Tokaido is a board game in which players are travelers who are making a journey from Tokaido to Edo (Tokyo). The players try to have the richest journey in terms of experience than anyone else, by eating exotic culinary specialties, purchasing souvenirs, relaxing at hot springs, painting the countryside and having unforgettable experiences with people that they meet on the way.
One of my favorite things about this game are the absolutely beautiful art assets. While the board is a little longer than most, Tokaido is a game that takes up very little overall table space, is quick to setup and pretty easy to pickup.
Objective: Have the most points at the end of the game. Ties are broken with the player with more achievements.
Players take turns moving towards Edo and earning points each turn.
Quick Setup:
1. Place the board
2. Take the achievements and place them faceup on the board
3. Shuffle and place the following cards on the matching area on the board:
– Souvenir cards
– Hot Springs cards
– Encounter cards
– Meal cards
4. Sort the Panorama cards by type (Paddy, Mountain, Sea) and by value (placing the smallest number at the top) and place them on the bottom right of the board:
5. Place the coins to the side in reserve.
Players:
1. Pick a color and takes a token
– meeple
– point tracking token
– bag (circular token that goes on your Traveler card) token
2. On the player’s Traveler card, take the indicated number of coins found on the top right
What each space does
Shop
Draw 3 Souvenir cards
The player may purchase one or more of these cards
– there are 4 types of souvenirs
– a set is a group of unique souvenir types
– souvenirs costs 1, 2, or 3 coins
– they are individually worth 1,3,5, or 7 points depending on the number of unique souvenir types in a set
– a player may only visit a shop if they have atleast 1 coin, they are not obligated to purchase anything though
Farm
Player takes 3 coins from the reserve
– there is no maximum coins a player may have
Panorama
If this is the first time a player has landed on a specific type of panorama: draw that panorama with #1, gain 1 point.
If this is not the first time a player has landed on the specific type of panorama: draw the next number of the panorama and gain that card’s points.
– the green panorama is made up of 3 sections (worth, 1,2,3 points for a total of 6)
– the red panorama is made up of 4 sections (worth 1,2,3,4 points for a total of 10)
– the blue panorama is made up of 5 sections (for a total of 15 points)
– once a particular panorama is completed, a player may no longer collect additional pieces of that panorama
– the first player to complete a panorama of a specific type, earns an achievement worth 3 points
Hot springs
Draw 1 Hot Spring card, gain the number of points listed on the card
– cards are worth either 2 or 3 points
Temple
The player donates either 1, 2 or 3 coins to their color’s temple stack and gains equal number of points contributed.
– a player may only visit the temple if they have at least 1 coin, and must donate at least 1 coin when stopping at the Temple
Encounters
The player draws an Encounter card
There are 5 different kind of encounter cards:
(2) – Shokunin – Travelling Merchant
– the player draws the top card of the Souvenir deck and gains points depending on what souvenirs they already own
(6) – Annaibito – Guide
– the player draws a panorama card according to the normal panorama space
– if they’ve already completed their panorama they may start a new (different) panorama
– the player gains points according to the panorama piece they gain
(2) – Samurai
– the player gains 3 points
(2) – Kuge – Noble
– the player immediately takes 3 coins from the reserve
(2) – Miko – Shinto Priest
– the player immediately takes 1 coin from the reserve and adds it to their color’s temple stack and earns 1 point
The Inn
All players must stop at each Inn, and they must then wait there until every player has reached there as well.
When the first player reaches the Inn, they draw Meal cards equal to the number of players, plus 1.
They then may purchase 1 meal. Meals may cost 1,2, or 3 coins. Each meal is worth 6 points. They must keep the rest of the choices hidden.
A player may only eat a specific culinary specialty once.
How movement works
On a player’s turn, they may move onto any space on the road and immediately take the action of the space.
Certain spaces has double spaces, and the first player takes the spot on the space closest to the road. The second player takes the space above and is considered farther away.
Turn order is determined by which player is furthest from Edo. In some cases, the player that goes last may go again because they are still the furthest player from Edo.
How achievements work
There are 7 achievements in the game, all worth 3 points.
3 of them deal with painting
– the first player to complete the appropriate type of panorama (Sea, Mountain, Paddy), gets the painting achievement card
The following 4 achievements are given at the end of the game once each player has reached Edo.
Gourmet
– the player that has the highest sum of coins on the meal cards
Bather
– the person with the most hot springs cards
Chatterbox
– the person with the most encounter cards
Collector
– the person who has the most souvenir cards
If two or more players tie for the same achievement, all eligible players earn 3 points each.
At the end of the game, players score additional points depending on their rank at the Temple.
The player that contributed the most scores 10 points.
The second most player scores 7 points
Third most scores 4 points
Any remaining players that contributed atleast 1 coin, earns 2 points.
Any player that did not contribute coins to the temple, does not earn any points
In cases of ties, both player earns the same amount of points. (do not divide)
Knight Knowledge 