Kaiju Exchange: Review

Kaiju Exchange: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Trading, Resource Management, Economic, Variable Player Powers

Player Age: 10+ 

Player Count: 2 - 4 Players

Time to Play: 30 - 60 Minutes 
Game Designer: Steve Ng Wen Xi
Game Artist: Alan Bay
BGG Weight: 3.00

Publisher: Capital Gains Studio

Disclaimer: A preview copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Introduction:

It is time to re-enter the financial universe that capital gains has been creating throughout their economically inspired games. In 'Kaiju Exchange' you are trying to collect a total of six influence points before any other player or before the Bannana Republic NPC reaches eight points.

Game Anatomy:

Wonga:

This is the currency of the game. It will be used to hire and pay crew, gain influence, trade with other players and buy goods from Banana Republic. The wonga will be gained from selling goods to Banana Republic as well as completing demands and contracts.

Game Boards:

Each board is an extraction site for one of the kaijus. There are locations for your crew, resources and expertise tiles. As well as reminders on what can be done on your turn and how you will gain influence.

Banana Republic:

Banana Republic is a fifth player which is controlled by the game. This player will come with its own board and dice. The board will be used to store the resources it gains on its turn and through trading with other players. The more resources of one type it has, the less that trading player will receive for trading.

Demand Cards:

These are the demands that you will aim to complete to gain influence and wonga.  There can be either one, two or three identical materials needed on each demand card which is the cost to fulfil. Each player will have two demand cards in their hand (local demands) and three in the centre that can be completed by any player including Banana Republic (global demands). The local demands will be discarded and refreshed at the end of every players turn and the global demands will only be refilled by an event or once all three global demands are met.

Exclusive Contracts:

Each player will receive two exclusive contracts but will only be able to complete one. The other contract will be discarded after the other is completed. Each exclusive contract has a mixture of five goods and will reward the player with six wonga and an influence upon completion.

Event Cards:

A new event will be revealed at the start of every round. These events can range from being able to hire cheaper crew, modifying the global demands, gaining free materials, etc.

Crew Tokens:

There four types of crews that will extract minerals from each kaiju. At the start of every players turn, each crew member will extract two materials from their matching kaiju. To hire another crew member you will need to spend four wonga, and to change a crew member you will need to spend three wonga. These crew members  will sit in the crew location on your personal board.

Material Tokens:

There are four types of materials that match the kaiju they are extracted from; Debtzilla, Ponzitron, Inflationsaurus, and Taxopus.

Expertise Tiles:

If at any point in the game you have two crew members extracting the same material, you will gain an expertise tile that matches the crew type. These expertise tiles will help you use that mineral as either a wild, sell/trade material, or to reserve demands.
If at any point you change your crew and no longer have two crew members of that type you will lose the expertise tile immediately and the bonus that it brings, so be mindful when changing your crew.

Favour and Alliance Token(s):

When you trade with Banana Republic, you can gain a favour token instead of wonga. These tokens can be used with money to buy resources from Banana Republic, or once three have been gained, the third favour token will become an alliance token and you will win alongside Banana Republic if they win.

Setup:

- From the demand deck remove cards based on player count; two players will remove one of the 1 material card of each type and one of the 2 materials of each type from the deck, for three players just do this with the one material cards from each type.

- Give each player a player board, five wonga, two exclusive contracts, and two demand cards.

- Place the resources, crew, expertise tiles and wonga within reach of all players.
- Shuffle the deck of event cards.
- Shuffle and deal three global demands face up, available to all players.

- Designate the first player token to the player owning the player board that matches the top numbered resource on the banana republic board. If the Taxopus player is in play, this is the top of this chart and will be the first player.

How to Play:

Each round of game play consists of three phases; the event revelation, the players actions, and Banana Republic‘s turn.

Event Revelation:

The top card of the event deck will be revealed and the effect will remain in play for the whole round. These effects can alter crew or resources, or it may alter the global and local demands.

Players Actions:

Each player will have their turn one at a time starting with the first player. On a turn, you will pay your crew one wonga for every member and gain two resources matching each crew member. If you have more than 10 materials you now have to dispose of any excess, this is done in an environmental method and will cost you one wonga to dispose of unlimited resources. If that method doesn't suit you, you can trade with other players or Banana Republic to reduce the amount of materials you possess.

Using the resources you hold you may either complete one exclusive contract or complete up to three demands by any combination of local and global demands. When these are completed you will gain the wonga displayed on every card and spend the matching resources, returning the resourced to the unused piles. If either three demands or an exclusive contract is completed, place one of the demands (of your choice) or the contract under your player board to represent one influence, in either case the other demands will go to the discard pile. Now to refresh the demands, discard your unused local demands and redraw two cards. Then if there are currently no global demands, redraw up to three.

Banana Republic:

Every round Bannana Republic will have a turn towards winning alongside its alliance player or by itself. The first phase of the Bannana Republic turn is to roll the material dice and award one resource that matches the roll. Then Bannana Republic will fulfill any global demand possible by spending the matching resources from it’s own board, gaining one influence per global demand completed.

Game End:

The game ends once one player has six influence or Bannana Republic has eight influence.
Players can earn victory points by either; having three identical crew hired, six wonga, completing an exclusive contract, and completing three demands.

Banana Republic gains one victory point for every demand completed which sounds easy but it is very hard for  Banana Republic to achieve without any help from other players.

Final Thoughts:

Pros:
- The demand deck sees plenty of play which can lead to strategic decisions when removing cards as influence.
-Trading coins and resources can help you win or lose.
- Great prototype components.
 - Harder to achieve at smaller player counts but you can win with Banana Republic which gives an interesting challenge.
- Uses kaijus from other games developed in the same universe.

Cons:
- Takes up a lot of table space.
- The colours can merge together while playing.

The engaging universe that the company Capital Gains has been managing has grown again, allowing space for an economic trading game. Let's first establish that this is a great trading game, because of Banana Republic it keeps the trading interactive and engaging at two players. The game has multiple strategies and depth as which demands are removed for influence does in fact matter, the crew and expertise tokens are important, and the shared victory with Banana Republic can lead to an interesting challenge for players to achieve. The rules may still vary as this version was a prototype, however the components of the prototype are already really strong and it will be great to see the final product. 'Kaiju Exchange' will be earning a Kickstarter Seal of Excellence and is not a game I would overlook on Kickstarter if I were you.

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Capital Gains Studio
Kaiju Exchange on BGG
Kaiju Exchange on Kickstarter
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