Ruling the Board: SSHS February Board Game Bonanza: Tokaido

In Tokaido, players take on the roles of travelers in Japan making their way from one city to the next.  Players don’t have much money, though, and must choose to use it wisely between giving money to the temple, buying souvenirs, enjoying the scenery, visiting the hot springs, partaking in encounters, and eating food at the inns.

The game goes in a furthest back order with each stop having a limited number of people who can stop there.  So, figuring out where you want to go and getting there can be a chore or impossible determined by who else wants to get there and who goes first.

You really have to be careful with your money and use it to the best of your ability to have a chance to win.  Sometimes this will mean using it to focus on a couple of types and others on spreading it out effectively among many types.

My traveler was Chuubie who got a free encounter card at every inn.  This actually worked out really well for me although it only activated at inns.  I decided to go for the four piece scenery of the 3, 4, and 5, and spread around between all types of actions.

I was able to take the lead about 1/3^rd of the way in and keep it through until the end of the final scoring.  It killed me not to be able to purchase food and get 6 points at the final end.

Final Score:

John – 72

Jack – 71

Me – 71

Justine – 63

Dan – 46

Final Thoughts:

This game came out of nowhere for me and blew me away.  I had never heard of it before and was a bit hesitant to step in for it, but I had wanted to play with Jack after meeting him at two previous events and not getting to play with him.

The theme in the game was really cool and the game won me over about two rounds in as I was buying souvenirs and then food at the inn along my trip.

This game is allot of fun with allot of options.  It took my brain a bit to get used to the order going from the furthest back to the first up and recognizing that certain options would only be available on the current turn as someone would be there the next turn and I would have to jump ahead of them.

I look forward to being able to play this one again in the future.