Yotei | Overview

Hi everyone, I'm Tom and today I'm going to be showing you Yohei, which is a game where we will build beautiful Hokkaido towns using the currency of potatoes. We're going to pick these cards, we're going to bid on some of them, paying and bidding potatoes. Those cards will reward us with resources which we can use to get better and better cards and eventually charm points.

The person with the most charm points at the end of the game will win. A new edition of this game is on Kickstarter right now from Mighty Boards. I've got a version here that is quite like the original version, a few tweaks, but it hasn't got everything that the Kickstarter version will have. You can check out the campaign page.

It'll be linked in the corner of the screen and in the description. Because as well as all of the information on what the Kickstarter version will have, how to make it happen and get hold of a copy for yourself, there are also going to be some surprises along the way as well. Which I don't have in front of me, but they'll be on that Kickstarter page.

So how do we play? I've got the game set up for two players here. In a game with more players, there will be more bidding crates available. They've got these lovely wooden crates that you just push together. And there are more cards in the central display. Each player is a developer competing for these cards to build their own town.

In a two-player game, we have three character tokens each and we start off with five potatoes. And we're going to play rounds alternating between phases. There's going to be a placement phase where we place our character cards and sometimes bidding boxes out onto the central display. Then there's going to be a harvest phase where we bring back all of our character tokens and the cards we put them on if we qualify for them.

So if we look at the cards, the level one cards are the most basic. They will provide you with things for the level two and three cards. The level two are a bit more pricey and they will provide you with resources that are only needed for the level threes. And the level threes will provide you generally with the most charm points and they're the most expensive to get.

A card down here is one of the most simple. In the bottom right, it tells you the requirement to be able to take this card. So you would have to have two forests already. You get those elements in the top left of cards. So you can see you would need some of these forests already to be able to take this.

If you were able to take the card, it would then provide you with a farmland for the future that you can see is in the costs of future cards. Some cards have a potato cost to place on there. So it would cost you two of your potatoes. They're secret behind your screens, but you do start off with five and you can earn more later.

And some cards don't reward you with anything, but others give you charm points which we need to win the game. And mystery cards that have a variety of different effects you find out when you take one. So in the placement phase, we take it in turns. Whoever has the first player token goes first to place one of our character tokens.

And you can either place it on a face-up card. You don't need to qualify for the card yet. You're going to decide the order that you take your tokens back in the harvest phase. So I could place on this hoping that by that point I will qualify for it. So you can place on a face-up card. You can turn one of the existing cards face down to be able to place on that.

So here I'll be able to take a forest and there's no payment or anything required for this or conditions to meet. Or you can place on the card on the top of the deck. It's the same as the back of all of the cards. The back of the forest deck will provide you with a forest. It's one of the most basic costs for a lot of the cards in the game.

There's even tier three costs that want you to have forests, a lot of them, but still want you to have forests. The back of the tier two cards will give you two potatoes. And the back of the tier three cards will need you to pay two potatoes to get a charm point. Now some cards do not have nothing or a potato cost.

They've got one of these bidding boxes. If I wanted to go for one of these cards, I would need to take a bidding box if it's still available, otherwise I can't place there. And I need to take some of my potatoes and bid on this card. So maybe I want to bid two for it. And I put my character token on top to say that's me.

Again, I don't have to qualify for it yet. But I hope to by the harvest phase. So in a future turn, Morty, if he wants to, not knowing my bid, could take another bidding box as long as there's one left and place his own bid in there. So if he wants to bid two as well, when we come to resolve it, ties are broken by whoever went there first.

So if we both bid two like this, I would win the card, but the loser gets their potatoes back. So this one actually feels a bit unlikely. As much as it would be nice to get some farmland or some snow here early on, it would be pretty difficult to get two forests. Because if I was to go here, maybe Morty would go here and pay his potatoes.

I could come here and get a forest, but then Morty would need a forest for this. So he would surely flip this over and make sure he could get a forest. Then I wouldn't have enough and in the harvest phase, I would just take this token back and I wouldn't be able to get the card cuz I wouldn't qualify for it.

So I don't think either of us can get those cards in this round. So knowing that, playing 4D chess like that, I would come over here and pay the two potatoes myself cuz I can definitely get one forest. Morty's going to get a forest. I could flip one of these over and get a forest and maybe Morty's got three things.

It would be good to have two forests in the future probably. And I wouldn't mind getting some potatoes. Let's see. I'm going to end up with a snow here, so Morty will probably want to flip this over that's got a snow condition. So there isn't something out for me. So then in the harvest phase, starting with the first player, we bring our tokens back and you decide the order cuz if I did this first, I don't qualify for it and I wouldn't get it.

I would get my potatoes back if I didn't qualify for it. But I would choose this one first giving me a forest. Now I can bring this one back paying potatoes to the supply and I get this mountain and I get a mystery card. So let's see what we get. Flip a forest or farmland or snow card you own and gain all of its effects.

So I can actually I already qualify for this now. I can flip this over and get what it is on the other side. Okay, no immediate rewards or anything, but I get the farmland. Oh yeah, I knew what that was. I placed on there. We don't know what this one is. So that's quite nice. I've got both of those now.

You don't have to use it right away like I just did, but we're in example territory, aren't we? The cards also have a potato value in the corner so you can discard them to get the potatoes instead. So like this one would gain you three potatoes. It doesn't have a particular power to it. So it lets you steal potatoes from any player, two of them, but you don't know how many potatoes everyone's got.

They're behind screens. So if you try and steal from someone who hasn't got any, you don't get any. Place two tokens in a turn. Add this as a field card to your play area or get a potato. Put this on an unoccupied card and freeze it so no one can go there until the next phase. Shuffle up all of the unoccupied cards in a row.

And finally these, if they're in your hand at the end of the game, are worth a charm point each. So there's some really cool things on the mystery cards. And finally we would discard this face down and I would get two potatoes. And then Morty would bring back his two forests. This is nice what I've got, but for forest requirements in the future, it's going to be a bit rougher for me.

And this one he flipped over to get two potatoes himself. So he is in the lead with potatoes for auctions and things. So we finished the harvest phase now. Everyone's got their things back. We prepare for the new round. Any empty card slots get refilled. Starting player passes. And we begin a new round.

So this one does require an auction, but Morty is in a good position. He's got two forests already. He would require a bid here, but two mountains and a mystery card. As I am on the other hand, this is also a bid, but I do have a farmland already. I could get a forest probably. And we keep going like this until one player gets two star symbols.

They are on the tier three cards. So you're going to have to work your way up if you're getting a load of forests or getting the tier two cards that provide you with the harder resources that the tier three cards need. So as soon as someone gets two tier three cards or new in this edition, more cards are going to added to the tier one deck.

I think it's only like four more cards. But if the tier one deck runs out, the game will end in that round as well. Tier two and tier three decks, they get reshuffled. Either way, at the end of the game, you add up all of your charm points. Every three potatoes you have is worth a charm point. The player with the most charm points wins and if there's a tie, it's whoever has got the most potatoes left.

And there we go. That's Yohei. Again, it is on Kickstarter right now with a new version from Mighty Boards. The link is in the description for you to check it out and see if you would like to make it happen and get a copy for yourself. If you'd like to see more from me, there are hundreds of play-throughs and overviews on this channel.

Maybe something like Hamlet or Fate Forge from Mighty Boards as well. Thank you so much for watching this video though and I'll see you for the next game. Bye everyone. >> [music]