IKI Review - Chairman of the Board

hey everybody today I'm taking a look at icky which is a two to four player Euro strategy board game designed by kuta Yamada this one takes around 90 minutes to play on average now before I share my thoughts on iki a game of Edo Artisans I want to give a shout out to the show sponsor keyienda dot Co dot UK who are my go to online retailer when it comes to purchasing board games here in the UK and if you use my link in the show notes or the QR code then you can get five percent off your first order okay so I've just finished a two-player game of eKEY now this is actually a dual sided board so if you were to play with three or four players then you'd use the reverse side of this board which will come with more of these building spaces as well as a few very minor changes now as I said in the intro this is a euro strategy game and the chord mechanism is this rondelle as you're moving around in this kind of clockwise order of visiting these different buildings as well as interacting with these different helpers within those buildings and they can belong to yourself they can belong to your opponents or they can even be neutral players if you are to play a two-player game and you have a display of these helpers that come out each round where you can hire them in order to utilize their benefits and interact with them and the kind of the longer your new collect them they'll start building up tokens on them making them more affordable you have some kind of neutral pieces here such as these sandals which will let you move around the board a bit quicker you have these big gold pieces which are used to um buy these building cards and at the start of the game I think only six will be put out on display so you do have a slight different um orientation of cars depending um on what is drawn if you have to play a two-player game then you'll use these blocker tokens for each round at one of these kind of movement spots are taken up and that'll make more sense uh shortly you have some resources such as the rice the wood you would have these coins I've chose to play with my iron Clays instead and each player also has their own personal setup that looks like this now this is essentially a placeholder of all your different things you'll collect throughout the game as well including these characters here and the more characters you collect the more points you'll get at the end of the game all these different types and you'll also be collecting these fish tokens um this is another kind of sliding scale set collection points method where if you get all four one for each season you'll get a massive 15 points as well as some additional points on them you can also collect these tobacco pouches and pipes as well as having storage areas for your little helpers here mine are already on the board as well as your sandals and this is actually a really nice little turn structure key here to help you kind of keep on top of the game's admin so iki takes place over 13 Rounds each representing a different month of the year as well as there being a final kind of end-of-year Celebration there representing that 13th round and then after each of the three rounds after after three rounds there'll be a kind of an admin phase where you will generate income based on the helpers that you have and the the income that you'll get will be based on the position of your kind of helpers on those cards and they'll always be the spot above where your helper is so you can see here if there was a an income phase right now I would generate one rice if I was right up here then I'll generate two rice and if you were ever to kind of um Ascend off the card and retire that character you'll take that card and you'll place it on your own player board here which is useful because not only will you continue to generate that income but you also do not have to pay for their food anymore but of course it does mean that they're going to be off the board and you can't interact with their bottom ability um anymore I'm also during those um there's admin phases at the end of the season you are going to have to again feed your workers can one rice per character as well as generating points based on the colors of cards and your presence within those cards so you can see here that my opponent has two um of his workers on two of these Brown cards therefore they'll be a kind of a multiply where you get two times two again two workers times two of those cards types for four points but if they would say um three Brown cards there whether they belong to him or not um they would be multiplied by three uh rather than the two cards so it's quite useful to have the same color in the same block um of buildings now you can see here that also after a certain number of rounds such as the five the eight and the 11th round you'll see this fire token here and this means that a fire is going to start by drawing a token randomly from this stack here revealing it and then basically starting a fire in that relevant zone so you can see here this one links to this area here you're gonna start from the outward side and work in at a fire strength equal to that current round so this will be the four and four fire strength um and each time it shuffles in it's going to kind of diminish in strength um so that makes it very important for you to climb up this fire track here to give you the ability to kind of fight back um against that fire and not risk losing your helpers on the board because if you do not have a matching or kind of a better firefighting value than that strength of the fire then you're going to have to remove your health off the board essentially meaning you've wasted all that effort to put them on there so it's definitely under a lot of pressure to raise that firefighting ability and this is also a big factor when it comes to play initiative in the game so the first thing you'll do on each of your turns is you'll look at who has the best firefighting value as in in this example the yellow player does as they have a strength of nine and then they are going to deploy their little kind of helper here onto this movement track now this is kind of one of the key focuses on the game and you can put this on any of these spots now if there is a two-player game one of these spots will be blocked off at random so um in this example the three cannot be used so let's just say um without thinking about this I put my helper on the one like so and then my opponent puts theirs on the on the four like this now if you choose to use the first spot here which lets you to go one to four spots so it gives you a lot more flexibility because these are very rigid you know if you move forward you have to move four um if you want to move more than that then you can spend these sandals but that's gonna of course come at a cost but if you do use that first spot you kind of have to sacrifice the next part of the round structure where normally you would have the option of buying a character again this is kind of one of the core focuses on the game or if you don't want to buy a character you can take for money income and money is generally quite tight in this game so having a steady income of cash is very very important but if you did use that one to four slot you get one coin's compensation instead of those two options but let's say the players did settle on moving one and four spaces like so now going from um initiative from low to high you're going to trigger all these characters so again the yellow is going to go first they've moved the one so therefore they can move their big character here one spot clockwise around the rondelle and then they can interact with where they've ended up so in this example I can choose to spend three coins in order to get two rice um and I can use one of the two characters that I'm adjacent with so if I use my own character then that's going to come with no kind of penalty whatsoever so in this example I'll get a rice and a point but if I was to use a neutral character like this one here I would remove it from the board but if I was to use my opponent's character so let's just say um earlier the blue player chose to build this uh build this helper then I would um actually help them kind of Advance the experience of that helper so even though I might get a benefit my opponent will get that benefit as well or a benefit as well because they are going to increase their income as well as pushing it forward to walk towards retirement now the characters do have a bunch of different powers and abilities and the cost to pay for to use those characters is going to relate to this figure here so this would cost me three sometimes these characters come with a bonus like this one would cost me seven but it would let me move up the fire track and when you buy them if there is a coin on them you get to kind of pick that as a discount I suppose I'll add it to your money supply and then you deploy that deploy that character anywhere on the board and of course Place one of your helpers on it as long as you do have um a spare helper so let's have a look what all these different characters do and what the actual um inbuilt abilities do so let's start here so this one again we've talked about this one where you can spend three coins to get two rice you can trade in two coins to get two sandals you can trade in coins to get these big gold coins you can even do that at a 10 to 2 ratio there or just take money you can buy one of these fish tokens now these fish tokens um are pretty pricey but they can come with some additional points and a gate will give you set collection bonuses at the end of the game if you manage to collect um or as many as possible relating to each season of the game you have this spot here which lets you more again buy more rice this one here lets you buy or build a building by spending a coin the buildings will generally cost wood and and these big gold tokens and they'll do lots of different things such as giving you end game points like 26 or 22 points here something will increase your income during the um during the end of season scoring some of them will give you points based on different in-game or categories like this one here will give me four points for every rice I have left at the end of the game Etc and it is important to consider that you do need to have a spare small helper to spare in order to put it on that building like I have done here you know earlier in the game I've spent all these resources to get three points for every sandal pair of sandals I have left at the end of the game and you can see here that I have committed my helper like so and there's some additional spots here which lets you buy these tobacco pouches and pipes you can either buy one or the other or even both by spending the money on them and these will give you points at the end of the game sometimes they have different categories like this could be a point for every four coins I have and the pipes will give you instant abilities such as letting you advance the worker or giving you one of those big gold coins and they will actually help double the points of the tobacco pouches you've collected throughout the game so these are quite a useful thing to pair together this one here is very simple where you just Advance on the fire track and so on so they are all pretty easy in their own right but you can see here that the actual characters themselves do a lot of different things such as being able to spend money to get wood or being able to get you know rice and a point or convert points into money and get a discount you know massive discount of one of those gold pieces um and these cars that are used are layered so each season you are going to replenish the Run of cars here so we have the winter cartoon which are much more stronger than they say the spring cards that came out at the start of the game and that is essentially the turn structure you know playing three rounds I'm coming to a season scoring where you'll replenish the board full of the new Season's tokens and bring out the new deck of cards and you'll also activate all the income from the characters you collected so as the yellow player here you can see that I'll get four points from this character then I'll get a piece of rice from this character that I'll get two points from this character I'll get another another three income from this character another three punch from this one and then a sandals and another coin so you can really build up a bit of an engine by advancing those helpers on those cards and something I didn't mention as as well as advancing your characters when other people use your um characters you will also Advance all your characters once you go all the way around the rondelle and cross this line so sometimes it's beneficial to use the higher movement actions simply to advance the experience of the characters on your cards again you'll keep going through feeding your workers activating the fire actions potentially losing characters all the way to the final season where you can essentially put your um put your big meepot anywhere on the board and Trigger any action of your choice then at the end of the game you are going to add up all the points you've got during the game from this track here you're going to add up your fish you've collected you're going to add up the points from your pipes and tobacco pouches as well as any buildings um Etc and the player at the end of this 13 Rounds with the most points will be the winner okay so let's share some thoughts on iki and I want to start with the kind of main rondelle mechanism here so generally speaking I am a big fan of rondelle games you know a lot of my favorite games utilize the rondelle in some degree and this one has a really good kind of grasp on how to utilize a rondelle to a good degree because there are several things you need to factor in here because there really isn't much time to get things done by the end of each season and you do have to juggle at quite a few things and I do like the fact that these rondelle spots are they're Dynamic you know each time yes you do have a built-in function here but they are constantly changing by people buying and yourself buying new helpers and there's a good degree of kind of pre-panning here that you can do because if you have enough money you can of course hire a character get some presents on the board and you can even utilize that character to get that kind of instant payoff on the turn that you bought them because you buy the character and place it somewhere before you actually move your main meeple meaning that you could move it onto the spot you just moved to and then use it straight away and again you do have to juggle so many things here because everything's kind of inviting you know you you want the sandals because it gives you more flexibility and you might have an endgame strategy relating to that when it comes to the building cards um accruing or building up all the resources you need for the buildings is quite difficult because they're costly but the it could really be worth it um because there's a lot of points to be had here but at the same time you're under the pressure to increase your firefighting ability or be completely at the mercy of these fire tokens you need the rice because you want to feed your helpers or risk losing them again and um so yeah you do have to juggle um quite a lot here and I do like the way that works and I also like the fact that the initiative is such a strong part in this game and that kind of goes hand in hand with how far you are moving around the rondelle because yes um I might move one you might move four but that might mean that we both end up in the same spot because of course as the game goes on and we are going to end up separating our meeples and knowing the fact that I'm going to go before you in initiative order can be so important because I could be the player to maybe retire someone else's character when you have the full intention of using it or again if you are playing a two-player game you could use a neutral character before the other player does or you could build a building before the other player does so there is that kind of turn angst to get to the implications and do what you want to do before the other players activate them so I do like the way this really comes into play and sometimes you might want to go for a lower initiative order um and be prepared to get rid of these sandal tokens so that you can Trump your opponents in terms of triggering uh your actions there's also another dynamic in the game that's I think is quite interesting because if you do want to keep on spending uh the higher movement actions you are going to Traverse the board more times than your opponents do meaning that you're passively going to start advancing the experience of your characters which is going to be great because you're going to retire them sooner and get them safe meaning that you don't have to pay all that Rice I do like the fact that there are plenty of paths to Victory here like for example you could focus on the fish you could focus on making buildings and tell them your strategy towards the cars that have come out you can really focus on prioritizing the the firefighting ability knowing that you're going to be safe um from the board attacking you and that might even tie into some of the cards like for example you know my opponent here has bought a car that says he's gonna get two points for every position on the fire track he's moved up so there's a lot of synergies between the different strategies here and you know generally you're going to get blocked quite a lot in this game but there's always going to be at least some option it's also quite a nice touch that they did consider the kind of contrasting mechanisms of collecting the same type of character as well as the different types of character because of course at the end of the game for all the different types of characters you get there's a lot of points to be had here and that's a definitely a viable strategy because there's 25 points available there but if you do keep focusing on the same types of character and you kind of monopolize one of the buildings during the game you can generate quite a lot of points through that multiplier mechanism there now that multiplayer mechanism although I completely understand the mathematics behind it um I do feel like it's probably the most tacked on parts of the game it doesn't feel the most intuitive in relation to everything else out there there's a small nitpick but just something I felt like I needed to mention the way the fire tokens work could leave some players disgruntled because they are purely random in which um which kind of blocker buildings is struck by that fire I mean you could as a player really focus on building up your firefighting ability when you never really needed it or you might have just missed the mark by one or two spots and then have to sacrifice characters and that can really hit you hard whereas in contrast to that one of your opponents could kind of neglect the fire track but completely get away scot-free simply because that token never attacked the block of buildings where their characters were so just something to bear in mind there now I personally didn't mind it I never really found it to be a problem um but I can definitely see the potential for that to be an issue for some players there's a good degree of interaction throughout the game um again especially when it comes to um interacting with other players characters here because sometimes there's a really great ability that you want to use but of course it's going to help your opponent increasing the income which is going to hurt you so it's all about trying to contrast you know who's going to benefit uh the most we've already talked about the initiative order as well that's a nice level of interaction there and again that scarcity to get what you want done you know you really do want to be the first player to grab the tokens before they go to grab the buildings before they go and of course grab the helpers as well before they go so there is a you know a scarcity and turnouts throughout the entire game I think the player engagement is generally strong in this game because there is so much you're trying to juggle and you want to get certain things done at a certain times you've always got your kind of head down in the game focusing on what you're going to do next and not losing much interest but in contrast to that I can't help but feel like maybe by the the uh the final season I'm kind of ready for the game uh to be done because you are essentially doing the same thing so I think I would personally be a bit more comfortable with the game being say 10 rounds Long rather than the 13.

maybe that's me being a bit picky because I do like games to be slightly shorter the replayability of the game is another mixed bag for me yes there are a ton of helpers um but you do see most of them each game you know not all of them are going to get bought and put onto the board because you know you're not going to have enough money and they'll be discarded but they are going to pop up and be available and the same goes for the buildings you know there are I think 10 that come with a base game and you use only six per game so it does add a little bit of variability there but I feel like the game does feel a little bit rinse and repeat at times you know just going around hitting the same spots especially if you commit to a certain strategy like you know for example um if you start off with the fish um and you buy one of the fish tokens your optimal move is going to making sure you're hitting there hitting that spot every single season so that you fill up your entire rack to get those bigger points multipliers the production for the game is fantastic I love the way the board looks the meeples themselves look amazing nice chunky uh wooden pieces there the card art is nice symbology is nice and crisp and clear all the symbology on the kind of turn structures and your player boards is really well done in terms of the graphic design so actually I've got no kind of problems at all no not one single issue when it comes to the production of the game okay so let's share some final thoughts on icky this is a very well put together game the way all the different moving Parts come together with that pressure of trying to get everything done at the right time it's just a very satisfying experience considering how straightforward the game actually is you know once you get into the momentum of the game um it is very kind of organic and it plays out nicely and I do like the way that there are certain kind of moments where you are put under pressure thinking about how am I going to pull off what I need to pull off am I going to have to spend those extra sandals what's the best strategy car for me to go for and I actually do find that managing your finances in this game is quite difficult because you want to have that um you know that income of generating the four coins each turn but in order to do that you're gonna have to give up kind of taking a character and put it on the board so I like the way these two parts of the game contrast with each other having presence and generating income as well as just generating straight up you know no strings attached income here um I also do like that factor or that wrinkle of interacting with the other players cards because sometimes they'll be a perfect card for you your opponent might might have even considered that thinking you know I know my opponent needs this card I'm going to put it right where he's going to go this turn knowing that he's going to use it and I'm going to advance quicker because maybe I don't have enough rice to feed my workers this turn I'm going to go rather on Dell it's going to level everything else up and before you know it I've got that character safe on my player sheet here ready for endgame scoring and I still get my income from it so definitely loads of good Euro stuff going on here I think if you are a big fan of medium weight Euros this is good definitely want to check out it scales very well you know I do like the um the two player variant where you had to put blockers on the board which can become frustrating but it would just simulate um another player and it just has everything going on for it really I can't really find fault with it I suppose the only thing that I can is that maybe the longevity of the game and me in me kind of reaching for this one off the shove and pulling it out again and again and again might not be there and in as compared to something um a little bit heavier and a little bit with a little bit more going on I suppose um but in its own right you know in an isolation this game is very well put together and I enjoyed it a lot and everyone I've played it with has had a lot of good things to say about it as well so I do recommend it if you are a fan of medium weight euros and this one is certainly put together well and it looks lovely too so that is Icky a game of Edo artisans