Tabletop Spotlight: Yamatai
A new game from Days of Wonder challenges you to become the greatest builder of Yamataï!
Our friends at Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy brought over a new game from Days of Wonder. Yamatai is about managing exploration, workers, and island building. Only one player can win the reward from the Queen – will it be you?
The basic premise of the game is to be the player at the end of the game who has the most Prestige Points. Those points can be acquired in 3 ways: Collecting Money, Constructing Buildings, and Hiring Specialists. The game takes place in an archipelago and so to explore the islands and move goods around you’ll need to manage your fleets. Those fleets are determined by a set of ten unique initiative/fleet tiles. These determine who goes first on the turn and what boat’s you’ll be able to place. Once you place boats, you can also build on the islands and collect resources.
Strategy-wise it’s interesting because players have to place boats in a particular way. This can effect where the trade routes are and what buildings can be placed. In a creative way, you almost have to work with your opponents to accomplish your goals, but you’re also trying to block them from scoring points, too. It’s kind of sneaky! On top of that, the type of buildings you can build is determined by the ships that are near the islands. You have to have the right resources to construct the buildings. There are also different types of buildings that reward you with different amounts of points. If you know what your opponents are trying to build you can attempt to build it first or cut them off.
Component wise this game is down-right pretty! The board looks great with all the components on it and the wooden meeples are exactly what we’ve all come to expect. The cards are all high quality and really everything is just top-notch. I really liked their choice of colors as it’s just very eye catching. Visually, this game is very appealing.
If Yamtai sounds like a game you want to check out then you’ll be happy to know the rules are available for your perusal HERE. Overall, it looks like a really colorful and interesting game, plus Days of Wonder has a pretty solid track record so it would be worth going out on a limb for this one. Yamatai is in stores now so get to exploring and build a temple worth of the Queen!
Yamatai
Queen Himiko has tasked every builder in the kingdom with a prestigious mission: build the capital of Yamataï and make it the jewel of the archipelago. Your task: surpass your competitors and build the most prestigious city of them all, using resources from the fleets that travel through the kingdom. Prepare your strategy, recruit specialists, and do whatever is necessary to become the best builder and be rewarded by Queen Himiko for your work. In the end, only one name will be remembered as the greatest builder of Yamataï!
AdvertisementIn Yamataï, players compete to earn prestige points using different strategies. Clear the different islands of the archipelago to recruit powerful specialists that will assist you, or use the resources carried by the boats that navigate between them to construct buildings on the islands! And, if you’re skilled enough, try creating prestigious buildings such as high temples or rare torii.
This is gonna take crackerjack timing, Wang.
