On this Christmas Day, we are really happy to unwrap Nippon, a game from Nuno Bizarro Sentieiro and Paulo Soledade, now available on Board Game Arena!Nippon allows you to take part in an industrial revolution, and this time the setting is not England or Germany, but the land of Japan which transitioned from an isolated feudal country to a modern westernized industrial power in an amazingly short period: the Meiji Era. So in this game, you'll take control of no less than one of the 4 Zaibatsus, big conglomerates spearheading the transformation of the economy and wielding a large influence over economy and politics.
This game will give you a lot to think about, with many actions available ranging from ressource management to area influence. You'll have to get the right workers to be able to do the actions you want, but using different categories (colors) of workers will have you spend more money in the consolidation phase. You'll build trains and ships, but the money spent on that won't get you coal nor knowledge. You'll want to fulfill export contracts, but the ressources you'll use there will be dearly missed when you need to provide goods to cities to build up your influence in the different regions of the country.
Whatever the trajectory you have chosen, be aware that the Emperor Rewards you get when consolidating will be key, since they will act as multipliers to your strengths... if used wisely of course!
We would like to send a big thank you for this very nice present to the BGA boardgaming community both to the publisher What's your game? and to the developer Elena Laskavaia (Victoria_La) who did once more (after the wonderful Madeira) an amazing work developing an adaptation for such a complex game.
Merry Christmas to all!