Dylan Birtolo
United States
Lynnwood
Washington
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General Information
Number of Players: 2 - 4
Length of Game: 1.5 - 2 hours
Difficulty of Game:  
Strategic Depth:
Fun Factor:
Popularity at local game night:
Overview
In the game of Y’s, you take the role of a merchant. And like any good merchant, you want to increase your profits and outperform all of your rival merchants. Isn’t that the basis for the great concept of capitalism at its finest? All of the trade that you are interested in is gems. You want to amass a fortune much greater than anyone else in precious stones. But the market is fickle. You need to stay aware or else all of the gems you so coveted might drop rapidly in value, and at that point, your precious stone collection could be worth little more than a bag of rocks.
Game Materials
The board for this game is very well put together, from both an artistic stand point and also from a durability standpoint. While it has not been played a lot, it is made of thick hard cardboard and leads me to believe that it will stand the test of time well. The city and market areas are well illustrated with a high level of detail. As for the rest of the pieces and cards, they are standard but of good quality. The cards and tokens serve a purpose, but do not have an inherent artistic value. They do serve their purpose well, are clear, and also seem to be of significant durability.
Play Summary
The game is divided up into four turns. Each turn starts with players bidding on turn order. Once that has been established, players put out tokens, two at a time. After placing two tokens, play goes to the next player until it goes all the way around. The first player then places two more tokens, and so on, until everyone has placed all of their tokens save one. This last token is put in front of the players’ screens and is used to break ties.
Once all of the tokens are placed, the relevant areas of the city are scored and points, gems, or special action cards are awarded. Finally, the market is adjusted, and then play continues to the next turn. At the end of the fourth turn, all of the players total up their gem counts. Points are assessed based on who has the most gems of a certain color. For example, if all the other players have 2, 3, and 4 red gems, you will score the same if you have 5 red gems, or 20 red gems. It only matters where you rank in comparison to other players. After the final total, a winner is decided.
Each of the tokens has a value painted on one side ranging from 0 to 4. Every player has the same number of tokens of each number. When you are placing the tokens, you always place one face down and one face up. So one of the values is known, and the other is hidden. It is possible to win a region with a zero point token if no one else places a token in that area. The zeroes also have a reasonably high value in the market as I will explain later, and as ways to scare people by putting them face down.
When you are bidding for turn order, each player picks two tokens and places them in front of their screens. Once all players have placed tokens, the values are revealed. Whoever bid the highest takes the position he or she wants. Usually, it is to go last since that enables you to place tokens in relatively undefended or unoccupied zones at the end of the turn. Then the next highest player picks a position to go. If there are any ties at this point, they are broken by turn order of the previous turn. So, if player A went first on the previous turn and bids 5 for position, while player B went fourth and bids 5 for position, A would get to pick position before B would. In the case of the first turn, the winner is decided randomly.
Once turn order has been determined, the placing of tokens commences until we get to the scoring portion. In the scoring portion, ties are broken by the tokens in front of a player’s screen. This includes the two tokens used to bid for position and the final token that was not placed on the board. If there is a tie in this, then turn order determines the winner as above.
The city is divided into four quarters and three circles, making twelve distinct regions. If you are playing with less than four people, you will only be using three of the quarters. Each quarter has a ship card associated with it. This is a collection of three gems on one card. The large gem on the card represents two of that gem color, so each quarter has a total of four gems arriving to it on ship every turn. If you place the highest total value in the entire quarter, you get the first pick of gems. The player with the most value in the quarter gets to pick two of the four gems to keep, and they can be any of the four. The next player gets to choose one of the remaining two gems. The third ranked player, even if he or she has a value of 0, but still has a token in that quarter, gets the final gem. If there is a fourth player in the quarter, that player receives nothing from the shipment. This is done for each of the quarters.
In addition, each section of a quarter is evaluated differently. The outer ring of the circle grants the highest contributor to that 12th a precious black gem. Black gems are worth a set value at the end of the game, regardless of how many black gems other players have. The middle circle of each quarter grants the highest contributor an immediate three victory points. And finally, the inner circle of each quarter grants the use a special card which can be used to give you a bonus. For example, some special cards allow you to change the market, or grant you a couple of free gems. The cards must be played on a subsequent turn. Because of this, in the last turn of the game, there are no special cards and they are instead replaced with white gems. White gems, whether acquired during the last turn from the center ring or from ship delivery on a previous turn, must be traded in at the end of the turn they are acquired. When you trade in a white gem, you can take a colored gem of any type except black.
Finally, we get to the market. First of all, when you place a token in the market, you immediately gain a victory point. These should be scored at the time of placement in the market. Each row of the market has a gem associated with it. Whoever scored the most points in that row is awarded that gem. If there is a tie, it is broken by the number of tokens used to make that value, and then by the normal fashion described above. More tokens is better, so having a 2 and a 1 is better than just a 3.
Then the columns are looked at. This is where the market can fluctuate. The gem stone which has the highest value in the column above it goes up by two points. The next highest stone goes up by one point. The next highest value goes down by one point and the lowest value decreases two points. Here, and at the end of the game, ties are broken by which gem is closest to blue. It goes blue, green, yellow, and red.
The last move in any turn is that the highest contributor to the market total gets to adjust any one gem value up or down one point. At this point, the turn is over and play continues to the next turn.
Play Experience
This game is very well put together in terms of interacting with other players. A large part of this game becomes predicting what the other players will do an using that to your advantage. What comes along with that is trying to mislead players with what your overall goal. Other players have imperfect information about your pieces. They know the total pieces available, which ones were used up to bid for turn position, and which ones are face up on the game board. The rest of it, they can only speculate upon. It makes it interesting and tricky to try and steal a sector or a quarter out from underneath a player.
What works to your advantage is if you can bluff other players into committing a large number of their resources to take a single section when you contributed a relatively minor force. This is a huge advantage and is one of the many places where face down tokens come to your advantage. You can also try to scare out other players with multiple face down tokens of low to no value. Often times this might make other players decide it would not be worth the price you are forcing in order to gain control. In both of these situations, you come out on top. But, of course, other players are attempting to do it to you as well.
The market is a critical component of this game and some people overlook it until the end game, which does not appear to be a sound strategy. Collecting a lot of gems can be a useless endeavor if the majority of them are one or two colors and those are the worst-valued gems on the market. As such, you need to pay attention to the market, and more than likely, try to influence it in your favor. I have seen games won by a last minute switch on market values during the last turn; a move which made the entire difference between a first and a second place finish.
Because of the nature of the game, players can spend a long time planning their moves. This can be frustrating to some, and it warrants mentioning. In my experience, most players don’t take so long that you become bored waiting for your turn to come around. But, I can easily see it happening as a player weighs all of the options.
One final thing to mention is that this game has received a relatively low score for game night popularity. At this point, I think that is more of an indication that it is new to the game group and there are few people who know how to play it. As it gets brought out more often, I can see this game becoming more popular as a local game night option.
Notable Praise
The interaction with the other players is key to this game and a very good element. Paying attention to what they place, why, when, and trying to figure out the values of this unknown pieces is truly an exciting element. It is also fun to try and use your face down pieces to manipulate other players into doing something to your advantage. I think that the game captures this feeling very well and it is one of the main strong points of the game.
I think the other key element is the use of the market. You do not always need to be snatching up the most gems to win. While it certainly helps, it is by no means a requirement. Ignoring the market is something that can often come back to haunt you in the end game. Paying close attention to and manipulating the market is at least a key element in winning the game. This multiple approach to winning is a nice element when it exists in games and is balanced well, something I think this game does nicely. And let’s not forget the benefits of scoring points now through the special cards or middle ring, versus the benefits of changing the market or getting black gems to increase your point value in the end game. There are multiple things to keep track of approach, which adds to the complexity in a positive way.
Notable Gripes
The game says that it is playable with two players, and has special rules, but I find that the game definitely pales in comparison. You have the added element of a neutral player that both players are somewhat responsible for (placing tokens for). But, while this mechanic does make the game playable with two, I think that it pales in comparison to the full game. This is not high on the list as a two player game, and I would review it more harshly as two players opposed to four. The game is best with four people, without a doubt, but playable well with three.
There is a possibility that the market becomes so spread out in the first few turns that it is almost impossible to change on the third, or completely impossible to change on the fourth turn. This can happen if the same pieces keep getting the same general placement for the first two or three turns. It can be such that there is no way a gem will ever come out of last place, or only through perfect manipulation, become second-to-last. I have not played the game enough yet to determine if this is a potential whole in the game or is a byproduct of people not paying enough attention to the market in the early game.
Summary
I think that this is a wonderful game that I am glad to have added to my collection. It has strategy on multiple levels that you need to at least pay attention to, if not influence, in order to win. It also has multiple options for you to consider when you are attempting to accomplish your goal. This are very good traits in a game and I think a good mark of strategy when they are well balanced. Personally, I like the interaction and trying to read other players. The best comparison that I can think of is if you like poker, you will like this game. What I mean by this is if you like the trying to predict other players, read them, and eventually bluff them, you will like those elements of this game. If that is not your preference, you should probably pass on this since that is a major element of what makes this game enjoyable.
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Youri Boulianne
Canada
Roberval
Quebec
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That's weird, i usually think of the 2 players Ys as the ultimate bluff experience if both players know what they're doing.
This is definitly the game i'm opening with my bubby when we want to have a good wits confrontation.
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Kevin Garnica
United States
Buena Park
California
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Thanks for the insightful and thorough review. I've had my eye on this game for a couple of months now, and reading your review has pushed me over the "edge." I'm going to purchase it when I get back home.
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