Loyang has become the new capital of the Han Dynasty in ancient China, and it’s time to make your mark at the Loyang Gates. As a farmer, you need to supply the growing city with your harvested crops. Buy and sell seeds, expand your land, hire traders and experts, and sell your harvested produce 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, after Agricola and Le Havre, both of which have become hugely popular with legions of fans. Loyang continues this tradition, but this time with a different scenario: Chinese farmers seek to produce 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 supplying the new capital city of Loyang. With a rapidly growing market, this is your chance to succeed and set yourself on the Path to Prosperity, earning loads of money and ensuring a life of luxury for yourself and your family. But what is business without a little healthy competition? In Loyang, the winner is the player who finishes the most advanced game on the Path of Prosperity and thus becomes the most prosperous and successful farmer.
Each player receives a “board”, which is basically a T-shaped panel containing 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 for a total of 9 rounds, and at the beginning of each round, each player reaps a crop from each of their fields that are neither empty nor fallow. They then reveal a new field from their personal pile, ready to plant new vegetables.
The next part of the round consists of 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 vegetables. There are several assist cards that produce a wide variety of effects that generally involve making your crops more efficient or interfering with your opponent’s 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 mad if you don’t sell to them every round. The first time you don’t sell them crops, they just get mad. Subsequently, you will be charged a fine 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 veggies and are gone once your order is fulfilled.
The act of getting the cards is interesting. Each player draws 4 cards and begins a writing session. The first player discards an unwanted card on the table. After that, players take turns discarding an unwanted card or taking one of the discarded cards from the table. Once you take a card from the table, 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 available for other players to choose. 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 their actions before the next player takes their turn. This is not so bad, as there are not many cards that interact or interfere with other players. Actions available include planting crops; buy, sell and market crops on the market or stalls; use help cards; sell vegetables to your customers; and pay gold to draw more cards from the deck.
The money you make here is crucial. It is used to buy more crops to plant, but more importantly, it is also used to navigate the Path of Prosperity. The Path of Prosperity is a fun mechanic, being more difficult to advance in the late game compared to the early game. The Path ranges 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 seek victory. Once the game ends, the most advanced player on the Path of Prosperity wins the game.
Loyang is a very simplified game. Unlike other similar games, there are not many different paths to victory here. Money is your main goal, as it is used both as currency to expand your empire and to earn victory points through the Path of Prosperity. The game is not too interactive either, being similar to games like Dominion or Race For the Galaxy. You focus primarily on maximizing the efficiency of your farms with little interference from other players. However, a great advantage for Loyang is its high production quality. The boards and cards look great, and each vegetable and trail marker has its own well-designed wooden tiles.
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 suitable for players of all experience levels. You will enjoy At the Gates of Loyang if you like similar agricultural or economic games like Puerto Rico and Agricola.
Complexity: 3.0 / 5.0
Playback time: ~ 1.5 to 2.0 hours
Number of players: 1 to 4 players