor.
This definitely has our recommendation.
About the author:
We are Peaches and Meeples, busy professionals who love to chill out to fun table top games. We love board games, card games, miniatures games, competitive or co-operative. Put some dice in our hands and we are in our happy place.
We are also proud guinea pig parents to two lovely fluffballs of joy.
