Luoyang has become the new capital of the Han Dynasty in ancient China. It is time to leave its mark on the gates of Luoyang. As a farmer, you need to provide harvested crops for this growing city. Buy and sell seeds, expand land, hire traders and experts, and sell harvested goods to all types of customers. Competing with other farmers on the road to prosperity has become the most successful farmer in this economic strategy board game!
Gates in Loyang is Uwe Rosenberg's board game, the creator of Agricola, one of the most popular strategic board games of all time. Loyang is Rosenberg's third economic theme. After Agricola and Le Havre, both were popular with a large number of fans. Luoyang continues this tradition, but this time has a different background: Chinese farmers want to produce gold as much as possible. In addition, the game is not as complicated as other Rosenberg games, and there are fewer mechanisms and wins to worry about.
The game is located in ancient China, and you are one of the many farmers who supply the new capital, Luoyang. With the rapid growth of the market, you have the opportunity to achieve this goal, let yourself embark on the road to prosperity, earn a lot of money, and ensure a luxury life for you and your family. But what is the business without a healthy competition? In Luoyang, the winner is the player who completes the farthest game on the road to prosperity, thus becoming the most prosperous and successful farmer.
Each player has a "board" that is basically a T-shaped panel that contains the Prosperity Track and a separate marketplace where you can buy and sell crops. You can also get a home site card and a bunch of 9 semi-random on-site cards for growing different types and quantities of vegetables. There are 6 kinds of vegetables, from cheap wheat and pumpkin to more expensive, more rare beans and leeks. The game lasts for a total of 9 rounds, and at the beginning of each round, each player harvests a crop from each of their non-empty or recreational fields. Then they unveiled a new field from their personal stack, ready to grow new vegetables.
The next part of the round involves drawing cards from the deck. There are also extra wild cards that allow you to grow more crops. With a market booth card, you can change one or more vegetables to another specific type of vegetable. There are a variety of help cards that produce a variety of effects, usually involving plans to make your crop more effective or interfere with your opponent. Then there are two types of customer cards. Ordinary customers can accept up to 4 sets of 2 vegetables, which will be paid to you whenever you sell them to a set of vegetables. However, if you don't sell them to each round, they will be angry. The first time you didn't sell crops to them, they just got angry. Later, if it is not available, you will be charged a fine of 2 gold. The second type of customer is a temporary customer. They are very patient, but need a set of 3 kinds of vegetables that will disappear once you complete the order.
The act of getting a card is very interesting. Each player draws 4 cards and begins drafting. The first player discards unwanted cards to the desktop. After that, the player takes turns discarding unwanted cards or removing a discarded card from the table. Once you take a card from the table, you are not in the draft and must immediately hit the card at your table. At the same time, you must also choose the remaining card in your hand and play the card. The rest of yours will be discarded for other players to choose. Therefore, each player finally plays 2 cards per round at this stage.
The next phase is the action phase, and the order of playback depends on which player first plays their cards in the card selection phase. In a unique twist, each player performs all actions before the next player takes their turn. This is not too bad, because there are not so many cards that can interact or interfere with other players. Existing actions include growing crops; buying and selling in markets or stalls, selling crops; using help cards; selling vegetables to your customers; and paying gold to draw more cards from the deck.
The money you make here is crucial. It is used to buy more crops for planting, but more importantly it is also used to take you along the path of prosperity. The road to prosperity is an interesting mechanism that is harder to advance in the later stages of the game than in earlier games. The path from 1 to 20 represents the cost of moving to that location. Therefore, the cost from step 1 to step 2 is 2 gold, and the cost from step 15 to step 16 is 16 gold. However, your first step in each round is only 1 gold. This opens up some different strategies for how to pursue victory. Once the game is over, the player who is farthest along the road to prosperity will win the game.
Luoyang is a very streamlined game. Unlike other similar games, there are not many paths to victory here. Money is your main focus because it can expand your empire as a currency or gain a victory through the road to prosperity. The game is also less interactive, similar to games like Dominion or Race For the Galaxy. Your main concern is to maximize farm efficiency without interference from other participants. However, one of Luoyang's major advantages is its excellent production quality. The plates and cards look great, and each vegetable and Path tag has its own well-designed wooden markers.
Luoyang is a fun game that doesn't take long to learn and can be a good introduction to more complex economic strategy games. It also applies to players of all experience levels. If you like similar agricultural or economic games like Puerto Rico and Agricola, you will enjoy the Loyang Gate.
Complexity: 3.0 / 5.0
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Playing time: about 1.5 to 2.0 hours
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Number of players: 1 to 4 players
Orignal From: Door in Luoyang board game comment
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