OUR REVIEW

A trip across China

YUNNAN

Tea House Road

The game takes us along the „Ancient Tea-House Road“ across Yunnan, which is the eight-biggest province in China, bigger than Germany as regards to area. The name Yunnan means “South of the Clouds” and probably relates to the neighboring province of Tibet. The other neighboring regions of Yunnan are Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar, the former Birma. Four great rivers cross the province, among them the well-known Mekong and Yangtzekiang. This province also harbors the last 250 free-roaming elephants in China. Since 1700 years the city of Pu-er is the starting point for a transport route from Sichuan, the fifth-biggest Province of China, and Tibet to Qinghai. This was where the famous brand of Pu-er Tea was transported to, a green tea, also called Brick Ta, due to his form of packaging. In former times the tea was stored for five years before beginning its travels. In 1970 a new process was introduced that reduced the storage time to several months only. But now from background information to the game!

I must confess that I feel more at home with the Coffee faction. My experiences with tea are restricted to Jaga Tee and the curious mixtures that are offered in the Christmas season, under cover of the mantle of charity, in open-air huts. Nonetheless I have wended my way in the tracks of the tea traders, which turned into an absolutely rewarding enterprise.

The cover of the game box already gives you some hints on what is waiting for you inside the box: Foremost horses, which are indispensable for transport, and also bridges for impassable terrains or passes as well as tea houses and trade posts which give you advantages in the course of the game.

The game board was draws in perspective and I must voice big praise for Dennis Lohausen. He is not unknown, as he has – among others – illustrated Terra Mystica, Carcassonne Südsee, Village and also Glück auf! All options for actions are depicted very clearly and in a self-explanatory manner on the game board.

But let me mention the copious contents first.

Each of the five players commands seven traders, of which he can use only three at the start of the game. Furthermore, there are five horses in five colors, which are responsible for your range. One victory point marker is placed on “Kramerleiste” for a proceeds marker, to which I will come back later, and also a turn order marker and two progress markers each for the two tracks on the board. On top of that there are two bridges, two tea houses and two trading posts for each player. One Province Inspector indicates by his grey color that probably not much positive will come from him, and then there are 14 presets and a set of 53 coins. For the expert version you need markers with “-100” and a round marker. In Essen there was a Promo feature an extra shrine that doubled some options when used.

Now to the game itself: Designer Aaron Haag introduced quite a lot of innovation in his first game. The first one can be found in the way the starting player is determined: One of the players takes one piece per player and drops them over the turn order track. The shortest distance to the starting position marks the starting player. The other places are assigned according to distance, too. Now the first two payers receive 9 Yuan starting capital, the next ones 12 and the player in last position gets 15 Yuan starting capital.

At the start you have for your three traders no less than seven options for their placement, either in the houses explained now or in the bank or on the market of Pu-er.

Five houses have five positions for placement, for a price of to 15 Yuan. Here another feature is introduced. You can be ousted from the first two positions costing 5 or 7 Yuan, but are safe from being ousted on the more expansive positions for 9, 12 or 15 Yuan. In each of the five houses only one color is allowed. What can you acquire now? Everything that you need and would love to have!

In the Trading School you can expand the number of your traders, you can never have too many of them!

In the Customs Office you acquire additional Border Passes which allow you to cross province borders. You begin with 2 of them and can advance to 6 of them on a track.

At the Horse Trader you may advance your horse by one province and thus enlarge the range of your traders. This is an essential part of the game, as provinces further away yield more tea.

If you choose the Dragon House, you can increase your influence on yet another track up to the quadruple starting amount.

In the construction yard you have the option to acquire a tea house, a trading post or a bridge. In order to use the bridge your own horse must have advanced to both provinces that you want to bridge. The position of your own house is also a decisive factor for the acquisition of tea house or trading post.

When you abstain from bidding in the five houses you go to the bank. Here you can – not unexpectedly – replenish or boost your money. The amount you receive varies and depends on the amount of money used by your fellow players in the houses. The first player to choose the bank receives a sum that is about one third higher than the player in second place. This choice means retreating from bidding in the houses. The traders that you take back are placed on the Market of Pu-er, the starting point for the travel phase. There can be several traders in Pu-er and you can choose the Market directly for an option. On the “Kramerleiste” there are notations on every fifth case denoting how much money is paid to the player in first and second position. An interesting method of handing out money.

When the bidding phase is finished the traders that are on the Market of Pu-er or have already advanced to the provinces do travel. The further away they are from Pu-er the higher are the proceeds for their goods. At this point in the game the turn order is reversed.

Two options enhance interaction here. When my trader has more influence than that of my opponent (acquired in the Dragon House) then my trader ousts the other one into the next-lowest province, which of course results in loss of income. But this advantage is a double-edged sword, as now the Province Inspector appears. He goes to the province with the highest overall yield and in this province targets the trader with most influence, he sends him back to Pu-er. Against this you can protect yourself with your own tea-house or by having already acquired maximum influence.

A tie in yield is resolved by the Inspector preferring the province further away from Pu-er and a tie in influence is resolved by the Province Inspector targeting the trader who is further advanced on the travel track. With the exception of the first province there are resents for the traders after each crossing of a province border, in the guise of tiles of value 3, which are exchanged for victory points at the end of the game.

Now the last phase begins, the determining of victory points and of the new turn order. For this the designer also had some new ideas: You need a continuing line of traders or trading posts. Traders that are isolated after the travel phase are put back to Pu-er. Isolated trading posts do not yield income. The income of individual players is marked on the victory point track and determines the new turn order. Now you can change your income either to victory points or money, according to your choice. This is a point to criticize as this often results in a very abrupt end of the game.

The end of the game is reached when all presents have been handed out or when a player reaches 80 on the victory point track. In the final scoring your own tea houses are worth 12 points each and your placement on the tracks of Customs House and Dragon House are worth 1-16 points. This is a point that I would change, too, I think this is too much! Money is turned into victory points at a ratio of 1:3.

The rules are well structured and illustrated by examples and also offer tips for newbies to the game. The components are of excellent quality, even providing little horses, and leave nothing to be desired.

I can only warmly recommend to try “Yunnan2. Maybe with a cup of tea for more of a flair. It might be a fruit infusion or an Earl Gray, but I did treat myself to a Pu-er!

The „silver“ Argentum Verlag has in Yunnan published a game that is golden and, for me, one of the highlights of Essen 2013.

The relatively young company of Roman Mathar has published quite a few well-known games so for, among them „Wind River“, „1001 Karawane“, „Jagd nach dem Gral“ and „Hansa Teutonica“. “Yunnan” in my opinion occupies one of the best places in this list. This year the company celebrates its 10^th anniversary and want to congratulate cordially. I look forward to learn which jewel he will bring to Essen this year!

Rudolf Ammer

Players: 2-5

Age: 12+

Time: 90+

Designer: Aaron Haag

Artist: Dennis Lohausen

Price: ca. 25 Euro

Publisher: Argentum Verlag 2013

Web: www.argentum-verlag.de

Genre: Tactics, worker placement

Users: For experts

Version: de

Rules: de en fr

In-game text: no

Comments:

Well-structured Rules

Nice, well-working components

Very attractive game board

Harmonious background-story.

Compares to:

Worker placement games with different costs for positions

Other editions:

In English and French, Argentum Spieleverlag

My rating: 6

Rudolf Ammer:

A multi-faceted game with lots of interaction and some innovative ideas, a game that expert players should try without fail.

Chance (pink): 0

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0