Yamataï Review
“Did I tell you the story about when I met the Empress of Yamataï?”
“No Grandad?”
“Well it was long ago and I was overseeing the construction of buildings and temples across a great chain of islands…”
“What’s a Yamataï?”
“It’s a place in Japan. Now, because I was the best builder, when we finished building the Empress turned to me… And she smiled!”
“How’d she know you was the best?”
“Well… I suppose… I had the most points…”
“Oh. This is a board game story isn’t it Grandad?”
“…yes.”
Players: 2-4
Time: 40-80 min
Ages: 13+
Designer: Bruno Cathala, Marc Paquien
Artist: Jérémie Fleury
Publisher: Days of Wonder
Yamataï, an ancient Japanese Kingdom lost to history and now the latest Days of Wonder title from Bruno Cathala and a previously unheard of accomplice, Marc Paquien. The annual Days of Wonder title is always something to look forward to and you can always rely on two things regarding it. One, it will be a light to medium weight, accessible Euro game and two, it will look utterly stunning on the table. Yamataï is no exception:
But looks will only get you so far, even when I am a sucker for a saucy wink from a pretty game. I’m afraid you’ll need to woo me with eloquent game mechanics and some witty player interaction first, Empress or no. Let’s just start with a drink.
Tell me about yourself
Yamataï starts with the realisation that you didn’t bring enough quite table space to this party as player sheets, tile stacks and pool after pool of resources spread outwards from what felt was such a reasonably sized board. Steadily these mountains of cardboard and wood will find themselves transferred to board or player sheets as the game progresses and the seas and islands of Yamataï fill up. But we are a long way from that yet. For now the board is free from boats and the islands are little stages upon which culture tokens flourish. We’ll soon deal with that.
There are two main ways of getting points in Yamataï. The first is by building buildings. Whenever you build you take one of the face up building tiles awarding you the given number of points. There’ll also be a bonus for snagging the best islands (as naturally you can only have one per island), but more on that later. The other is by attracting the various people of Japanese court/mythology, who also offer you some ongoing special power. But to attract these fine people you must be cultured! Or, at least, have stolen the culture tokens from the islands near by. As amusing as that is, it’s the interplay between these two processes that illustrates Yamataï’s most interesting and novel element.
Oh, that is an interesting mechanic! Tell me more.
You see, you can’t just turn up on an island with the ancient Japanese equivalent of bulldozers and start building when it’s so full of culture. That would be terribly gauche. No, you can only build on islands that have had the culture thoroughly removed. Which is interesting because by taking culture instead of building, and you must do one or the other, you open up opportunities for your opponents to build. The player on first turn of the game has almost certainly no choice in this!
This happens at other times too. Typically when you build you place one of your own wooden buildings out but, when available, you might get to place one of the big red special buildings. I know, I know, it’s almost too exciting but bear with me. These are worth the most immediate points, but when a player builds their house next to one they get a bonus point, presented on a ceremonial fan, as is customary in board game clubs around the world. And, yes, it is a fan-tastic feeling getting one.
Wait! Please don’t go! You see this is just like with the culture tokens. Your actions will directly benefit your opponents. This is an odd feeling. It’s your instinct to think that you must resist this temptation, that you are being punished by the game. But you need to remember that you are benefiting. Those red buildings are almost always worth 2 or more points more than anything an opponent builds next to them, the powers from the special characters are almost always worth collecting the culture tokens for, especially as you can play cunningly to collect a load at once. Yes you create opportunities, but they aren’t necessarily as good as what you are getting by doing that action in the first place.
I think there’s something between us
I know what you’re thinking. What’s with all the boats? Well the boats are the central puzzle of the game, apparently designed to be as colour blind unfriendly as possible. For the rest of us, this is a spatial puzzle that has much in common with Bruno Cathala’s previous Days of Wonder title Five Tribes, including the potential for some of the dreaded Analysis Paralysis. Though before you panic, it’s not as bad this time round.
Each turn you’ll probably place out some boats in a quaint little line starting from the left hand edge of the board or a matching coloured boat for reasons only naval experts can explain. If you are looking for culture, you can only pick up tiles from islands adjacent to where you place your boats and limited to the number of boats you’ve placed. A big culture grab requires you to carve a long line of boats across the sea, pressing deeper into board. Each building you attempt to construct, on the other hand, requires a specific combination of boats around the island you build it on, making the hunt for a perfect build location all the more challenging.
Having been hunted remorselessly over the centuries, boats are now the playthings of the rich but back in the days of old boats were common creatures, filling the seas with brightly coloured hulls and sails. To get a boat one simply chooses one of the 5 turn tiles shown above, awarding you the boats shown and some special power. But the number on that tile determines your position in turn order for the following round, giving you rather a lot to think about.
You need to figure out what colour boats you want, especially when building, but many of the powers will let you move one or two things around and you can always buy or sell one boat for that extra bit of flexibility. Yamatai has you utterly focused on the board, trying to spot the best opportunity but it does its best to keep your focus limited to the open spaces, earlier regions that are already filled with boats and buildings can, by and large be forgotten about.
Progress in Yamataï is therefore measured in inches of board covered. You start on the left and steadily expand towards the right, ending as you start to run out of space. If anything the end game criteria take just too long to reach. You will see 90% of the components and while the puzzle is undeniably engaging, the final turn or two can leave you with so little space you are just scrabbling for scraps, and waiting for the game to end. While it is ostensibly under player control, the various systems are too tightly regulated for you to rush the end of the game.
Fancy some interaction?
I feel like we’ve been chatting for hours now, but the Empress of Yamataï always demands more. More wood! More bright colours! More things to discuss. Like the powers from the various special character tiles (generally good and with some potential for neat combos, but not always), the desire to build your buildings along chains of neighbouring islands for a cash bonus (leading to some deliciously passive-aggressive construction to cut opponents off), or the fact that any unused boats you’ve acquired in your turn will end up costing you points. But there’s only so much courting you can do before making a decision.
So I’ve had a fun few dates with Yamataï but is she it meant for something longer term? Well, Yamataï is a thoroughly enjoyable game, especially for those that enjoy a spatial puzzle. Fans of Five Tribes will likely enjoy this too and while it still suffers from a spot of AP in places, the fact that you are studying a reasonably limited area instead of the entire board makes the situation much less painful!
But I’m always left with the feeling that this shining boat has a few barnacles below the water line. I wish it ended a turn or two earlier, when we are still scrambling for the eastern edges. Not all the character powers are as interesting as the others, and while you definitely get nice combos, there’s only a few. It doesn’t quite go far enough. Similarly some of the weaker turn tile powers (the ones that let you go earlier) aren’t just weak, as they should be, they are boring. These are all such minor quibbles but it collectively takes a little of the shine out of the experience. It’s as if the Empress’ smile that you’ve worked so hard for just never quite reaches her eyes. You can still revel in the richness of it, but it might not truly fulfil you.
Rating: Call me maybe
Have you had chance to play Yamataï? Leave a comment and tell me what you thought of it!
My copy of Yamataï was provided for review by Esdevium Games. You can get hold of a copy for £49.99 from your friendly local game store.
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