Loyang has become the new capital of the Han Dynasty in ancient China, and it’s time to make your mark at the gates of Loyang. As a farmer, you have to supply the growing city with your harvested crops. Buy and sell seeds, expand your land, hire merchants and experts, and sell your harvested goods to all kinds of customers. Compete against other farmers on the Road to Prosperity and become the most successful farmer in this economic strategy board game!
At the Gates of Loyang is a board game by Uwe Rosenberg, the creator of Agricola, one of the most popular strategy board games of all time. Loyang is Rosenberg’s third board game with an economic theme, following Agricola and Le Havre, both of which have become wildly popular with legions of fans. Loyang continues this tradition, but this time with a different scenario: Chinese farmers looking to make as much gold as possible. Also, the game is less complicated than Rosenberg’s other games, with fewer mechanics and victory paths to worry about.
The game is set in ancient China and you are one of the many farmers that supply the new capital city of Loyang. With a rapidly growing market, this is your chance to succeed and get on the path to prosperity, earning lots of money and ensuring a life of luxury for you and your family. But what is a business without a bit of healthy competition? In Loyang, the winner is the player who finishes the game furthest along the Path of Prosperity and thus becomes the most prosperous and successful farmer.
Each player gets a “board”, which is basically a T-shaped panel that contains the Path of Prosperity track, as well as an individual market store where you can buy and sell your crops. You also get a local field card and a stack of 9 semi-random field cards that can be used to plant different types and amounts of vegetables. There are 6 types of vegetables, ranging from the cheapest wheat and pumpkin to the most expensive and rare beans and leek. The game lasts a total of 9 rounds, and at the start of each round, each player harvests one crop from each of their fields that are not empty or fallow. They then reveal a new field from your personal pile, ready to plant new vegetables.
The next part of the round involves drawing cards from a deck. There are additional field cards that allow you to plant more crops. There are Market Stall Cards that allow you to exchange one or more of your vegetables for another specific type of vegetable. There are several help cards that produce a wide variety of effects that usually involve making your crops more efficient or interfering with your opponents’ plans. And then there are 2 types of customer cards. Regular customers accept up to 4 sets of 2 vegetables, paying you each time you sell them a set of vegetables. However, they will get angry if you don’t sell to them every round. The first time you don’t sell them crops, they just get mad. Afterwards, you are charged a penalty fee of 2 gold for not being able to supply them. The second type of customer is the occasional customer. They are patient but require a set of 3 vegetables and disappear once you fulfill their order.
The act of getting the cards is interesting. Each player draws 4 cards and begins a drawing session. The first player discards an unwanted card on the table. After that, the players take turns discarding an unwanted card or taking one of the discarded cards from the table. Once you take a card from the board, you are out of the draft and must immediately play the card on your board. At the same time, you must also choose one of the cards left in your hand and play that card as well. The rest of your hand is discarded and is available for other players to choose from. Therefore, each player ends up playing 2 cards each round during this phase.
The next phase is the action phase, and the order of play depends on which player played their cards first in the previous card selection phase. In a single spin, each player performs ALL of his actions before the next player’s turn arrives. This isn’t too bad, as there aren’t many cards that interact or interfere with other players. Available actions include planting crops; purchase, sale and trade of crops in the market or stalls; using help cards; sell vegetables to your customers; and paying gold to draw more cards from the deck.
The money you earn here is crucial. It is used to buy more crops to plant, but more importantly, it is also used to advance the Path of Prosperity. The Path of Prosperity is a fun mechanic, with it being more difficult to progress in the late game compared to the early game. The Path goes from 1 to 20, which represents the cost of moving to that position. So going from step 1 to step 2 costs 2 gold, while going from step 15 to step 16 costs 16 gold. However, your first move each round only costs 1 gold. This opens up a few different strategies on how to go for the win. After the game ends, the player furthest along the Path of Prosperity wins the game.
Loyang is a very simplified game. Unlike other similar games, there aren’t many different paths to victory here. Money is your main focus, as it is used both as currency to expand your empire and to earn victory points through the Path of Prosperity. The game isn’t too interactive either, being similar to games like Dominion or Race For the Galaxy. You mainly focus on maximizing the efficiency of your farms with little interference from other players. However, a big advantage for Loyang is his great production quality. The boards and cards look great, and each vegetable and path marker has its own well-designed wooden tokens.
Loyang is a fun game that doesn’t take long to learn and acts as a good introduction to more complex economic strategy games. It is also appropriate for players of all experience levels. You will enjoy At the Gates of Loyang if you like similar farming or economic games like Puerto Rico and Agricola.
Complexity: 3.0/5.0
Playtime: ~1.5 to 2.0 hours
Number of players: 1 to 4 players