Thanks guys! Info appreciated.
I second RoboRally - You "program" robots to race around the board firing lasers and trying to hit flags while avoiding pitfalls and conveyor belts. Players make 5 movement choices simultaneously, and when all but one player has "locked in" you start a 30 second timer. No one wants to be caught with the timer so everyone rushes, the entire time. It's almost guaranteed that every turn there is one player who screams "Oh no, I didn't mean to do that!". As you get damaged, you get fewer and fewer choices, and your robot gets wonky and you can't control it as well. It was developed by the creator of Magic the Gathering, I believe.
Do you guys still find Takenoko fun/interesting? This thread has generally been so good for recommendations that I bought it based on these comments and the fact the designer also did 7 wonders. But after 3 plays I feel almost no interest in playing it again.
Specifically, I found it too difficult to get victory points by placing and irrigating tiles (because it's pretty easy to for another player to disrupt). Without the blue cards as a viable route, I didn't feel like there was much room for interesting strategies. You get some cards and have to do your best to fulfill them, but planning bamboo growth and panda placement 4 moves in advance seemed nigh impossible. So it felt like a little optimization every turn, trying to grab whatever victory points you can that turn. I don't mind that lack of longterm strategy in RoboRally, because players are forced into the hectic pace. But Takenoko seemed to elicit analysis paralysis. The components were nice, however.
