Revisiting a sport that you just performed a few years in the past, when your expertise within the interest was a lot much less, is usually a difficult proposition. Typically these older video games maintain up extraordinarily properly, and generally these video games we beloved have been so beloved as a result of they have been the one issues we had actually performed on the time.
Yokohama was one of many first mid-weight Euros I performed once I entered the interest. Will it maintain up after the 8 years since its launch and once I first performed it, or will it pale compared to newer video games, and perhaps even itself?
Gameplay Overview:
In Yokohama, gamers will probably be taking turns inserting Assistants across the completely different location boards after which transferring their President piece to a location. The variety of Assistants you’ve on the placement your President lands on determines the Energy of the motion you’re taking. For example, if there are two Assistants and the President on a location, then that location’s motion Energy for the flip could be 3.
Every location has completely different actions that will probably be accomplished from them. Some actions are merely useful resource gathering, some are gathering contract playing cards, some are gathering rule breaker Expertise playing cards, and so forth… A few of these actions could seem on a number of boards, whereas others could solely seem on one location in a given sport.
Since Yokohama is a modern-day Euro, it ought to come as no shock that the target of the sport is to assemble as many Victory Factors in as many various methods as you’ll be able to. Most factors are gathered by changing the gathered assets into factors, largely by Orders. There are additionally a number of of the areas which might be miniature Space Majority contests, in addition to some Set Assortment thrown in for good measure.
Recreation Expertise:
In case it wasn’t apparent from the foundations breakdown, the fundamental bones of Yokohama are nothing distinctive. Gathering and changing assets is concurrently an oversimplification of a variety of Euro video games, and but it’s not removed from the reality for many, both. The place Yokohama stands out above the remainder is with its decisions with participant interplay.
See, the location of Assistants and Presidents is a little more difficult than the best way I described it. If I need to place Assistant(s) in a location with an opponent’s President, I have to pay that participant 1 Yen per Assistant I want to place. Additionally, if I need to transfer my President by an area that has an opponent’s President, I have to pay 1 Yen.
This mechanism is the meat of Yokohama. This makes an extremely easy useful resource conversion title flip right into a brawl. Every determination about Assistants’ placement is now twin goal: offense and protection. In each sport of Yokohama I’ve performed, there are Assistants that I place out on the board with no intention of activating the motion of that location any time quickly, however I place that Assistant merely to realize me some chilly exhausting money. Additionally, each time I transfer my President, I’m not solely looking for the opponent’s Presidents to keep away from paying them money, however I additionally need to attempt to decide on a location that’s actively in the best way of different gamers for his or her upcoming turns.
I completely adore this mechanic of the sport. It takes a sport that may very well be “mathed out” and fairly simple and provides a wrinkle of human interplay that a variety of useful resource conversion Euros discover revolting. I actually can not imagine that there’s a Euro with as a lot chew as Yokohama has. The draw back to this mechanic, nevertheless, is two-fold.
One, this sport actually suffers at decrease participant counts. Sure, the map of town shrinks, however the variety of gamers between my flip shrinks, and thus makes exploitative strikes tougher to drag off. Two, there’s a distinction of viewers at play right here between pleasant Euro gamers and confrontational Euro gamers that makes this sport fairly tough to get performed.
One other mechanic I didn’t focus on within the guidelines breakdown is the implementation of Shophouses and Buying and selling Homes. These are buildings that may be positioned on every location by every participant that act as everlasting Assistants. I’ve all the time had a difficulty with these buildings. First, they signpost to different gamers the place you’re most invested in taking actions sooner or later, making their affect really feel lesser. Second, they begin to take away the affect of the Assistants as the sport goes on, which as I alluded to above, is the principle motive to come back play Yokohama within the first place. Lastly, the buildings might be expensive to get out, and due to that, they really feel like they’re railroading your technique in ways in which the Assistants don’t.
Lastly, I need to discuss what I foreshadowed with my introduction: how does Yokohama really feel eight years later? I actually really feel like, though the sport itself hasn’t aged a day, its place throughout the board sport group has shifted. This sport is just too imply for pleasant avid gamers to get pleasure from, and for feistier Eurogamers on the market, there are such a lot of higher choices. This has all the time been true to some extent, in fact, however with the saturation of the market as a complete, I simply really feel that Yokohama is such a tough sport to place into only one camp, and thus that makes it pricklier than ever to attempt to get performed.
Closing Ideas:
Yokohama stands out for its aggressive nature and “route constructing” employee placement, however it’s nonetheless a fairly barebones useful resource conversion Employee Placement sport. For those who’re in search of a bit feistier of a Eurogame, you’ve come to the appropriate place. In any other case, this sport doesn’t have a lot to supply in as we speak’s crowded panorama.
Closing Rating: 3.5 Stars – In 2025, the sport has misplaced its luster however remains to be higher than most Euros.
Hits:
• Distinctive employee placement guidelines
• Excessive variability
• An excellent mixture of ways and technique
Misses:
• Doesn’t stand out from the group
• A whole lot of minor guidelines
• Sources can grow to be off-balance
