Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
In this highly abstract strategic wargame, you are trying to conquer China by being the first to occupy fifteen provinces at the completion of a complete round of play (all players having had an equal number of turns). Alternatively, the game can be timed and scored.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Area Majority
Compete to have the strongest presence in areas that award control or points.
Alliances
Players can cooperate through temporary or formal partnerships while pursuing victory.
Dice Rolling
Roll dice to introduce uncertainty into actions, production, movement, or resolution.
Area Movement
Move pieces between connected regions rather than along individual spaces.
Events
Triggered events alter the shared state, rules, or available choices.
Read the full game description
In this highly abstract strategic wargame, you are trying to conquer China by being the first to occupy fifteen provinces at the completion of a complete round of play (all players having had an equal number of turns). Alternatively, the game can be timed and scored. You start with a small number of provinces under your control. Population counters of your colour indicate this; if a province has extra population, it can move some into an adjacent unoccupied province --this is the simplest way of conquest. Merger, diplomacy and force (Risk-like combat) are your other options. Each turn you draw a Yin card and a Yang card. Yin is bad, Yang is good. Without looking at either card's instructions, you assign them to two of your provinces. Yang will most likely increase your recruitment (which is normally three population per turn), but could also give you the capability to cross a natural barrier like a mountain range. Yin will hurt you. Some cards you end up holding in your hand. A player may attempt to convince another player to merge with his empire. If the second player agrees then the smaller empire is absorbed by the larger and both players continue play as senior (larger) and junior (smaller) partners. The absorbed empire no longer has a separate turn nor separate recruitment. This concept of "shared victory" is intriguing, particularly with a larger number of players. The game allows any number of players but components are only provided for five.