IKI - Board Game Review

welcome to allies are enemies this time we are talking about icky and specifically the 2021 edition of the game published by sorry we are french originally released in 2015 icky is a two to four player game designed by kudo yamata set in the 1600's edo japan the game drops you onto one of edo's bustling city streets lined with various artisans as you do business with shops and workers and try to be the best citizen you can be it is an interesting mix of action selection worker placement car drafting economic engine and tableau building that even with all of those bits feels surprisingly simple and smooth which is partly due to the calming beautiful artwork and partly due to the tightly designed game engine let's look at that now icky takes place over one year in the bustling marketplace of ido with each round representing a month in the life of the city each round has three phases first you place your ikibana on the turn order track to choose when you will go and how far you're going to walk second move your oyakata during this phase you will either gain money or hire new characters and then move along the street choosing one of the action spaces and or doing business with one of the two characters at that space actions include things like trading or gaining resources buying fish or pipes building buildings and gaining fire protection once everyone has moved you refresh the character market and do it again after every three rounds you move to a new season which means new cards and new items gaining income from your characters both on the board and retired which happens when the experience markers reach the top of the cards and there are also months that have fire events that could cause damage if your firefighting isn't high enough and a final new year's day round that's just a free action placement after a year you add up the points from card variety buildings pipes fish money and resources and the player with the most icky is the winner and goes on to live the best life [Music] the new edition of this game is drop dead gorgeous we hadn't heard of the 2015 version but the new one caught our eye immediately the art is lovely from the board to the player mats to the items the cards are all unique and beautiful even the card backs are nice and the screen printed meeples are phenomenal this is a plus effort visually but what is even more impressive is how functional it all is every single thing has a place both on the main board and on the player boards for a game with so many moving parts this simplifies everything immensely every step is laid out clearly in multiple places and it is all made so easy the icons are also all really clear and simple they have even thought of small things like how both sides of the street point towards the center and how the board and player maps can be flipped for two player or three to four player sides all of it adds to the enjoyment of making the things that should be brain free totally brain free so you can focus on the fun stuff [Music] icky plays for two to four players and the design team have gone out of their way to make it work at all counts on the two-player side of the board there's one fewer space in each building and there are a couple of bits added to the cleanup phase where a neutral character is added at the end of each round and a blocking piece is put out on one of the turn order squares it all takes seconds each round and it works perfectly and more players there are a few more characters to choose from in the shops and a bit more competition for characters but otherwise the changes are minimal especially as multiple players can occupy any of the street squares the biggest change might be racing for fish or pipe tokens but even then there's never time to do everything so players will likely be choosing one or the other anyway and perhaps the one to four movement space that makes you skip hiring will be used a little bit more for if players really need to go a certain distance on their turn but we can't say as we've only played with two so far but we can assure you two has worked well and we see no reason that other counts wouldn't work just as well with only 13 turns over the course of the game you will never do all of the things you want to in icky which is great for replayability one game you might focus on fish the next you're saving up resources to buy high point buildings the next year hiring and retiring characters or firefighting or buying pipes or just scoring points quickly also which characters come out when and where they are placed will all have a huge impact and money is so tight that even if your favorite comes out you may not be able to afford them one of the great things about icky is that there are a lot of choices but it adds enough constraints between movement and economy and the threat of fires that your path through that sea of choices will be fairly tight and that is a credit to its design and the thing that will bring you back and back for more icky will bring you in with its gorgeous design but it's the gameplay that will keep bringing you back at a base level people in general and board gamers in particular love putting things in their place and icky has so many satisfying opportunities to do just that but at a higher level there's an extremely rewarding system at play here the economy system of hiring and retiring workers works very well the feeding is just enough to be mindful of without being punishing or dictating your actions it's the same thing with the fire and there is a nice push pull between taking a slow pace and getting access to hire the best characters versus moving quickly but going later in the rounds and the theme comes through in all of it the seasons the characters the items the actions even the pace of the game the phenomenal player aides will make this game accessible to more gamers than you might think but it is still a midway game and will likely work better for gamers with a few gateway or lighter games under their belts but otherwise this should be a game that connects with most gamers and finds its way into a lot of collections and that is it if you have played icky either the old or the new version what do you think about the new art and design and as always please do like and subscribe maybe leave a comment and hopefully we will see you all next time for another game