Kohaku Board Game Overview, Mini-Expansions, and Preview of The Big Pond Expansion | DaniCha

Hi everyone, Danielle here. I'm doing an overview of Kohaku and also a preview of the upcoming expansion, The Big Pond. Um, just a quick disclaimer, I did purchase the base game um on my own, but the publisher did send me a preview copy of the Big Pond expansion, which you'll learn more in the middle and towards the end of this overview.

So, real quick, um, I will be doing a solo uh a few solo turns so that you can understand how it plays solo. We have a koi tiles and we have feature tiles. The feature tiles have lily pads on the backs and then we have the koi tiles which have koiish on the back as well. When you're setting up, you'll notice that the board will have an indication of what type of tile will go on top.

So the koiish will go on top of that and then the feature tiles will go on top of the lily pads. So to start, you will be taking a turn and then the rival will be taking a turn as well. So you're going up the against the rival on your turn. Um, so whoever has the most points would end up winning. So, let's see.

When you're taking a turn, you have to choose two adjacent tiles to take. You're going to take one koi tile and one feature tile always. So, um, taking a look here, the feature tiles will give you opportunities to score points. So, for this one, um, this is specifically a single flower type. So single flowers, they give you two points for every adjacent koi tile with fish that contain the flowers color.

So for instance, this one would give you two points for a fish that contains white. Or if you if you actually have all four sides surrounded by a koi koiish that has the white color in the in this instance, you'll get 12 points. So that's a pretty big deal. Um I'm actually going to grab this tile because uh these two tiles work well with each other.

And when you first play your first two tiles, they actually have to be adjacent to each other. Um, any future tiles that you take and play into your koi pond can be placed anywhere else on the board. It has to be placed in a checkered format where it's like alternating a feature and koiish. So, it can't be um adjacent to another koiish.

If you're playing down a koiish tile, you can't place another feature tile next to or adjacent to a an existing feature tile. So, that'll make more sense as we go. But now that we've taken our two tiles, we've placed them in our pond. As of now, we have two points. And then um to refill this, you actually have to remove the tiles that are in the center and move them into the space that is available.

So what we're going to do is we're just going to move this out and then we'll replace the tiles um accordingly. So the koiish will go there and we have the feature tile going on the feature tile spot. So now the rival will take their turn. They're simply going to uh reveal the top of the koi. And uh we have this.

So we're looking for any other fish that looks just like this. And we do have one. So they're going to grab this tile. And this will begin the pile of their tiles for scoring later on. We don't need to move anything when we refill for them. We just simply replace top to bottom uh left to right top to bottom with the tile tiles that need to be replaced.

So now it's our turn. And this is looking pretty interesting. So I'm going to grab this these two. They have to be adjacent to each other. I have a feature tile. I have a koi tile. What I'm going to do is I will place this fish here because now that will give me four points. And with this one, I think I'll probably just place here.

And this specific tile is a dual flower. I'll be able to score for two points for every adjacent um uh koiish that has either white or red in its colors. Otherwise, I could also score three points for koiish that's adjacent that are both white and red. So, there's two different kind of points I could score for that.

So, right now, this is my koiish pond. Let's uh pull these out. You have to make sure when you remove the tiles from the center, they go into their respective spots. and then we refill. Okay, so now the rival will take their turn. They're going to reveal a koiish. And in this case, there's actually no koiish that actually match this one.

They will continue to take this one into their pile, but what they're going to do instead is also reveal a feature tile. Um, and in this case, they're going to grab um multiple butterflies. And in this case, it's going to be this and this. And that goes into their pile. And now we simply refill from top to bottom, left to right.

The tiles that they took. So let's just take one more turn for the sake of it. Um, so let's see. I could do I could do this one and then I will also take this one. So uh this one is interesting. This is a frog. It says uh one point for every individual dragonfly on each adjacent tile. So what's cool is I actually placed this fish um I think at the start of the game.

And this has two dragon flies. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to place that feature tile right next to it. Currently that will score me two points with that frog. And then I have this fish which is yellow and white. That will definitely help with this tile because if if if I continue in this, you know, fashion and put another fish that's white, I'll get 12 points at the end of the game for this feature.

So, I'll put that right there. And again, you have to place it in an adjacent um uh spot. So, I did place it correctly right there. I'm going to pull these out and refill. And then the rival will take their turn. We'll flip over the koi. So, we're looking for a single white fish, but we currently don't have any.

So, they're going to take that. And then we're going to flip over the tile. So, we're looking for single flower feature tiles and we only have one. So, they'll take that one. And then we're just simply going to refill. And then, you know, pretend we're at the end of the game. You're going to score uh all the points that you can based off of the feature tiles in front of you.

And then one final thing, I didn't actually place in my pond, but you'll notice some of the single fish, they do have coins on them, and that will give you one additional point per coin in your koi pond. So, as I mentioned in the beginning of the video, uh we have the big pond expansion, which offers some additional modules that you could play with.

So, the first one I'll go over is the Sund Dials expansion. So, this one will include four sundials and 13 sundial cards. So, you'll see here as an example, I have the red dial. Um, I do think that we'll be using uh these markers as well to mark the north, I guess, just so that um the other players know kind of the orientation.

But basically, this will be um an indicator of the sun dial. Uh if anything is is is off from what my understanding is, I'll make a a rules correction. Um but basically, we have some uh new aspects where we could score additional points. So, the sund dials expansion um requires you to have the sund dial in front of you.

Each player will pick one from the various different colors. Um there's uh yellow and then there's black and white. So, total of four come with it. And then we have this deck of cards. These are sundial cards. You're going to give it a nice shuffle and then um all of the players will end up filling up each side of their dial.

So now um when you score you will be able to score depending on what the cards are. So there are some definitions here. So for instance uh we do have this one. So this one says earn two bonus bonus points for each coin appearing on koi tiles. So, as of the uh sun dial here, you're going to look west and everything west will score two points per coin that's on a tile.

All right, so clarification. Um, this is actually going to be the uh scoring mechanism for all the players. So, this will kind of just be placed in a way that all players, if you're playing multiplayer, will be able to see this and score accordingly at the end of the game. And then you'll also actually put your own sund dial in your pond.

And then relative to the sund dial in your pond, you will score according to what is around this sund dial. So, for instance, say I had this here. Um, you know, just for for the sake, we will put this on this side. Um, we'll do Don't have a lot of space to work with here, but that's okay. I'm going to just continue putting stuff out.

All right. So just for instance, say this was the my my pond. This is the north. So uh relative to this, this matches exactly. I will get two points for every coin that is west of this. So in this instance, it's not just going to be directly west, but it will be anything overall to the left of the sund dial.

So in this case, there's two koiish with coins. This would give me four points for the west um uh scoring for the sund dial here. And then if I had frogs to the right of the sund dial, I would score three points for each of those. And then I would score three for each of these like uh stones all the way below.

So it could be it doesn't have to be directly below in a column, but it has to just generally be below. And you would score three points for these and one point for black if everything is above the sun dial. Um, so this definitely will bump up your score a lot and it could be pretty competitive because people will likely go for the same tiles.

You know, if everyone's scoring for the black uh koiish, you're likely going to have to compete for those that are out in the pond that you're that you're drafting from. So, that is the Sundials expansion. Um, feel free to pause just to see some of the other cards and how they score. Uh, but I think this definitely adds a a cool element to the base game.

So, the next module is called the hidden objectives. Um, which is really nothing uh crazy for solo. It's not really hidden for a solo game. Uh, but basically we have 12 hidden objective cards. They look like this. And then when you flip them over, they will have certain objectives. So, what you're going to want to do is if you're playing multiplayer, keep this hidden because you'll want to try to get as many points as you can with these objectives.

So, for instance, we have florist. Earn five bonus points for each set of red, yellow, black, and white flowers. Include both flowers on dual flower tiles. We have bug repellent. Earn two bonus points for each koi tile in your pond that does not contain dragonflies. So, um, you could pretty much stack up on some of your points based off of your hidden objective cards.

Um, so as far as setup, once you set up the base game as normal, you'll shuffle the hidden objective deck and deal two cards to each player. Players will choose one of these cards and return the other one to the deck, and then your chosen card is kept secret from other players. So, um, yeah, another interesting aspect to add to the game.

And just so you know, you can add multiple modules. So you could easily play with the hidden objectives module and also the sund dials expansion module. So the third module is the blue koi. So after you set up your game, you remove four of your koi tiles. So after you remove four, you actually shuffle in these four blue koi um before you fill in the um the central pond board.

So these will actually act as wilds and they are considered to be a single color of your choice when scoring and they can actually represent different colors for different scoring features. So this definitely will help you bump up some scores if you're missing a certain color. Um so very interesting that they added this in.

I I really like it. Uh there are only four, so it might be pretty scarce, but um if it pops up, you'll be able to um potentially score more for feature tiles that you originally would not have been able to. So um and it's beautiful. Let's take a closer look at this art. I really like the the look of this one.

And this is definitely an easy one to just add in to um to your gameplay. All right. So, the final module I'll go over is basically the new feature tiles that come in this expansion. So, let's take a look at what we've got. We've got six different ones. Um here we actually have um a bunch of different fountains.

So, these fountains will score three points each for each unique feature that is diagonal to it. So, we've got um six of these that will be available to be drafted from the from the pond. Um, single and dual flowers do count as a single feature type each. So regardless of what color they are showing.

Um, so yeah, this will be interesting. So they're kind of like corners of the fountains. Next we have the herons. So um, they will score eight points wherever they are. Um, but once placed in your pond, fish tiles cannot be placed adjacent to the heron on future turns. So after placing your heron, um you'll actually mark any of it exposed edges with one of the X tokens that um will come with the gain.

So I don't have those with me right now. Don't think it came with my my preview, but you'll be able to um mark down the sides of them so that you remember not to put not to place a future uh fish tile next to it. But they will give you eight points, which is a big deal. All right. So, next we have the mandarin ducks.

So, um each mandarin duck will score two points for every mandarin duct tile present in every pond. Um so, you're going to look at everyone's pond when you're scoring for this. So, in a multiplayer game, this is going to be pretty big for you, especially if people are playing this. Um, this is not so much a a good I say a a good solo uh feature tile to add in, but multiplayer I think this is pretty fun.

I think they're they're really cute. They are. All right. And I think this is probably my favorite one, but these are cats. Okay, so we have um uh cats which will give you nine points if all four colors are present at least once on adjacent koi tiles. And if all colors are not present, uh you'll actually get zero points.

[laughter] So, um it is pretty important that if you do play this, you will uh want to fulfill this because um it is kind of a waste of a space if you're just scoring zero points. So, um, very cute. All right. So, those are the cats. And then, um, we have the wild flowers. So, uh, basically here they they're pretty similar to the single color flowers from the base game, but the difference is that you choose a single color during scoring.

So, you have some flexibility. That's what the question marks are for. Um, so basically one point is given for every adjacent koi tile that contains that chosen color. Um, but if a koi in the chosen color is surrounded on all four sides, then they'll score 12 points. So this is kind of like um almost like a wild, hence wild flowers is what it's called.

And then lastly, we have some uh beautiful uh bamboo. So bamboo uh score according to the number of adjacent koi tiles with the exact same color or color combination. So depending on what's surrounding it, if you have one koi, um you'll just get three points. Two koi, six points. Three koi, 10 points.

And four koi, 15 points if they have the same color or color combination. So they have to be the exact same. So you can score a lot of points. 15 points. I think that's the most um I've seen for scoring a tile. All right, so let's talk about the actual big pond uh gameplay changes. So, this is mainly going to impact um the multiplayer.

Um so, when you're playing multiplayer, you're going to set up a new central board, which doesn't look exactly like this, but you would actually um just not fill in the central pieces. And then you'll place a a draft marker um on this first space. And it will always move uh clockwise just like this around the board.

And this will allow you to only draft the next two tiles following this draft marker. So if I was the first player, the draft marker is here. I would have to take these two tiles. So in that case, I would have to um take these two and then I would place it into the pond. And then the biggest ch change here is that you're not placing it into your own personal koi pond.

you're placing it into a koi pond that is going to um uh be shared. So, you're going to share a big pond, which hence uh the um big pond naming. You are sharing this big pond with all of your other opponents. Um and then each player will also begin the game with three markers um of of a specific color.

So, we have black, red, white, and then yellow. And then these will be uh likely coins uh in the production version. But uh you'll also start with four coins. So in the case that you really don't want the next two tiles following this draft uh marker, you could actually pay a coin to skip certain tiles.

So say I don't want this tile, but I want these two tiles. So I could pay a coin and basically skip this one and then grab these two tiles and place them into the big pond. So that's a major difference obviously in the way you're um drafting some of these tiles on your turn. So throughout the game there will be um coins placed on these tiles.

If you end up drafting that tile, you actually gain the coin into your supply. So you'll be able to spend that coin on a future turn. So, there's kind of a balance there where if you really want to take a certain tile by skipping tiles that are following the draft token, you're also giving the chance that other players are going to get coins.

So, let's just say I did take these two tiles. I place them into the big pond um adjacent to each other. I move this marker as right as possible in the clockwise uh format. And then you'll just simply refill according to uh the corresponding sp uh space and then each player will continue in this fashion.

So after you place your tiles, you will take one of your player markers. So for instance, maybe I'll take this one. You'll place it onto that feature. And this will basically um tell everybody this is your feature that you could potentially score. And scoring a feature on your turn is optional. So, after you place your tiles, um you could choose to score any of your marked features.

Again, that's when you place your player marker on a feature. Um you'll score any of those, including the one you just placed on your turn, and then you'll just score as normal. Uh typically in the multiplayer, you'll also have the other side of this board, which is a scoring track, and you'll immediately score those points um of the of the feature, but also you'll score an addition additional bonus point for the koi tile that's next to the scoring feature that that matches your player color.

So, for instance, this is a black uh player color. So, if there were any adjacent fish that was black, you would score a bonus point for each of those black fishes. So, you'll go around and play this until um everyone has had the same amount of turns and basically if either the koi or feature tiles cannot fill in the board.

Um and it's okay that as everybody everybody ends up taking their turn um that there aren't enough koi tiles to fill up the board. You'll just continue to um draft with what's left. So, yeah, definitely a very interesting way to play Kohaku. Um, I would love to to give that a try. Obviously, not not really the best solo experience, but for a multiplayer game, I think it's um a very interactive way to play with people because otherwise when you're playing the base game, it is kind of like a a solitary g game.

You have your own pond. You're scoring your own pond. You really can't do anything um that could impact other people. But when you're playing in the big pond, you get to place tiles that could potentially ruin um scoring for a specific feature tile that another player has. So, um yeah, I think it's definitely a cool competitive way to play Kohaku.

Um definitely a big thanks to the publisher for sending me uh the big pawn expansion um components and um yeah, let me know what your thoughts are. I'll put a link in the description below so that you can uh learn more about this game and support it as well if you're interested. And thanks so much for watching.

If you're not already subscribed, please consider uh subscribing. A like or a comment is also always appreciated. Um and I hope you're all doing well. Thanks for watching. Bye.