Company: Stonemaier Games; Type: Eurostyle; Players: 1-5; Time: 30 minutes; Genre: Worker Placement; Rating: 💥💥💥💥 I like it!
Not all Eurostyle games achieve a true synthesis of theme to mechanics. Tokaido is one of those games that truly does. The theme of the game is holiday travel from Edo to Kyoto -- or the other way round, I can never remember which. Each player takes on a special role. As they travel on the road they each stop at various attractions and collect mementos. At the end of their journey, they then score their memento collections. Whoever has the most points wins.
As with any worker placement game, the core mechanic is choosing a point to place your meeple to gain a reward and incidentally to block other players from doing the same. One of the interesting quirks of the game is its "catch-up" mechanic: at any time, the player who is furthest behind on their journey goes next. So, while you may be blocked from achieving a goal at a given spot, if you take small enough steps in your journey, you can potentially get many more moves than the leader. Like any good simplex game, its a strategic trade-off that you must manage.
Simple and elegant rules with great nuance. And mwah! for the theme. Solid game.
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