Components
Compared to Agricola, you will probably be surprised at the (lack of) heft to the box. What you do get is very nice, though. All the vegetables are cute, recognizable cut-outs, and this greatly improves the harvesting experience. Your marker is a paddy worker in a triangle hat, who dutifully moves upwards on the Path of Prosperity. The player mats are efficient and well designed.
Images: Henk.Rolleman, helloa
The cards have the signature artwork, are printed on good card stock, and are generally well written, although there are several which have caused considerable confusion (see all the "Bookkeeper" threads).
The rule book is fine, but needs refinement in several areas. The layout is easy to follow and there are many examples and illustrations. However, there are some head-scratching word choices ("play" meaning "place," instead of "use"), a reference section of special cards that sometimes only repeats the card text itself, and a lack of examples for some of the most confusing rule areas (such as how exactly to play the 4 person action phase). These questions have come up on the BGG and most have been settled.
Setup
Can be done in 10 minutes if all the pieces had been pre-sorted. Each player gets a turn summary card, 10 Cash coins, a "home" field to plant your first crop, a stack of "private" fields that you will use (one new field per round), a cart/storehouse for your veggies, and a game board with your own Path to Prosperity (victory points) and a shop that you use to buy/sell vegetables. Everyone starts with the same items, but your private fields will be revealed in a random order so every player's experience will be different.
The general supplies of Cash coins, vegetables, loan cards (which can be taken any time and are worth 5 Cash immediately, but negative one victory point at the end of the game) and satisfaction markers (more on this later) are put in the center of the table within reach of all players. My advice: buy a few small cheap plastic containers for each of the supplies, so you only have to open them up before you play. The parts then almost clean up after themselves; as you return your used veggies back to the boxes during game play, you then just have to snap on the lids and put them back into the box at the end of your game.
Before the game actually starts, each player purchases the crop they want to sow on their "home" field from their own shop. The choices for the home field are wheat (cost 3), pumpkins (cost 4), or radishes (cost 5). Later in the game, you can also purchase cabbage (cost 5), soybeans (cost 6) and leeks (cost 6). Like in Agricola, at the same time you sow, you immediately fill in the total number of vegetables that can be held on that field (for the home field, this is nine total vegetables-- exactly enough for each round of the game).
Image: skell
Playing the game
There are 9 rounds, each divided into 3 phases:
1. The Harvest Phase. You harvest 1 vegetable from each of your fields and place them in your cart, then turn over the top card in your "private" field pile. This new field can be planted in the action phase. If you have completely harvested all the vegetables from a field, then the card is placed out-of-play and cannot be replanted (this is unlike Agricola, although there are some cards that change this). Private fields can hold between 3 and 6 total vegetables, and the larger the number of spaces on the field, the fewer options you have for viable crops (i.e., the field with three spaces can plant all types of vegetables; the field with six only wheat, pumpkins and radishes).
2. The Card Phase. This is how you will acquire your markets for trading vegetables, your customers, your helpers, and the extra fields. Doing so will require some skill and some luck. Shuffle the action card deck (including any discarded cards from the previous round), and then deal each player four action cards. The starting player chooses one card from his hand and places it face-up into the "Courtyard," basically a communal pile of action cards. The next player then chooses whether they either (a) place a card from their hand into the Courtyard, or (b) pick one card from the Courtyard and one card from their hand to keep (to later use in the Action phase). If they choose (b), then they are done with the card phase, and they place their chosen cards in the proper areas on their player mat (there are areas for the helpers, markets and customers), and then place the rest of their unchosen leftover cards from the hand into the Courtyard. If they choose (a), then the next player goes. Each player has to make tough decisions about which cards to offer to the Courtyard and thus to others, which they want to keep for themselves, and which ones they don't want others to get. After all players have selected their two cards (one from the Courtyard, one from their hand), they stock their newly acquired markets with vegetables from the general supply, and place satisfaction markers on their new regular customers. The last person to select their cards becomes the new starting player; the second to last is the second start player.
There are five types of cards:
Regular Customers. Each regular customer wants four deliveries of the same combination of two vegetables in successive rounds of the game. If you successfully deliver what they want, they will pay you in cash (and generally, you get paid more for each subsequent delivery). If you cannot deliver what they want, they will become "unsatisfied," and you switch their satisfaction marker from the blue to the red side. If you still cannot deliver what they want in the next round to an unsatisfied customer, you will need to pay them 2 Cash in every round you cannot deliver. So taking on a regular customer is the best way to earn money, but contains some risk.
Casual Customers. Each casual customer wants a one-time delivery of combination of three vegetables at any time during the game, and never become unsatisfied. They will generally pay you a lot for them. The game has a clever mechanic which rewards you for having more regular than casual customers (as regular customers require more advance planning). When you deliver to a casual customer and have more regular customers than casual customers, you get a 2 cash coin bonus payment on top of the base delivery price. If you have fewer when you make your delivery, you suffer a 2 cash coin penalty which is deducted from the base delivery price.
Markets. These allow you to trade the veggies in your cart for other types of vegetables. The rate is 1:1 or 1:2, depending on the trader. Each vegetable on offer from the market can only be traded once, and some markets are better than others.
Helpers. Each helper has a special ability, some of which will influence other players (using their markets or selling to their customers). When you use a helper in the action phase, it is then discarded.
Extra fields. You pay an additional two cash coins for each extra field, but then they act just like your private fields (with the exception that when they are completely harvested, they are not out of play, but instead put in the discard pile, and could be eventually come up again during the card phase).
3. The Action Phase. This is the heart of the game, where the general goal is to make as much money as possible. It's done as one long multiple-part turn beginning with the starting player. You can, in any order, and as many times as you want:
(a) Take a vegetable from your cart and sow it onto an unused field.
(b and c) buy or sell vegetables from your shop. To buy a vegetable from the shop to place in your cart, the costs are noted above in the "setup" section; to sell a vegetable from your cart to your shop, your profit would be: wheat, pumpkins, leeks and cabbage: 1 cash coin; beans and leeks: 2 cash coins. It is generally unfavorable to sell vegetables back to your shop (as the profit is low), but sometimes you need just 1 extra coin to buy an extra field, or move that one step up on the path to prosperity.
(d) trade vegetables at any of your market stalls. See above, "Markets"
(e) use or discard a helper card. You may want to discard helpers without using them in order to lower the price for the two-pack (see below).
(f) deliver vegetables to your regular customers. Collect cash for every successful delivery; turn the satisfaction marker to red if you cannot deliver to a regular customer this round; or if the marker is already red and you cannot deliver this round, pay the bank a 2 cash coin penalty.
(g) deliver vegetables to your casual customers. Collect cash for every delivery, as specified above, "Casual customers." Remember that there are no penalties if you do not deliver to casual customers. However, keeping track of the number of regular customers to casual customers you have will be important, as the ratio, as explained above, affects your payments to casual customers.
(h) buy a two-pack of Action cards-- this action can only be taken once per round. The cost to buy a two-pack is either (1) the number of markets you have, or (2) the number of helpers you have, whichever is greater. You get the top two cards from the Action deck, and can place 0, 1 or 2 of them in your area for immediate use (discarding the others). If you take both cards, then you choose one of them to be active, and place the other one underneath it. The bottom card will only become active once you completely use the top card and discard it (use all the vegetables in a market, make all deliveries to a regular customer, deliver to a casual customer, or use a helper).
Once you are done with your actions, you then
(a) store your vegetables. Any veggies in your cart must be stored; your original storehouse can only hold one vegetable; you can upgrade your storehouse to accommodate four vegetables for a cost of 2 cash coins. Once upgraded, your storehouse is permanently able to hold 4 vegetables.
(b) Move up the path of prosperity. The path has 20 steps and you start on step 1. Your first step for each round, regardless of the number you start on, costs 1 cash coin. Your next steps in a round cost the number on the step. So, if you start on step 5, progressing to step 6 would cost 1 coin. If you want to move further on that round, moving to step 7 would cost 7 coins and moving to step 8 would cost 8 coins. So, starting at step 5 and moving to step 8 would cost 1+7+8 or 16 total cash. It is not advisable to take a loan just to move up one space on the path of prosperity, as at the end of the game, you will move down one space per loan card used.
Image: henk.rolleman
Then the next player completes their action phase.
In the four person game, the action phase is carried out slightly differently in order to speed up the game. The start player picks a partner (among the 3rd and 4th players), and the second start player is then partnered with player who wasn't picked by the start player. Then, the start player and the second start player do their action phase simultaneously. If they have any helpers that potentially could affect other players, they can only be used against their partner. Once they are finished, their partners complete their action phases simultaneously; similarly, if they use any helpers that affect other players, they can only be used against their partners.
End of the game and scoring
After everyone has completed their ninth turn, the game is over. If you have a loan card, you move back one space per loan on the path of prosperity. The person who has the most points on the path to prosperity is the winner; if there is a tie, then the person with the most money is the winner. If there is still a tie, the person with the most vegetables in their fields and carts is the winner. If you have survived this many tiebreakers and are still tied, then there is a joint win.
My impressions of the game:
Theme
Others have noticed that, for a game set in China 2000 years ago, it was an odd design choice to use simplified Chinese characters which were only standardized and implemented in the last century. Also, why is there no rice?
Interaction
Is present, but generally pretty minimal. Many of the helpers will interfere with other players, and during the card phase, you have to be aware of what other players already have and want. But there is no direct bartering with other players, and everyone is in their own distinct world -- each player has their own shop, markets, fields and customers.
Downtime
Given that there are so many things that can be done on an action phase, the potential for lots of downtime is high, as when it is not your turn you are just waiting for someone else to figure out what to do. If you are playing with others that take forever to make simple decisions, this may be frustrating. The four player rules speed up the action phase considerably, and some have noted that the four player game can be shorter than a three person game.
Complexity and variability
Many others have noted that this is not as complex as Agricola (with its multifold goals) or Le Havre (with its bazillions of resources). This is quite true, but a simple game this is not. Even from the start, there are a lot of interesting, sometimes agonizing choices to be made. The game has a lot of variability based on the vegetables you choose to plant, the customers you get, and the order of the fields you have, so a person's strategy has to be flexible. You generally have to plan two to three turns ahead, or face the wrath of several unsatisfied customers.
Teachability
This is a game with some pretty basic concepts that everyone should be familiar with - buy, sell, trade, plant, harvest. A few of the mechanics (the card phase, buying a two-pack) are difficult to grasp fully until you see how they work, but after playing one full round of the game, most people are up to speed.
Tension and balance
This is I think where Loyang excels. The resources are tight, and in general, the play is evenly balanced, so players with similar experience levels will be neck and neck. Unlike Agricola, where you could get an awesome and virtually unbeatable set of cards by luck alone (or get screwed), Loyang divides luck with the card distribution phase, which amounts to practically a mini-game every round. Every decision counts, and most games are won by one, or at most two, points.
Luck
The luck of the draw is always a part of any card game, but Loyang mediates this with an interesting card phase mechanism. If you know that one of your cards will dramatically benefit another player, how do you entice them to pick up other cards first? Or if you want to keep two cards from your dealt hand, which one do you place in the courtyard so that it won't be snagged by other players? It says a lot that I feel that I have improved significantly with experience playing the game, so reliance on luck couldn't be an overpowering part of the equation.
Unique game play elements
Fans of Agricola and Le Havre will be pleased that Loyang has different goals and a completely different feel to gameplay. I have not played Antiquity (on which Loyang is said to be partially based), so cannot comment about how truly unique Loyang is, but, to me, the card phase mechanism, the long-range and short-range customer planning strategies, and the scoring mechanism are new and interesting.
Fun
The use of the nice wooden vegetable pieces, the various markets to barter goods, the choice of pleasing loyal customers or ripping off one-time buyers-- these all seem like realistic parts of a food economy, and makes this game really satisfying to play.
Overall
I'm very glad I got this, even at such a stupendous price. Hopefully the game cost will be lower (and more appropriate for the quantity of contents) with the rumored upcoming American printing of the game. But it's a game I now play quite often; others who may have been intimidated by Le Havre will find that Loyang, though elaborate, is more accessible (and plays over a shorter period of time). I would recommend it for casual/family gamers who want to step-up the complexity a notch or two, lovers of economic games who do not mind some luck factor, and eurogamers who like creating their own productivity "engine" and are used to relatively sparse player interaction.
Posted Sat Nov 21, 2009 3:37 am
