Game(s) Played:
I really wanted to get a proper game of Yokohama under my belt and I haven't played games with the siblings in a while so I invited the gang over.
Session – Yokohama
Game: Yokohama
Designer: Hisashi Hayashi
Players: 2 – 4 Players
Playing Time: 90 minutes (This Play: 240 minutes)
Main Mechanisms: Route Building, Set Collection, Modular Board
Player(s):
At its heart, Yokohama is a very simple game of placing workers in different Areas of the city of Yokohama and moving your President to take specific actions granted by these various Areas. The more workers and buildings you have in an Area, the more powerful the action is. Some Areas give you resources, like Fish, Silk, Tea (which looks like Weed if you have the deluxe version), Copper, Workers, Buildings & Money and other Areas give you Technology to break rules, Orders to turn your resources into VPs and some where you can turn specific resources into more VPs. Whilst it might seem like a simple "Go here to get this, then go there to turn this into that, then turn that into VPs" sort of Euro, the initial welcome to new Players is similar to someone going to Universal Studios for the first time, and that is "What would you like to do first?"
I won't go into a rules breakdown as there are other avenues that will definitely do that better. Instead I will try and provide a synopsis of some of the strategies each other Player was employing and what I personally was trying to achieve but failed miserably at which you can see in the end results of the game.
So to help with the synopsis, here is a timelapse video of our game:
The layout for this session of Yokohama was really, really weird. You had the Bank (the only Area that provides Money) all the way in the top left corner and the Port AND the Dock (both let Players take Orders to fulfil) in the bottom right corner and the important point scoring buildings such as the Church and the Customs together in the bottom left. What this means is that there will probably be quite a fair amount of travelling involved and hence the need for more Workers and Money to get to these locations as well as bypass other Presidents by greasing their palms with 1 Yen.
Thankfully, Moses doesn't like this game and sat out although I did volunteer to play the game with him in turns. I say this because Mo tends to stick to me all game long and thankfully, we all started in different sections of Yokohama. So let's start with what Amanda achieved…
Amanda (in Blue) looked like she was playing the outer right edge of the game which basically had all the Production Areas she needed to fulfil Orders. I think she realized how important the Bank was and it's very distant location from her starting point and so was very clever to pick up the Tram Technology that allows her President to basically teleport to any Area on the board. However, at the expense of performing a very impressive full faith activation on the Church board, it would seem that it cost her in terms of Order fulfilment as she was getting small amounts of resources by buying them from Chinatown instead of picking them up at the Production Areas.
The Research Center acted like an interconnecting Area for all Players hence the harmonious eyeballing of each Players' worker at one another
Justin C (in Red) actually predicted his win today and here's how I think he pulled it off. He had an extremely focused strategy of fulfilling Orders which had Import goods as the reward, then turning in those Imports into VPs at the Customs. His President only travelled to Production Sites, the Dock / Port, the Customs and the Research Center / Laboratory for lots and lots of Technology, in ignorance of everything else. Although this meant his cashflow was not as liquid and manpower was at times short in supply, these shortfalls were the necessary cost for an efficient victory.
At the higher Player count, blocking (as can be seen by Exhibit A above) off an entire section of the city can actually happen
Mel (in Yellow) zigzagged up and down the board between the Bank and the Port / Docks, stopping at everything in between when needed. She too had a similar strategy as Justin C although I believe she was aiming for a Trading Station end game as well as focusing on the Achievements a little bit. She spent more time getting key positions in the Church but also fulfilled enough Orders to have 2 turn ins at the Customs as well.
The standard cry of "Sometime today please", "Who's turn is it?" & "No cheating" punctuate the air above the dinner table
I decided to get the Fish and Coins Achievement to start, then using the accumulated Fish, fulfil some Fishy Orders that gave Imports as a reward. I was off to a good start and I had the Imports necessary to turn in for the highest spot on the Customs board but forgot to accumulate Workers at the Customs. Justin C stole the march on me then and I had to settle for second place. I decided to focus on Buildings which required Money so I moved back and forth across the board. The problem was everyone apparently didn't hear me say that Buildings give power to the Action at the respective Area and so we had to house rule that out of the game. I lost my lead to Justin C and then Amanda and to put myself out of agony, I landed the 6th Worker on the Customs board to close out the game.
Results Of Game(s)
WINNER – Justin C (150 VPs)
2nd – Amanda (121 VPs)
Third – Justin (116 VPs)
LAST – Mel (104 VPs)
Session – Majesty: For The Realm
Game: Majesty: For The Realm
Designer: Marc André
Players: 2 – 4 Players
Playing Time: 20 – 40 minutes (This Play: 30 minutes)
Main Mechanisms: Card Drafting, Set Collection
Player(s):
To round out the night and let Moses get a game in, we turned to Majesty: For The Realm once again. Feels like Majesty: For The Realm has replaced 7 Wonders as the go to game all over again.
Everyone was quite keen on getting as high a Variety Score as possible so it largely came down to the order each Player recruited their citizens in. Those who managed to recruit their Guards & Witches to good effect later in the game had more gains than those who did so earlier. In any case we have to replay this one as I mistakenly read the rules, which says set aside 26 Cards THEN put it on top of Deck B. I set aside 26 Cards then put the REMAINDER on Deck B.
Here's a timelapse video of our game of Majesty: For The Realm:
Results Of Game(s)
WINNER – Moses & Mel (157 VPs)
2nd – Amanda (148 VPs)
LAST – Justin C (142 VPs)
So yes, our game of Yokohama took 4 hours instead of 1½ hours. I still enjoy the game but the time taken is noticeably longer at 4 Players instead of 3 Players which is significantly more reasonable at 1½ - 2 hours. I will probably be trying to get it to the table again at the 3 Player count.
Nevertheless, a big congratulations to Justin C! His first true solo win amongst our group and a well-deserved one at that.
Your winner!
Until next time, keep calm and play better.
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