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Kohaku 2nd Edition
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Description
Kohaku is a peaceful koi-pond-building, tile-laying game.
Score points by surrounding flowers with koi containing matching colors, placing frogs next to koi tiles that have dragonflies, and ensuring that baby koi have a safe place to hide by placing them near rocks.
Butterflies score based on line of sight, so make sure to line them up with similar-colored koi. Turtles and statues bring a sense of balance to your pond and score points more easily, but sometimes aren’t as valuable as some of the other features.
You must carefully plan the placement of your tiles, because once they are in your pond, they can’t be moved! With no restrictions on the shape of your pond, you can build a unique layout to maximize your koi pond’s appeal.
I would love to have my own Koi Pond. But the realities of the cost, upkeep and where I live mean this is unlikely to ever happen. But thanks to Kohaku, a tile laying game by Danny Devine published by Gold Seal Games and 25th Century Games, I can now build and admire my own Koi Pond in less than 30 minutes.
In this 1 to 4 player game you draft tiles from the central board and place them in front of you to build your own pond. The rule set is incredibly simple and can be taught in less than 5 minutes. At the end of the game everyone would have built a beautiful pond that can be admired.
Set Up
Before play can commence you put the board in the middle of the table and fill the spaces according to the pictures. This way you will have a board which alternates between fish and features. The fish come in 4 different colours, red, yellow, white and black with some fish having two of these colours. Every fish is drawn slightly differently with accompanying baby koi, dragonflies or a coin for the single coloured fish.
There are several different feature tiles which provide scoring opportunities such as 1 point per dragonfly in the 4 tiles orthogonally touching this feature. You can pass each player an aid which provides details of how each feature scores, however it is fairly obvious from the writing on the tiles and I found new players do not require the aid. Apart from removing or adding koi tiles according to player number this is all the set up you need.
Clever Drafting
On your turn you take a koi tile and an adjacent feature tile and place them in your pond. If this is your first turn they must be placed next to each other, on future turns the tiles can be placed anywhere following these simple rules. 1. Tiles must always be placed orthogonally. 2. Feature tiles must be placed next to koi tiles and vica versa.
Once you have chosen your tiles the central board is refilled. If there are any spaces on the outside of the board you move the tiles from the middle to replace them, and then refill the empty spaces according to the pictures. This method of refilling the central board feels like the tiles are being shuffled and it really helps the gameplay as koi could be moved next to features that work really well together.
You continue drafting tiles and placing them in your pond until there are no more koi tiles available to refill the board. You then flip the central board over and use the cute little fish tokens to record your scores according to the feature tiles and coins placed in your pond. I found the best way to keep track of which tiles you have already scored with is to go from left to right, top to bottom.
Final Thoughts On Kohaku
Kohaku is one of the most Zen like games I have ever played. There is next to no down time and it doesn’t really matter if someone takes the tile you had your eye on, a new tile just came out that works just as well and thanks to the clever refill mechanism it may have moved a tile I hadn’t even considered before. I feel so chilled when playing this game and everyone I have showed it to agreed. The artwork is outstanding, the rule book is clear and easy to understand and the solo mode is a solid game which will keep you coming back for more. The only real complaints about the game is the lack of insert in the box, instead you get several high quality plastic bags, and maybe an advanced mode with secret scoring objectives.
The box says the game takes 30 to 45 minutes but I would say anywhere between 20 and 25 is about right. I have played the game at all player counts and it works really well in all cases. The artwork really is amazing and the tiles have little UV spots that look like ripples on the pond. Once you have finished playing you will always sit back and stare at your beautiful creation.
Koi Koi, what do we have here? It’s a how to play guide for Kohaku!
Set Up
Simple as K O I :
- Place the pond mat in the centre of the table
- Grab the Koi tiles and remove:
- Koi tiles with 3/4 stone markings plus 7 more random tiles for 2 player;
- Koi tiles with 4 stone markings plus 5 more random tiles for 3 player; and
- 5 random Koi tiles for 4 player
- Shuffle them into a stack and place face down. Also shuffle the Feature tiles and shuffle those into a sstack and place face down.
- Then draft tiles one by one, starting in the top left corner and working along each row, placing Koi tiles face up on pond squares with a fish and Feature tiles on those with a lily pad.
That’s it! You are ready to reeeeellllax (in a thinky, puzzly way!)
Taking A Turn
When it’s your turn you must take 2 adjacent tiles from the pond – 1 Koi and 1 Feature. You then place them in the personal Koi pond you are creating. But, you can’t place them anywhere!
- New tiles must be placed orthogonally adjacent to any previously placed tile (save for the first tile in the game!) – note: the two tiles you pick do not have to be placed next to each other; and
- Koi and Features must alternate such that 2 fish and 2 features can never be touching – think aquatic checkerboard!
- If there are tiles left in the middle of the pond, move them to matching spaces on the outer edges and then refill the board with new Koi and Feature tiles as required ready for the next player.
Scoring
Creating an aquatic scene is all well and lovely. But you want points, right? Well each Koi and Feature scores (yay!) but only if you place it just right!
- Single lilies – each Koi surrounding a single lily flower of a matching colour will score 2 points (if you get all 4 sides matching the score bumps up to 12!)
- Two lilies – each Koi surrounding a double lily of either matching colour scores 2 points. If the Koi matches both colours, it bumps up to 3 points!
- Rocks – each baby Koi adjacent to a rock scores 1 point
- Frogs – each frog scores 1 point per adjacent dragonfly
- Butterflies – each Koi in the same row/column as the Butterfly will score 2 points if matching in colour;
- Statues – each Statue will score 1/3/6/10 points for 1/2/3/4 adjacent Koi (colour is irrelevant); and
- Turtles – these are worth 5 points. No buddying up required!
Winning The Game
When the 14th /12th round (2/3-4 player) has been played (i.e. when there are no more Koi tiles to add to the pond, end game is triggered and it’s totting up time!
Each player scores their pond one at a time using their chosen colour Koi token. The score board is on the flip side of the pond board. Note: the numbers don’t snake so don’t jump half a row by mistake – take your time totting up! The player aids show how each Feature is scored so I’d recommend holding that in one hand whilst counting with the other.
As an end game bonus, any gold coins visible at end game are worth a bonus 1 point each. And in the case of a tie for points; the winner is the player with the most coins!)
I hope this little guide helps you work out if this is going to be a game for you. As you can probably tell from the photos, it’s a gorgeous spatial, placement optimisation puzzle just waiting for you to enjoy!
Zatu Score
You might like
- Very Zen like gameplay
- Beautiful components that look amazing on the table
- Very quick
- Solid solo mode included
- Easy to teach
Might not like
- Could do with a few modes such as secret scoring
- Would be nice if there was an insert for the box