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Kohaku is a peaceful koi-pond-building, tile-laying game. Each turn, players will draft both a Koi and Feature tile from the central pond board to place into their personal koi pond.
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.
After there are no koi tiles available to refill the central pond board, the game ends. Players will total the points scored by each feature in their pond. The player with the most points wins.
—description from the publisher
- beautiful acrylic tiles with koi, turtles, and frogs
- easy to learn and quick to play
- accessible solo and with a partner
- light in depth; may not satisfy heavy gamers
- Japanese garden aesthetic with koi imagery
- Japanese koi pond / koi fish motif
- pattern-building tile drafting
- Five Tribes
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- central pool drafting — tiles are drafted from a shared center and placed into a personal pattern.
- Pattern Building — players try to assemble patterns from placed tiles to optimize points.
- tile laying — tiles are taken from a central pool and placed into a personal koi pond.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's just beautiful
- it's a comfort game
- it's quick to learn
- it's not for everyone
- it's very cute
- the pagoda rotation mechanic is integral to gameplay
- it's a puzzle-thinking game
- fantastical asian style theme that's the one i'm going for
References (from this video)
- Very relaxing and aesthetically pleasing
- Two-player mode is well-paced with tight drafting
- Can become tight on board for some color strategies
- Calm, serene, nature-inspired pond-building
- Koi pond garden with decorative tiles and natural motifs
- Relaxing, zen-like
- Orleans (expansions and drafting vibe)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- tile drafting and placement — Players draft tiles and place them to optimize their pond with color-matching dynamics.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Two-player head-to-head pitcher.
- This is Star Wars in a box.
- It's the most thematic experience in a board game you will ever play.
- Get out and play some games.
- This is like forcing a book lover to choose their favorite book.
- Orleans with Trade and Intrigue changes it in such a way that it's necessary.