In a world striving for economic success in the 1960s, four Asian economies emerge from the pack: South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong. These so-called "Asian Tigers" are now implementing policies and creating optimal investment conditions for international players to enter their economies and achieve impressive economic growth.
In Asian Tigers: A Story of Prosperity, you are an investor sponsored by each of the Asian Tigers, and your goal is to help these markets flourish and achieve much-desired success. You will build power plants, research laboratories, sponsor universities, and establish factories that will produce resources with the purpose of serving local and, more importantly, international markets.
An easy-going mechanism provides an interactive experience in which players dispute the relevance of their presence in each of the Tigers and also the personal goals established by their own management decisions. Producing resources such as ships, machinery, automobiles, chemicals, finance, and electronics is the way to serve the global markets to succeed.
The economic revolution in Asia has started, and you are a part of it.
—description from the publisher
- Rules are relatively straightforward for a mid-weight Euro
- Solo mode is balanced and functional
- Some bonuses and infrastructure choices offer tactical decisions
- Fits players who enjoy spreadsheet-style Eurogames
- Moderate duration for head-to-head play and a reasonable solo challenge
- Bland, ugly board and dull component quality
- Tiny, unreadable text on segments
- Long playtime with little player interaction
- Limited replay value; gameplay loops predictably
- Solo mode complexity and poor iconography in places
- Thematic integration is weak; the theme simply doesn’t feel embedded in the mechanics
- Market growth, investment, and influence in quadrants; endgame prosperity scoring
- Economic development and infrastructure expansion across four Asian market regions (Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore). The game purports to simulate the growth of Asian markets through quadrant-based influence and infrastructure building.
- Analytical, critical, and humorous dissection of the game's themes
- Septé
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Bonus triggers — Clearing action spaces unlocks bonuses such as extra influence, HQs, or special abilities that may alter endgame scoring dynamics.
- Endgame scoring via prosperity tiles and flags — Prosperity points are determined by randomly assigned tiles at setup; flag tokens provide endgame modifiers and influence the final score.
- Infrastructure Building — Construct universities, factories, power plants, and laboratories to generate resources and enable actions.
- Investment track — Investment funds sit on a central track and are spent to build infrastructures and trigger bonuses.
- Quadrant influence — Players invest in infrastructures across four quadrants to gain influence and score through endgame prosperity and quadrant bonuses.
- Resource tokens and trade — Acquire resource tokens from factories, then trade or allocate them to fulfill building costs or trigger endgame bonuses.
- Satellites and additional investment — Satellites increase investment points and influence scoring dynamics; they contribute to strategic diversification but do not overhaul core mechanics.
- Turn order and central track — A central track provides turn order and affects scoring opportunities as rounds progress.
- worker placement — Colored workers are drawn randomly from a bag and placed on action spaces; the color of the worker constrains what other workers may be used in the remainder of the round.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this is Asian tigers a story of prosperity supposedly an economic game about the growth of the Asian markets
- this is definitely outside of a comfort zone
- it's basically just a spreadsheet with a bunch of tracks
- this game looks bland and it plays bland
- it's a Hard Sell trying to get people to play this
- it's a complete dud
- the rules themselves are relatively straightforward I wouldn't put this in front of a light gamer this is definitely not heavy this is probably a mediumweight game
- the interaction with other players is barely there
- the game looks flavorless
- this game feels like it probably came out 10 to 15 years ago
- replay value is not there and the game loops
- I want something more exciting I want something more interesting
- Different Strokes for different folks
- it's not a terrible game, but it's incredibly bland and forgettable
- this is a hard sell to get people to try this