Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 10^th February, at the Horse and Jockey pub in Stanford-in-the-Vale.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

This week the “Feature Game” will be Takenoko. The story goes that the Chinese Emperor offered the Japanese Emperor a giant panda bear as a symbol of peace, so the Japanese Emperor entrusted his court (the players) with the difficult task of caring for the animal by tending to his bamboo garden.  So players have to cultivate and irrigate land and grow bamboo with the help of the Imperial gardener.  The winner is the player who manages the land best and grows the most bamboo to satisfy the panda’s appetite.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor nad24 and nonsensicalgamers.com

And talking of Pandas…

Jeff walked into a bar with his pet panda. It was about 5 pm, but Jeff liked his drink and was ready for a good night. They started off slowly, watching the sport on the TV, drinking beer and eating peanuts.  As the night went on, they moved on to mixed drinks, and then shots, one after the other.

Finally, the Landlord called, “Last orders!” So, Jeff asked for one last drink for himself and one for his panda.  The landlord duly set them up and Jeff and the panda knocked them back.  Suddenly, the panda staggered and dropped down dead.  Jeff, more than a little tipsy, threw some money on the bar, put on his coat and started to leave.

The bartender, yelled, “Hey, you can’t just leave that lyin’ there.”

Jeff replied, “That’s not a lion, that’s a panda.”