Watch “How to Set Up and Play Bonsai,” a how-to-play guide for Bonsai from Board Gaming with Konakat on BoardGameVideo.
Description provided by Board Gaming with Konakat on YouTube:
Intro: 00:00
What's in the Box: 00:23
Set Up: 01:20
How to Play: 03:21
Seishi Tile & Cards in Detail: 03:34
Meditate Action: 05:37
Cultivate Action: 0:22
Claiming Goal Tiles: 10:26
Goal Tiles in Detail: 11:15
End of Game and Scoring: 12:55
Solo Play Overview: 14:05
Bonsai: 1-4 Players, 40 minutes, ages 8+
Become an expert bonsai master and grow your own bonsai. Show your cultivation skills and gain a spot in the Imperial Gardens to show your masterpiece.
Play board games with me at https://boardgamearena.com/ username: konakat
Find me streaming on twitch at: https://twitch.tv/konakat
Mostly reviews and how-to-play. Bonsai is covered on BoardGameVideo.com by 27 reviews, 23 how-to-play guides, 18 recorded sessions, 7 unboxings, and 1 other video.
1 - 4 players
40 min
Light weight: Learn it in minutes
About Bonsai, from BoardGameGeek:
The Japanese term "bonsai" means "planted in a pot".
A bonsai is a living work of art, a perfect miniature plant, identical in all respects to its full-size simile, but several times smaller.
In Bonsai, players take on the role of expert bonsai masters intent on growing their own bonsai.
Whoever grows the best plant will be appointed to show their Bonsai at the Imperial gardens.
On your turn, choose and perform one of these two actions: meditate or cultivate.
If you meditate, choose one of the face up cards on the board and take it, along with any Bonsai tiles represented below the card you draw.
If you cultivate, you can place in your Bonsai the tiles which are in your personal supply. You can place as many tiles as the total symbols depicted on your Seishi tile and any or all of your Growth cards. Each symbol will let you place one tile of the corresponding type.
During the turn in which your bonsai matches or exceeds the requirements of a Goal tile that is still in the middle of the table (i.e., the Goal tile has not been claimed yet by any player), you must immediately choose whether you want to claim that tile or if you want to renounce it in order to try to achieve a harder Goal tile.
When the last card from the deck is revealed, the game end is triggered. Each tile in your bonsai is worth a certain number of points.
In the solo game you can try the Additional Scenarios that change some rules and goals, and eventually try to beat the Emperor Challenge.
-description from the publisher