| Launch Date: 2021 | Gamers: 1-2 Gamers |
| Designer: Dan Kazmaier, Connie Kazmaier | Size: 30-45 minutes |
| Artist: Andrew Bosley, Mary Haasdyk, Sahana VJ | Age: 8+ |
| Writer: Steeped Video games | Complexity: 1.5 / 5 |
We had been rising tea for generations on our giant plantation. We knew every thing there was to know in regards to the cultivation of the vegetation, the very best time and methodology of harvesting the leaves and find out how to deal with them to show them into splendidly fragrant tea, able to be steeped and drunk. We even had ships ready for our teas to take them out into the world. However for the second, it was time to calm down and revel in a pleasant cup of Chai: Tea for 2 by Steeped Games.
Set in the identical fantastic world as the unique Chai, the following sport from the designers Connie and Dan Kazmaier can also be all about tea, however this time gamers are tea producers who attempt to make the very best tea and get it prepared for big crusing ships to take them around the globe. The sport can also be particularly both a solo sport or for 2 gamers solely.
The illustrations for Chai: Tea for two are simply as fantastic as these for Chai, very vibrant and in a cartoon fashion that exhibits that that is one other sport that’s purported to be light and enjoyable. In each video games, you’re attempting to fulfil orders, which on this sport are represented by crusing ships which are ready for a selected quantity and mixture of teas. But, Chai and Chai: Tea for two are very completely different video games they usually’re aiming at various kinds of gamers.
Chai: Tea for two is in its core an engine-building sport. You’ll purchase so-called market playing cards, which you connect to sections of your plantation to enhance the pace of the manufacturing of sure teas. What teas you enhance will rely on the ships which have are available and the teas that they want. Each sort of tea goes by way of barely completely different processes to turn into prepared on the market, which is represented within the sport by the participant boards, the place the tea tokens transfer by way of completely different paths, a few of which take longer than others. In flip, these teas that take longer to supply are additionally extra beneficial.
Nonetheless, there may be quite a lot of participant interplay within the sport. Everybody has a pool of cube, which signify your employees and all of that are rolled at first of a spherical. Relying on the cube rolls you get, you’ll be able to take sure actions. Some require a cube to be a sure minimal pip worth, whereas others want a sequence of cube and others nonetheless want cube of the identical pip worth. There are additionally areas the place the pip worth doesn’t matter, however most actions can solely be occupied by one participant, so that you do have to consider what you need to do first, whereas additionally maintaining a tally of your opponent’s cube outcomes to see in the event that they possible can compete with you for a selected motion.
As at all times, you’ll be able to by no means do every thing you need. Getting a excessive level worth ship is, after all, essential, however when you can’t effectively produce the tea it requires, then these factors are nugatory. So possibly it’s higher to get a market card that improves the manufacturing of that tea, however then the opposite participant could sneak the ship from below your nostril. There are many selections to be made and the order wherein you’re taking actions is paramount.
It turns into a bit extra fascinating, as a result of sure motion areas could be “bid” on. For instance, you must place a sequence of cube to order a ship, a sequence of no less than two cube. Nonetheless, that doesn’t imply that ship is yours. Your opponent can knock you out by both taking part in an extended sequence utilizing their cube, or the next sequence. You possibly can return the favour by including extra cube to your authentic bid, and this continues till somebody can’t or doesn’t need to bid any additional. In fact, the extra cube you dedicate to a ship, the much less you could have accessible for different actions, so you will need to begin with a low bid and maintain some cube again, in case your opponent needs to compete with you within the bidding warfare.
You too can enhance or lower cube outcomes by a lot of pips, when you discard tea that’s already in your plantation – one pip per discarded tea. That’s generally a good suggestion, however generally it means you gained’t have sufficient tea left to finish a ship’s necessities. So it’s one other resolution it’s important to make.
There are further methods of scoring factors in Chai: Tea for two, apart from fulfilling ship orders. Some market playing cards provide you with factors and also you additionally get bonus factors for having playing cards with a selected sort of tea. In truth, ship factors alone gained’t win you the sport. Though everybody tries to finish a sure variety of ship orders to finish the sport, you don’t essentially win with ship factors alone. In truth, you may need to wait earlier than finishing one other ship order, simply so you will get some further factors from market playing cards.
That leaves one elephant within the room, after all: the historical past of tea manufacturing. The model of the rulebook I’ve has a bit outlining the historical past of tea manufacturing in and export from China and likewise mentions the Opium Wars. The designers have researched the historical past intensively and likewise contacted consultants and are hoping to incorporate extra element in regards to the matter within the remaining rulebook. Nonetheless, Chai: Tea for two isn’t particularly set in a sure historic time and most of the components are literally from completely different elements of historical past and even completely different tea producing areas of the world. I believe the sport clearly acknowledges historic occasions and respects them, nevertheless it isn’t attempting to signify these occasions in any means and focuses on tea manufacturing and distribution in a extra generic means.
So let me end by saying that I believe that the sport is quite a lot of enjoyable. It introduces gamers to cube employee placement, engine constructing, useful resource administration and goal completion, so is good to permit folks new to the interest to be taught these mechanisms. The elements are additionally fantastic. The sport comes with customized wood tea tokens, which really feel very nice in your hand and the participant and sport boards are produced from actually thick cardboard. The cardboard inventory can also be pretty and the cube are fantastic and chunky.
So when you like a very good engine builder, however get pleasure from a barely slower tempo than another video games, and need to get pleasure from a cup of tea, or two, whereas taking part in it, then Chai: Tea for two might be for you.