Yedo
Japan, 1605 – Hidetada Tokugawa has succeeded his father as the new Shogun, ruling from the great city of Edo (a.k.a. Yedo), the city known in present times as Tokyo. This marks the beginning of the golden age of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the so-called Edo Period that will last until 1868. Naturally, the most powerful families in Edo immediately try to curry favor with the new Shogun – and this is the opportunity our clan has been looking for, our chance at power and glory. Our clan will prove ourselves to be indispensable to the new Shogun. We will work from the shadows to acquire information about our rival clans. We will kidnap those who might oppose our ascent and assassinate those who prove a threat. We will use cunning to prevent our adversaries from doing the same to us. We will find glory and honor in the eyes of this new Shogun – or failing that we will end his rule by any means necessary.
In the strategy game Yedo, players assume the roles of Clan Elders in the city of Edo during the early years of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The object of the game is to amass Prestige Points, mainly by completing missions. To do so, players must gather the necessary assets and – most importantly – outfox their opponents and prevent them from completing their missions.
There are several ways to reach your goal. Will you try to complete as many missions as possible and hope that your efforts catch the Shogun's eye? Or will you choose a more subtle way of gaining power by trying to influence the Shogun during a private audience? You can also put your rivals to shame by buying lots of luxury goods from the European merchants. It's all up to you – but be careful to make the right choices, for in Yedo, eternal glory and painful disgrace are two sides of the same coin...
User Reviews (4)
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First and foremost let me apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors. English is not my native tongue.
Well let us get on with the review.
Yedo is set in ancient japan where you are the leader of a house vying for control in the city of Yedo.
This will be done by sending your disciples on missions, trading and blocking your opponents (the other houses).
Components and artwork:
The Components are of a sturdy quality. The disciples are made of wood, the rest of the came consists of cardboard and cards.
The main board and player boards are beautiful, and even though the main board seems busy when you first look at it, you will learn quiet quickly to navigate the different spots with ease.
Rating: 8
Rulebook:
The rules are very simple to understand. And even though the game is somewhat on the meatier side, it is very easy to play, mainly because of how well designed the rulebook and main board is.
Rating: 10
Gameplay:
The game consists of several phases. The first being a auction. Here you can get vital items or missions. If you manage to win these auctions you can save a lot of resources, however this is also a great place to force your opponents to overspent on items they desperately need.
The next phase is the event phase. There are a lot of different events making for a fresh feeling every time you play the game.
These events can be the locking out of certain areas, or the players losing their recourses to earth-quakes and other bad events.
There are some really evil events called marked with the word samurai. Some players prefer to take these out of the game, to make it less mean. Personally I love them and I think it helps to elevate the theme of a struggle between houses in feudal Japan.
After that there is the phase where you allocate your disciples to different spots on the board where you want to take actions.
Be careful because after that the city watch moves, and if you are caught you can lose your disciples.
And then we come to the action phase where you get to use your disciples for different things, be that trading or going on missions or even stealing from the church.
The missions are fantastic. They each tell a little story, and the great part is that the weapons etc you need to get and the places your disciples need to go all make sense with what the mission is.
Rating: 10
Theme:
Well this game is dripping with it. The artwork, the missions and even the mechanics of the game all help to make you feel like you are back in feudal Japan and fighting against the other houses.
Rating: 10
Sum up:
I love this game. If you are looking for a thematic worker placement game, that also has tons of interaction and is mean, you will love this game.
There is a reason why this is one of my all time favorite games.
…At least in this game for here you work from the shadows.
Sengoku Jidai is over, Hidetada has succeeded Iyeasu as Shogun and Japan seems to be finally in peace. You were on the winner side, but you’re not satisfied with your new position, you deserved more! But then again, what you get is never enough, is it? You aren’t the only one who feels this way, other clans are displeased too. Let the race for Shoguns favor begin and should that fail he is replaceable, maybe the new Shogun looks more favorably upon or maybe it will be you?
War might be over, but I ain’t done yet (Summary)
Yedo is a worker placement game for up to 5 players. there are many of those out there, so how does it distinct itself from the rest? How about changing mission objectives and feudal Japan theme? That sounds like a blast.
You control one of five clans (which is basically just color) and use your agents (mostly ninjas) to gain better standing in eyes of Shogun, by gaining inside information, kidnapping and making skirmishes against other clans.
Yedo is divided on two main segments, first auctioning for better privileges for basically anything you can find on main board, as well as for additional agents, and then the actual worker placement where you attempt to gain access on locations that help you complete your personal missions. After mission are completed you gain prestige, money and other benefits. To gain more missions you need to use a worker to gain them, intel on possible missions isn’t free. On top of that you can only have four at the time so it requires some effort to juggle with them and knowledge when to give up on mission which you just can’t get done. Mission cards are divided in four categories easy, medium, hard and impossible. One of the impossible cards is “Kill the Shogun”, which ends the game immediately.
Game spans over 11 rounds, which is you can change according how long game you want. One additional thing that brings interesting change on game is the guard, which apprehends any worker in location it is. This alone isn’t much, but you can affect the movement of the guard is something that changes the game. Event cards also make sure that every turn is different from the last one.
Only finest fabric for Geishas (Components)
Art is very thematic and has fitting touch of modern art and time appropriate Japanese art, everything is a pleasure to look. Meeples have “skirt” on them to symbolize Hakama, not that Ninjas used them, but still very samurai theme fitting. Pieces are made either from wood or cardboard, both are sturdy and easy to handle, not quite as easy as in Manhattan Project, but they do the trick.
Biggest complain I have is the size of the main board, it is same size as Francis Drakes one, but it could have been a bit smaller for easier handling. With player boards it gets rather big and does require decent amount of space from your table.
Also the main board is far too crowded with art, it is pretty, but at first glance it’s difficult to find what you need to see. After few turns it gets easy enough, but after a long break it might be a shocker again.
Abide to Bushido or seek forgiveness from Seppuku (Learning curve)
Core of the rules are pretty clear and it takes few turns for people to get gist of the game. Some may argue that rules are hard for worker placement, but I don’t think that they’re hard to memorize. I can think simpler games that I had more issues recalling some of rules. There are some small things you need to check occasionally to be certain.
Player boards come with turn order which makes it easier to follow and same time makes it less likely that you miss something by accident. There is also different difficult settings in the game to make it easier, I suggest going on easier way for first time.
Rulebook is well made, it doesn’t get bogged down explaining things too complicated and is riddled with examples. It doesn’t leave things unclear. On back of the book is quick reference for the locations and buildings. Even though locations are simple and you don’t need to reference it often. Each location also has symbols on them to indicate what you can do there.
Katana should be touched only by silk and blood (Summary)
This game requires some dedication and bravery to tackle on, mostly due to intimidating looking board and complex turn order. However payoff is one of the best worker placement games, which seem to have gone unnoticed for most part. There is always room on board for everybody to get something they need and want because they can have multiple goals at the same time.
Ability to variate length of the game is something that makes it easy to bring this one to table even if for just quick and easy tryout. Every turn changing events bring element of change and guards make bring extra tactics to game when you can use them to sabotage other players.
Some might find this too cutthroat as worker placement, but I found this to be one of most pleasant and replayable worker placement due to variating elements and is up to par with Manhattan Project.
If you get a chance to give this a go, I suggest you don’t pass up and for this sort of game the price isn’t bad at all. Far from it if you compare to Agricola, Caverna or Francis Drake. On top of that I find this superior those games.
OK I’m pretty new to serious board gaming so my review is based on my limited experiences. I guess the bast way I can review this game is by comparison to other similar games I have played. As other reviewers may have already mentioned the closest game I have played to Yedo is Lords of Waterdeep but Yedo has much much more to it than Waterdeep. think of it as Waterdeep on steroids.
The games objective is to gain as many prestige points as possible by the end of the 11 terns (years). You do this by completing missions that come in 4 difficulties. the requirements for the mission are a combination of weapons, geisha, blessings and sending your disciples (meeples) different parts of the Yedo (the city) if you have all the requirements shown on the card and disciples on the locations you can use one of the disciples actions to complete the mission and takes the rewards. which can be mon(money)/items/cards/prestige points or a combination of the above. each card also has a bonus section if you can satisfy the bonus requirements as well as the basic requirements when completing a mission you get to claim the bonus rewards as well.
the game is played on a beautiful board representing the 6 sections of the town of Yedo. each section is also subdivided into boxes that your disciples can occupy in order to person different actions. some sections of the town have options for different actions ie all boxes in each section are not always the same action. in addition to the game board each player has their own individual board that represents their clan mansion where they will keep their Mon, cards, missions geisha etc.the players can also build upgrades to their mansion that will give them addition advantages as play goes on
the game begins with the bidding phase where players bid for one of the following
bonus cards
action cards
weapons
upgrades to their mansion
geisha
disciples
mission
all of the above can be purchased from the town itself but if the bidding goes well you can get them for less than half of what it would cost you in town
once the bidding phase is done the event card is revealed which can be good or bad or neutral depending on the game. warning some event cards are very bad like earthquake which can leave your strategy in tatters. Personally I like it but some people don’t.
there is also a policeman mechanic in the game which affectively closes off one area of the board. so you will need to plan for this or use action cards to use the policeman against the other players.
then players start placing their disciples in order to take the action or full fill mission requirements and for trading which is only allowed if both players who want to trade have disciples in a certain area on the board.
once placement is done the disciples are removed to activate the chosen action to complete missions. and the turn starts over again.
I’ve played the game a few times now and though its a bit hard learn and explain you get the hang of it after one or two games. I really like this games unpredictability and theme. you can still plan but you will have to have a plan b and c just in case. It also brings a nice tension into the end game. However this is a relatively long game with 4 players it takes on average about 2 – 2.5 hours.This is one of my favourite games.
Like many other folks I would compare this to Lords of Waterdeep (LOWD) with a lot more meat on the bones. Lords is great for the gateway gamer, but if you want more theme in your game and don’t mind taking more time with it, Yedo is the way to go. The missions tell a story for your clan as you progress through the turns. You also get to keep most of the items you buy through the game. Also in this game that is not a part of LOWD is the trading aspect.
This still has that intense worker placement feel where you have to choose what spaces for your disciples to take first. Yedo also has a short bidding portion of each game turn. Love or hate bidding this mechanic will work for you as it isn’t a never ending bidding war. Each player after the first gets one bite at the apple and the starting players gets the last call. if a player wins a bid they’re out of the bidding for the rest of that round.
You can tailor the game’s meaness to suit your play group. It was an instant hit.