Title: Tokaido Duo | Designer: Antoine Bauza | Artist: Naïade | Publisher: Funforge, Stonemaier Games | Genre: Tabletop Game | Players: 1-2 | Ages: 8+ | Time to Play: 20-30 Minutes
Tokaido Duo from Stonemaier Games (formerly through Funforge), is a 2 player version of the popular Tokaido game from the same publisher. The game takes place on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s 4 main islands. It is a setting bursting with activity, including visiting pilgrims, bustling merchants, and aspiring artists looking to fulfill their various goals in Shikoku. Similarly, Tokaido Duo allows for players to control these visitors, with each working towards a different end!
What’s In the Box?
- Don’t let the small box fool you, because there are many components inside Tokaido Duo!
- 1 Game Board
- 6 Character Boards
- 6 Character Meeples
- 8 Boutique Tokens
- 26 Ware Tokens
- 10 Purple Painting Tiles
- 10 Green Painting Tiles
- 4 Viewing Pegs
- 2 Color Marks
- 1 Hot Springs Token
- 3 Double-Sided Wave Tiles
- 24 Coins
- 12 Gold Slabs
- 1 Cloth Bag
- 3 Custom Dice
Setup
Setup for Tokaido Duo works best with players sitting at opposite sides of the table. Start with placing the game board in the middle of the play area. Players will choose either green or purple pieces. Once players have chosen a color, they will take all of the components of this color, including 3 character boards, 3 character meeples, 10 painting tiles, 2 viewing pegs, and the color mark. There is one character board and meeple for the, pilgrim, merchant, and artist of each color. Players will place their color mark near their character boards, which will serve as a reminder of their color. Then, shuffle all of the boutique tokens and place them randomly face up on the appropriate spots on the game board. All 26 ware tokens will go into the cloth bag. The 3 wave tiles and hot springs token are placed in their appropriate spots on the game board. The viewing pegs go on the 1 spot on their matching pilgrim boards. Each player will take their 10 painting tiles and shuffle them together. These are then placed face down randomly on their matching artist board. Coins and gold slabs should be kept in piles near the game boards. Place the 3 character dice in a central area. Finally, each player will take their 3 character meeples representing the pilgrim, merchant, and artist and place them on the appropriate starting spaces on the game board. You are now ready to play Tokaido Duo!
Game Play
One of my favorite things about Tokaido Duo is there there is very little down time. Even on the other player’s turn, you will have something to do! Each player’s turn takes place in 3 steps. First, The active player rolls all 3 dice and chooses one to use, moving the matching meeple. Next. the second player will then choose one of the dice and move their matching meeple. Finally, the active player takes the final dice and appropriately moves their matching character meeple. The players take turns being the active player throughout the game. After all 3 dice have been used, the next player will take their turn. Gameplay continues until the game reaches an end point. Keep in mind that each player may only move the characters of their color, and moving through the same space twice in one turn is not allowed. Additionally, a player must always move on a turn, even when a character action is not possible.
Objective
The objective of Tokaido Duo is to end the game with the most points. The pilgrim, merchant and artist each has their own goals. Any of these characters can trigger the end of the game, and each character’s progress will be scored for each player.
Pilgrims travel clockwise around the island of Shikoku, and will always land on the outskirts of the island. Pilgrims can move through spaces that are occupied by another pilgrim or a merchant, but cannot land on the same space. The pilgrim earns points by following the directions of each station they land at, be it a coastal town, temple, garden, hot springs, or seashore. If a player lands in a coastal town, they will take the number of coins shown on the boutique token. If landing on a temple, players will advance their viewing peg one slot on the temple track. If landing in a garden, player will advance their viewing peg on the garden track. Pilgrims will take the hot springs token if they land on the hot springs. Finally if a pilgrim lands of the seashore they will choose any wave tile from the game board and place it on the matching character board. If a pilgrim reaches the end of their temple of garden track, it triggers the end of the game.
Merchants move along the trade routes marked in orange, which link the mountain and coastal towns together. The merchant moves as many spaces as indicated on the merchant die. Merchants acquire good when they land in mountain towns and sell good when they land in coastal towns. Selling goods earn the merchant coins, and whenever a player has 10 coins they must exchange it for a gold slab. If a merchant earns a total of 6 gold slabs, it triggers the end of the game.
Artists are looking to paint gorgeous landscapes and gift them to those passing by. Artists move by crossing the orange trade routes from one region to the next. After moving the artist the number of regions rolled on the artist die, players will choose to paint a landscape or gift a painting. If they choose to paint a landscape they will reveal as many facedown painting tiles from their artist board as there are chapters in the area. If a player chooses to gift a painting, they may remove a painting from their player board and put it back in the box. The artist triggers the end of the game if they gift all 10 of their painting tokens.
Victory points are calculated at the end of the game, and are categorized as Faith Points, Commerce Points, and Culture Points. Faith points are calculated by multiplying the current temple value and the current garden value from the Pilgrim. Commerce points are taken from the amount pictured above their rightmost gold slab on the player board. Culture points are equal the highest total revealed on the artist board. The player with the most victory points after adding these numbers together wins!
Final Thoughts
Tokaido Duo was one of the best 2 player games I have picked up in a while! I was intimidated at first with all of the small pieces to set up. As I are read the rules, however, all of the pieces made sense as to why they were there. Archinimus and I had a wonderful date night at home with this one! The age range on the box says for players 8+, but I am not sure I would play with anyone younger than 10 because of how many aspects of the game you are handling at once. I really enjoyed that there is not much downtime, because even on the other player’s turn there are things for you to do and pay attention to. The artwork on Tokaido Duo was beautiful, with a vibrant watercolor aspect to the images. Tokaido Duo is absolutely on my top game list for 2 player games. If you have the chance to check it out, I don’t think you will be disappointed!
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