Board Game Arena

The improved icons for improvements and microhelp are a big improvement, I think. Thanks so much! They all looked the same to these old eyes.

While yes you can play the old version, thankful for that. Arena is forced into the new version. Unfortunately this new version makes the game a good bit worse. While weakening that pandas slightly was smart, they actually weakened everything else even more...so the net impact is to make the panda even stronger. The gardener objectives in particular having to be on the exact spot (even when you can grow stuff just by being adjacent) makes things a lot worse.

I like the update in rules (ie: you can place improvements on tiles that already have bamboos, the gardener must be on the plot in order to fulfil the gardener objective.)

I also like that when an improvement tile in the supply runs out, players can move another improvement tile from elsewhere.

I also like to improved graphics.

I have some feedback about these following rules:

1. The improvements and irrigation must be placed immediately after you take one.

I find myself taking improvements/irrigation which i do not have a good place or reason to place it. I wish I can keep them in my hand and place it in the future, like i did with the original rule)

2. Tie breaker: The original rule says that the tie breaker is determined by the player with the most points in the Panda Objective. The Panda objective itself was already overpowering, which is why BGA reduced the points. The Panda Objective points are still quite high compare to other objectives which are more difficult to achieve, especially plot objectives which require drawing the right plot tile, placing it and irrigating it. I feel that it would be more balanced if the tie breaker is determined by OTHER objectives, and not Panda Objective.

After trying the new rules for a while, I will not play it anymore. I feel it introduces so much luck of the draw that I get annoyed.
Since Arena mode is 2nd edition, I will no longer pay arena takenoko until we have the option for another variant.

Second edition of Takenoko is very very very bad. It becomes Panda game. Other objectives are only risks. I don't understand

not a fan of the new rules. i'm never gonna draw a gardener card with the 2nd edition rules

Gardner changes are really bad, particularly for any cards with less than 4 bamboo. Whereas before you could bring the panda in to trim a shoot down to claim an objective, now you may be forced to overgrow an area just to get the gardner into position and hope no one moves it away while you lawnmower things down with the panda.

The game is still not sufficiently color-blind friendly. Unique symbols for each color should be much larger and also color names should be in car and tile pop-up text.

In an effort to balance the imbalance of strategies, the game was broken much worse than the original version.

I don't like the Second edition either mainly due to the changes in the use of irrigation panels and the rule about gardener cards. The original game is way better and it's a lot of fun. Fortunately it can still be played so thanks a lot for that. Also it's a pity that the game became premium. Number of players has decreased enormously.