“Claim your fame as the dominant merchant in Yokohama during the Meiji period.”
Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/196340/yokohama
Playing Time: 90 mins
Weight: Mid-to-Heavy weight
Genre: Worker Placement Contract Fulfillment
Designer: Hisashi Hayashi
Players: 2-4
Yokohama is, at its core, a simple contract fulfillment game. Players place workers, and doing so grants them resources which they can use to fulfill contracts. Doing so gets you more resources as well as victory points, as all players attempt to profit from the sleepy Japanese village of Yokohama becoming an international trade powerhouse.
The worker placement is the real gem in this game. Players start with a handful of workers as well as a meeple which represents themselves. On their turn, they can place up to three workers in different locations. They can then walk from their current location to another location as long as there is an unbroken path of workers between the two locations. And the location they choose will grant resources based on how many workers you’ve placed in that location. Thus, the real game is figuring out how to manage your workers, create megaturns, and plan for the future.
I used to feel guilty about recommending this slightly hard-to-acquire title, but it should be easy this year as it just went through a reprint.
Leave a Reply