We like the original Yokohama board game and love roll&write games too, so when we heard that a Yokohama Roll&Write was coming we thought it’s a match made in heaven! Unfortunately it never got released outside Japan, so that only left us with one choice: get it from Japan! 😄
Of course everything is in Japanese and not everything is language independent. However I am pleased to say that after reading a translation of the rulebook on BGG you are all set to play without problems – some cards do have some english text on them and you are mostly looking at iconography. 👍
Let me start by saying that this is an outstanding roll&write, it exceeded even our high expectations! 🥳 It has our new favorite “paired-drafting” mechanic, where you have to choose a pair of things each turn that leads to intriguing decisions. ☝️ You also have both roll&write and flip&write elements, as these pairs are made up of a card and a die each. The card will determine how many circles you can mark and the die will pinpoint the location, one of the 8 action spots in the City Block, that are randomized each game.
🧐Every round you choose an action and cross out 1-5 drawn circles from its row and perform it with 1-5 value. You really have to be efficient as there are only 12 rounds. You can gather money and faith which are used to buy bonus actions or Stores and Trading Houses. The two laboratories allow you to invent new technologies to give you ongoing benefits or points at the end. The other 4 locations provide trade goods that you use to cross out requirements on contracts.
The contracts are really cleverly implemented! They are organized in rows. Fulfilling adjacent contracts gives you link-bonuses, but if you follow the diagonals, they lead you to Trade Houses which score based on the corresponding fulfilled contracts! This makes the decision on what to fulfill real puzzle!
There are also many bonuses for finishing rows or columns in different sections on your sheet, which gives that nice combo-feeling that we love! 😊
All in all, this is a more than worthy reimagining of the original Yokohama, and we are really pleased to own it! 🥰
Have you played Yokohama?
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