In Tokaido you are traveling the ” Eastern Sea Road “. You will be strolling from Kyoto to Edo, enjoying all of the wonderful sights in between. Make this the best vacation ever, the one with the best trip WINS!
Tokaido is a game for 2-5 players. Takes roughly 45 minutes.. (Maybe at first, our group whipped through this game and it took about 30 minutes… maybe.) First game took longer of course, but once you get it, It takes no time. I played with two very competitive gamers, we were hesitant at first. It looked so simple! Don’t let it fool you, it may look simple but when playing with competitive players, It-Is-Not! We were constantly making strategic moves and blocking others from their preferred spots… You think it, we did it. ( I, maybe… might have… Skipped spots that would of helped me just to block another! … I was playing the Brother, sacrifices had to be made to even the playing field… Not even sorry! )
We strolled casually… NOT! 😉
In side the box you are going to find…
The Board, this board is beautiful. So elegant in its simple design and colors that pop! ( If you can’t tell, I am a true fan of the artwork in this game… I’m sure this will not be the only “Its so pretty, I’m gonna DIE!“.. ish comment made today. )
The Board depicts the Eastern Sea Road, and all that you can do while on that road.
You have Activities, Card Spots, Temple and Point Counter.
To move along the Board you are going to leap frog. The first person choses a space. The Second player either moves into a space before the first player, if there is one, or after the First player in an available space. The Person behind everyone else is who moves First. This constantly changes as you travel.
(Example… Blue will move first, then purple, then green.)
If it has only one dot on a Activity, that means that only one person can move there and do that activity. If it has two spaces then two people can visit that area. First person stops on dot closest to the Road… This is where the strategy comes into play. The Last person to visit goes into the spot closer to the activity. ( Person closest to activity goes before person Closest to Road. )
Activities and places to Visit!
- We have the Inn… Thats where you buy food and rest. Get a Food card. ( I will talk more about food later )
- The Sea Side.. This is where you will grab a Sea Panorama card… Beautiful, just relaxing and enjoying the sights.
- The Temple… The Temple is where you pray.
As you pray you will donate to the Temple. (1,2 or 3 coins per temple.) Place coins in the correct color. Depending on how Devout you are depends on how many Points you can get.
- The Farm… The farm is where you can work a bit for some coin. This is needed a lot. It can be a blood bath to get to the farm first when there is only one space.
- The Patty Field… Patty Panorama card.. Look at all the patties?
(If you have card 1, then grab card 2.)
- The Mountains…Go ahead and grab a mountain Panorama Card…Pretty Mountains.
- Encounter… This is where you will grab a sole Encounter card to see who you chat with.
- The Hot Springs… You grab a Hot Springs card… Feels so good to relax in a bath.
- The Village.. Shop for Souvenirs!
Last part of the Board is the Journey Points. You will place your colored tiny circle thing on there. This will mark how much you are winning or losing. You can see this counter in the image of the Temple above.
The Travelers..a.k.a you! Cutest People Ever… Not you, the cards.
On the Travelers Card you have a empty circle, thats where you will place a color token.. they call it a bag, yup your purse and your traveling piece match…So stylish.
( Like color with like color. duh… You have played a game before you can figure that out. 😛 )
It will also tell you how much your poor, or not so poor, traveler has jingling in his/her pocket currently. This poor orphan is BROKE! ( I can relate .. games are not cheap, dang it! )
Then the best part.. it will tell you what benefits your traveler has. Skills if you will.
This example is Satsuki the Orphan… She’s cute and sad so at the Inn they feed her for FREE! Yup, free.
Here are the other Players:
- Hiroshiga the Artist… Before he eats, he takes a look at the scenery … awe… and gets a panorama card with the corresponding points… Im not sure how he does it, but he can look at any scenery he wants. (Does he wanna look at the middle of the mountain? Yup, okay here is the 3 Mountain card. Does he want to look at the beginning of the ocean? Okay then, he can do that instead. Ooh so versatile.)
- Chuubei the Messenger… He gets to encounter people in the Inn before he eats. You get an Encounter card. ( Messenger? i think not. More like a Chatty Kathy. )
- Kinko the Ronin… Meals are cheaper, One coin less… not sure why the ronin gets it cheaper but i won’t question it.
- Yoshiyasu the Functionary… The bean counter, I admit I had to look up what Functionary meant hehe. He gets to chose who he talks to when he encounters people. ( “No, No, i don’t wanna talk to you” he’s such a snob ;P )
- Mitsukuni the Old Man… He gets an additional point when he gets in the hot springs and when he gets achievement cards. He’s old so he gets additional points. I love this old man.
- Sasayakko the Geisha…When she shops and buys souvenirs, she uses her feminine wiles to get the buy one get one free deal.
- Hirotada the Priest…When the Priest visits the temple he gets a free donation. The bank pays for the visit… Maybe the bank needs someone to pray for them, so they are willing to pay for it?
- Umegae the Street Entertainer… No she’s not working the street…Bad reader! She’s Entertaining… hmmm… anyways, She gets an additional coin and point, when she encounters people… She’s getting tipped for entertainment done right!
- Zen-emon the Merchant… This merchant doesn’t pay tax so he can buy one souvenir for just 1 coin.
Here are your meeples.. oops I mean peoples.
We have talked about the Board and the Characters.. Lets talk about the Cards.
Place each deck on its designated spot on the Board.
Here are the Souvenir cards
The Souvenir cards are cards that you will purchase when you visit the village. These cards are adorably done with almost an animated feel.
When you get to the village you draw 3 cards. You can purchase all or none.
On the Souvenir cards you find the name of the souvenir, the type and the cost of it. You also see 1/3/5/7.. What these are showing is how many points you can get. When shopping your goal is to get one of each souvenir… clothing, food, art and chachkies.
( example the first souvenir you get is lets say a chachkie you get 1 point, then you buy a drink 3 points, next you find a shirt you like 5 points and lastly you find a beautiful art board game.. lets call it Tokaido… and get 7 points! equaling 16 points after collecting them all. Gotta catch them all. If you buy 3 of one kind you get 1 point each. If you buy two chachkies and two art pieces you get 8 points 1+3=4 twice.)
Yay Hot Springs!!! Feels so good.
Hot springs are pure points. It feels so good depending on what card you draw ( Maybe how relaxed you get from the Spring you visit ) you get 2 or 3 points.
The Encounters…. Who are you going to chat with?
The encounter cards each have different people. Some will give you coins, some will give you panoramas, Some souvenirs, points and some will even pray for you.
Again, look how cute these cards are.
Did someone say food?.. No, well you should of because here it is!
When you get to an Inn you can buy food and get 6 points. 6 Points?! To get the points you have to be able to buy the food.. that isn’t always easy. Sad broke Panda. Each product says how much it costs.
The First person at the Inn will grab cards equal to the number of players +1. Then choses what food product he wants to eat. ( You cant eat the same thing twice. ) After you have eaten you place the other options on the spot next to the food cards. The second Player in then gets to go through the food and choose his treat.. so forth and so forth.
Panorama Cards.. Check out these views!
The Patty, The Mountains and The Sea!
Each Panorama set has a set of cards to make up the full view.
The Patty field has 3 Cards therefore you can only get a max of 6 points after you have collected them all. So pretty….Ooooohhhhh
You get your points as you collect the cards.
The Mountains have 4 cards.. This means you can get a total of 10 points.
Aaaaawhhh
The Sea is the largest view with 5 cards and a total of 15 points.
Ooooooooohhhh.
Panorama Achievement Cards!
When you are the first to see a full view you get the Achievement cards for that Panorama and additional Points. Yay!
You are going to keep all of the Cards you have collected through out the game. They add up later to get these Achievement Cards.
These Achievement Cards I will tell you more about later!
On your Marks.. Ready… Set.. Go!
And they are off…… Lets Vacation People. May the Best vacation Win!!!
Here are our Racers. The Orphan (Satsuki)… Purple, The Entertainer (Umegae)… Teal and The Messenger (Chuubei)…Green
Since Chuubei is first to go.. He loses one Coin in his purse..I mean bag. First player because he gets the advantage of first spot loses one coin. This only happens at the beginning.
He is going to go to the immediate space and visit the Village.
He Draws three cards and choses the ones he wants to buy.
He is Going to Buy……….Hmm lets see..
He is purchasing a shirt and a Chachkie.. can never have too many of those. He also receives 4 points.. 1(first souvenir) +3 (second souvenir) = 4points. If he bought the food he would of added another 5 points… But he doesn’t wish to become broke, gotta save money to buy food at the Inn.
Next Up is Umegae… She doesn’t lose anything for going second.
Umegae skipped visiting the Village and the Temple.. She gets an additional point and coin when she chats with people at the Encounter spot.
She gets chatting with Annaibito. He enjoys her conversation so much… *cough*… He tips her a view of the Patty Field. This is her First look at the Patty Field, so she grabs the 1 Patty Field and gets 1 point. That means for this one turn she has gotten 2 points and a coin.
(1 point for the encounter and 1 coin due to her ability and 1 point for the 1 patty field that Annaibito gave her.)
Satsuki is Last and she gets 1 additional coin to start with. Thats good because she doesn’t have much. She has so little that she doesn’t stop in the Village. (If she had chosen to go to the village she would still be last and able to move once again.)
Instead she is going to head to the Temple and give one of her few coins because she knows that a little devotion will help in end game 😉
Chuubai is up again! 
Chubby is skipping the Patty Fields and Heading to the Hot Springs. Awwww. So refreshing.
Draw a Hot Springs Card.
Oooh it was a very successful Spring, he gets 3 points!
Satsuki is behind so she goes next, where will she go………Lets see!
She too is going to visit the Hot Springs! Orphans need baths too.
Sadly her bath isn’t as rejuvenating as Chuubai’s but points are points… She gets 2 points.
We are moving along here!
Umegae is going to move to the available Patty field and look at the view… Pretty!!! Then she is still in the back so she will make a HUGE leap and head to the Mountain views.
Since she has already been to the Pattys once she gets the second card in that view. It is the first visit to the Mountains so she is grabbing the first card. That means she get 3 points this turn.
Satsuki again.. She is going to go work at the Farm and get 3 Coins!
Chubbai’s turn. He is also going to go work at the Farm. 3 Coins!
Umegae is unable to hit the farm and she is choosing to not visit the village to the Temple. Instead she is going to have an encounter.. Remember because of her ability this benefits her. It being a solo stop she doesn’t wish to be blocked.
Her Visit with Annaibito isn’t bad.. He might be following her i dunno.. But either way he gives her a Sea side Panorama. Yay!
She gets 2 points and a coin. (1 for an encounter, 1 for Seaside Panorama 1 and coin from encounter.)
Chubbai’s going again…..( Do you get the Movement yet? See easy but strategic. )
This is going to continue all the way till an Inn …
Let me show you an example of the Inn
Satsuki will be entering the Inn first. As she enters the Inn she gets a free food card from the Inn ( member she’s a cute poor child. They feed her for FREE! ) Even though she will take the food offered to her for free she is going to look at the food offered. Draw 4 cards from the food deck, look at them. Then place them next to the food deck, face down.. Others will see what is available as they enter… Because she got food she gets 6 points.
Be aware you cant have Multiples of the same food… I don’t care if you really like Misoshiru. No!
Next in the Inn is Chuubai…
Chuubai is stopped before he sits down to eat and gets to chatting.. little does he know food is awaiting him. Growing Colder and colder as he chats.
He gets an encounter card.
He gets a Patty fields card. 1 point. Okay lets eat finally. He gets to look at the food cards that Satsuki drew earlier.
He is going to buy Soba for 2 Coins and gets 6 points. For this turn he has earned 7 points.
Last to enter the Inn and will be First to exit the Inn is Umegae.
She Enters the Inn and buys the Tempura for 2 coins. She collects 6 Points. She is now last in the Inn, so she will wake up nice and early and be the first out to see the beautiful sea.
So forth and So forth. This continues to happen all the way to Edo.
Now we need to count up our adventures and see who has WON!
Here is where the additional ACHIEVEMENT CARDS come in!!
Umegae has a lot of achievements. She has spent the most on food so she gets the GOURMET Achievement. 3 points.
She has encountered the most people she gets the CHATTERBOX Achievement. 3 points.
She has spent all that money she earned on the streets on Souvenirs. She gets the COLLECTOR Achievement. 3 points.
Total of 9 Points extra earned in end game. =)
Satsuki is a very clean Orphan. She has received the BATHER Achievement card. 3 points.
Total of 3 points end game… She will not be winning this game. Maybe Next time.
Chuubai didn’t earn any of the earlier Achievement cards, but he has received all of the PANORAMA Achievement cards.
He really liked seeing the sights. 3 points for each.
Total of 9 points.
Umegae…. total of 80 points
Chubbai… total of 77 points
Satsuki.. total of 70 points.
Umegae had the best trip when traveling through Japan. Chuubai had a good time, a lot of chatting and got a little lost in the Sights. Satsuki sadly didn’t have a great trip, she did stay very clean though.. so there is that. 😉
I hoped you enjoyed out trips down the Eastern Sea Road! If you haven’t had this experience you need to stop reading right now and go Play TOKAIDO right now!
Thank you all for reading and as always, suggestions and comments are always welcome.
Have a game you want me to show? Let me know.
-WarBird signing off.
WarBird Gaming 