Tokaido

My son was back for a flying visit from Uni last weekend and so we managed to squeeze in a quick board game.  This was a bit  of an unusual one for us...normally it's something like Twilight Struggle or Carcassone but a friend gave me a copy of Tokaido at Xmas and we hadn't managed to get round to playing it.

This game is published by Funforge and is based around a journey along the Tokaido...one of the Five Routes of the Edo period in Japan.  This road linked Kyoto to Edo and the players travel along a route, stopping off at various places/activities on the way.  In a very Zen-like way the game is all about the Journey rather than a race to the finish. Each player can move between the inns along the road but has to stop and wait for the others to catch up at each inn.

On the way you can stop to buy souvenirs, visit temples, sample different foods, build up paintings of panoramas or stop at a hot spring for a relaxing soak.  Each stop confers different victory points (eg collecting a 'set' of different souvenirs, donating the most money at a temple etc).  As you have to stop at the inn there is a subtle tactical game of choosing where to move to and which places to block so your opponent cant use them.  There's nothing to stop you moving directly from inn to inn but obviously you'd miss out on the chance to gain points and acquire goodies.  As the player at the back of the queue on the road moves first you don't want to get too far ahead of your opponent and allow them to casually stroll from stop to stop picking up points.

one of the character cards

Each player has a 'character' selected from a random draw and each has a varying amount of starting money and special abilities.  Very quickly we found that we were able to manage purely by the symbols and illustrations and needed little reference to the short rule book.

The game is one of those ones that initially seems very easy, almost too easy, and then you start to realise that there is a lot more depth and subtlety to it.  The game components are really lovely and beautifully illustrated.  As games take around 45 minutes it's an ideal game for people (eg my wife) who don't fancy devoting a whole evening to a game but it's a great way to fill in some time...highly recommended.