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Gamesnight ….. ‘In the Year of the Dragon’ by Stefan Feld
‘Is it bright enough in here?’ asks Dicken and as if on cue, Kendall is demonstrating his new ‘Father and Son’ floor lamp quicker than you can say ‘delight’. Seconds later there’s another knock on the door. Derek has also omitted to use the ‘new’ doorbell; perhaps painting it black wasn’t such a good idea. Nonetheless he too is captivated by the DIY transformation. ‘Was there a door there before?’ ‘Is that a new front door?’ ‘Isn’t that a new door?’ Clearly Derek has a thing about doors. When pressed further he recounts spending a day and a half hanging a bathroom door. It’s obviously a painful memory, so best get on with tonight’s game.
Spread out in all its six counter-sheet glory is ‘In the Year of the Dragon’; a game that only Kendall has played thus far. Consequently the host gets to explain the rules. Kendall introduces the game as one in which players will feel under some psychological pressure, one in which they will feel to be losing rather than winning. At least, that’s how Kendall felt when playing at Peter’s.
The rules are well written, but Kendall decides to cover scoring and winning first, rather than last. This is a mistake, as Dicken keeps thinking he’s been told all the rules (‘Ok, let’s start…’ ‘Let’s do it….’ ‘Right….’) when there’s still much to cover. Meanwhile whole chunks of rules are being heard, but not absorbed.
The table is replete with fodder. Both Dicken and Derek have brought in supplies, and even Kendall managed to find time to go to the shop.
The game begins with the oldest player (Derek suggests ‘baldest’ player; which is one to think about in future Ragnar rules). After much re-explaining of what we are doing, Dicken chooses two Person tiles, a farmer (rice producer) and a pyrotechnic (fireworks producer). Each player starts with two, 2-storey palaces; each storey gives space for one Person. Dicken places a Person in each palace. He then moves his marker nine spaces (4+5) on the Person track. Whoever leads on this track gets to go first in each phase of the twelve turns. This is very important; something Derek is well aware of as he notches up 10 points by choosing a monk (victory point chappy, worth 6 spaces) and a farmer. Kendall spends nine, landing on Dicken and thus ahead of him in turn order.
That’s just the set-up / introductory bit and soon the rules are being consulted again. Phase 1 (‘Action’) begins. Seven action cards are arranged in three groups (3,2,2 cards). In turn each player places his dragon marker indicating his choice of action. Only one action is used by each player, but in selecting a group the player makes it difficult for others to use an action from that group (it would cost 3 Yuan to do so, and 3 Yuan is not to be sneezed at). The action taken will improve a player’s position.
Derek chooses the farming action. He gets one rice tile for this choice and one extra rice tile for the farmer he took along with the monk. Rice is good. Kendall goes for money and draws 2 Yuan for the choosing, but nothing further as he has not got a treasury Person. Dicken gets some fireworks (nice).
Phase 2 is called ‘Person’ (something exciting may have been lost in translation). Each player has a set of eleven Person cards, one for each of nine types of Person available and two wild cards. Derek plays a ‘Court Lady’ and places the lady in question in his palace. She will earn him 1 point per turn in phase 4, ‘Scoring’ (that’s the sexy bit). Kendall plays and collects the Treasurer. He could have done with him in the Action phase, but that’s the nature of the game; very disarming. Dicken also opts for the Treasurer.
In Phase 3 the monthly Event is carried out. Consequently the phase is called ‘Event’. The first two months are set as ‘Peaceful’ and nothing happens. Thereafter all hell breaks loose. Players must look ahead and plan for disaster. No wonder then that Kendall and Dicken are looking for money as the Emperor’s tribute (4 Yuan a time) is due in March and again in May. Non-payment is not a good option; for every missing Yuan there will be a missing Person. The word ‘release’ in this case is a euphemism for execution.
Dicken’s mobile rings. It’s work. One of Dicken’s colleagues is out on an assessment late at night, so as a senior staff member he gets to be on call. Impressively he deals with the situation in less than three minutes, never once mentioning ‘contagion’, ‘drought’ or ‘the Mongols’.
Just as players are getting over the Event, along comes ‘Decay’. Here any palace without at least one Person housed in it will lose a single storey. At present there is no problem.
Phase 4 is ‘Scoring’ for that particular month. Each palace is worth 1 point and points can also be gained for Court Ladies and privileges.
And so the game starts to roll out; slowly at first and gaining more momentum as the phases are better understood and players come to realise that fate will kick them in the teeth sooner or later – so why worry? ‘It’s the first time we’ve played it’ becomes Dicken’s mantra. Kendall doesn’t correct him.
Fast forward …… Derek comes up with an ingenious plan to collect rice in bucket loads, converting to bucket loads of victory points at game end. Dicken gives a couple of good displays with his fireworks and also builds three extra palaces. He races into a healthy lead and then gradually pulls away from the field. Kendall doesn’t seem to have any particular strategy other than trying to keep all his plates spinning.
Fast forward again ….. Derek has slipped way behind on the person track, and as a consequence has had little chance to farm for rice. Furthermore he’s not been able to build either, so Persons can only keep appearing and disappearing from his two original palaces. Dicken has jettisoned his one farmer and realises (too late) that Persons are going to go hungry… very hungry. Kendall is squashing ever more Persons into a set of three storey palaces. With luck he should be able to keep sickness and starvation at bay.
The end ….. Derek starts building; too little, too late, too last (60 odd points). Dicken’s Persons are ‘released’ in droves; nice palaces, shame about the smell (70 odd points). Kendall’s Persons are all tucked up and safe (80 odd points).
‘Best game this year?’ wonders Kendall. Dicken weighs it against ‘Notre Dame’. Derek mentions that he has just been totally hammered; does this equate with a good game? Kendall commiserates and acknowledges Derek’s graciousness in soldiering on. ‘Was there an option not to soldier on?’ asks Derek. Dicken replies ‘No’ with a smile on his face.
All agree that ‘In the Year of the Dragon’ poses the sorts of dilemmas that the group enjoy and that the design is ‘clean’ and elegant to say the least. The random appearance of the Events will make future games very different. Certainly a game that will be played a lot more in the coming months.
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