#13/52. A Game Set in a Different Country - Yedo (Feudal Japan)

Last Tuesday night was our night for playing games set in foreign countries. In my last post I talked about a game called Istanbul. After we got done with that game I asked our friend, Richard Bright, if he'd ever played Yedo. He said that he had not but would be willing to give it a try. Another gentleman we'd never met before named Scott came over and asked if he could join us. Of course we said yes.

Yedo is a worker placement game where each of the players is acting as the head of a powerful family in the feudal city of Yedo (now Tokyo), Japan. The Shogun of the city has recently died and you want to get in good with the new Shogun so you are trying to earn more prestige (aka victory points) than the other families in the city. You do this by completing missions where you are committing acts of espionage, warfare, or kidnapping in order to earn money and prestige from the Shogun. There are 11 rounds in the game and each round has a specific set of steps. There is also a game mechanic that can mess with the players called The Watchman.

The Watchman goes from city section to city section each round. If your workers are in that city section when The Watchman arrives, they are arrested and removed from the board for that round. That can really mess with your plans. There are also event cards that can mess with your plans as can other players. Richard and I seemed destined to mess up each other's plays from the word "Go!"

Yedo is a beautifully rendered game.
The board is a work of art.

In the last round I really need to be able to place a worker in the Harbor District to complete my last mission. An Event card came up that closed the Harbor District and I was crest fallen. Mark played a card that allowed us to re-open the Harbor District because he needed it open too. I was joyous at that. However, I was the last one to be able to place my worker. Richard decided to take the last available spot in the Harbor District - partly because he needed it too and partly to mess me up. As a result there was nothing I could do to earn enough prestige points and I ended up coming in dead last instead of second place behind Richard. It was a masterful play that he did to protect his first place standing.

Yedo is a beautifully rendered game. The board is a work of art. The components (cards and pieces) are well crafted). The game play is smooth and goes very well. I always look forward to playing this game. In fact, not only is it on my 52 game challenge, but it's also on my 10 x 10 challenge. This play represents the first of 10 times I plan on playing it this year.