Tokaido: Rapid Review
Information:
Mechanics: Time Track, Set Collection,
Player Age: 8+ Player Count: 2 - 5 PlayersTime to Play: 45 Minutes
Game Designer: Antoine Bauza
Player Age: 8+
Game Designer: Antoine Bauza
Rundown:
Players are travelling through Japan and with any good holiday you know it's always about the journey, not necessarily the destination. That is exactly what this game has players focusing on; the journey. This is a time track game that allows players to stop at any destination along the track, knowing that only one player can visit a destination at a time. At the start of every turn the active player will be the last player on the track. On their turn they can choose to go to any location as long as it isn't past the next inn. These destinations vary from taking in glorious panoramic views, going shopping or visiting beautiful temples.
Achievement Cards:
There are several achievement cards players can earn at the end of the game. These are worth 3 points each for a varied amount of reasons, such as:
- Having the most encounters.
- Visiting the hot spring the most.
- Spent the most on meals from the inn.
- Having the most souvenirs.
- Completing panorama views
If a player completes any of the three panoramas first, they will gain its matching achievement and the above-mentioned three points.
Places:
The places are a pivotal aspect of the game as each turn you will be visiting an unoccupied place ahead in the track. Each time the players collect points they will instantly gain and track them on the point track.
Village:
The village deck contains souvenirs with various costs, this is how players go shopping. They will gain points by creating card sets of different categories. The points will be 1/3/5/7 for 1/2/3/4 cards collected. When the player visits here they will draw three cards and are able to buy one of them, with the rest returning to the bottom of the deck.
Farm:
The farm is the best and most common way to gain money. Landing here immediately gains the player three coins.
Panorama:
Players can create a panorama of three locations. The panoramas will either be 3, 4, or 5 cards long. When a player visits any of the panorama locations they gain the next valued card of that coloured panorama by pulling from its respective deck.
Hot Springs:
Here players will enjoy a relaxing time and gain a card from the hot spring deck, gaining 2-3 points.
Temple:
When you visit the temple you can choose to donate 1-3 coins, gaining a point for each coin donated. At the end of the game players will score based on their position here, from the most coins donated to least.
Encounters:
Encounters represent chatting to the locals. When visiting this location you will draw one card and immediately gain a benefit from a range of options.
Inns:
Every player has to stop at the inn. Once everyone has done this they are ok to continue through to the next section. When the first player stops at the inn they will draw cards equal to the player count plus one, then may select one to purchase gaining six points. The catch with the Inn is that you can never experience the same meal twice, this is a holiday after all and there is a lot of food to explore.
Interaction:
Through accident or purpose, players will constantly be blocked from their next desired destination if they push their luck too much, as only one person is allowed on a location at a time (more are allowed in a 4-5 player game). This is where the bulk of the interactions come to play as players must determine the locations they seek the most and decide whether it's worth making a few more stops along the way. This, however, becomes more cut-throat in a game of two players as the bot player will be controlled by whoever is furthest along in the track. This allows players to block certain locations without having to make the sacrifice themselves.
Determination:
- Looks like a long distance but based on player count it is a very quick game.
- Can be highly competitive in where to visit as you cannot share locations unless playing at a higher player count.
Tokaido is a classic game that has existed for 10 years now. It is easy to teach that is perfect as a gateway game in any collection, while still giving players plenty of choice in how they want to venture along the track and what focus they want on scoring. However, as I have been playing many games that feature a time-track mechanism lately, I found Tokaido to be a little bit too cutthroat of a game for me. Blocking players is pivotal to gaining personal headway, which is why a bot is needed at 2-players. This game still has its place in my collection though, especially as an easy-to-understand introduction to the time-track mechanism.
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