Show Ken Ryu, wait that’s not right

Imagine if you will you are in a star system in a galaxy far, far away. This star system seems similar as you watch nine planets orbit the star, but they are also different at the same time. Now imagine you are one of the many tribes who lives on one of the 5 races who lives on one of the nine planets.

Grab your dreeple and your beginner's guide to negotiation as we draft cubes on a cosmic level

Welcome to Ryu

Story

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far away the mother-ship saved five different races and brought them to a solar system of nine planets. Over time these nine planets became mercantile worlds with interplanetary trade, however as the tribes developed they all developed a different idea of what the original mother-ship looked like. Each tribe then entered a race to build their own vision of the mother-ship, the Ryu.

Game Mechanics

Auction/Bidding

Cube Drafting

Action Points

Modular Board

Semi-Cooperative

Trading

Deck/Bag/Pool Building

Number of Players

2-5

Play Time

45 minutes

Down Time

Deciding on how to spend action points

How does it play?

The game takes a little time in order to understand the rulebook. The book is a little too narrative and you often end up hunting for the piece of information you need. Once you understand how to play it plays relatively well, however you end up wishing you had more AP to play with

Each player in the game selects their tribe. They then take the relevant screen, dreeple (Dragon Meeple), and two yellow cubes.The game board is then set up by taking the the 4 merchant tiles and the home tiles for each tribe in play and shuffles them face down. If there is less than 5 player in play, the non player tiles of the tribes not in play make up the rest of the board. The board must always be made of 9 tiles.

On your Turn you have 4 action points to use on the following combination: -

1. Move 0-2 tiles then make an Action

2. Make an Action then move 0-2 tiles

3. Move 0-4 tiles

There are actions to perform on all tiles in the game. The tile actions are as follows: -

Player Island

1. Discard Yellow Cube

2. Flip Island to Sepia Side

3. Take Merchant Token

4. Flip Prospecting Token

5. Draft Cubes (4 or 5)

6. Draft

A. 4 Cubes - Drawing player selects the first cube, the tile owner draws 2 cubes and the drawing player takes the leftover cube

B. 5 Cubes - The drawing player makes two piles and the tile owner gets first pick of the piles Draw 4 cubes. Active player

7. Check if all Islands are flipped , if all player tiles are flipped the flip over the other tiles and leave the current tile on Sepia

Non-Player Island

1. Discard Yellow Cube

2. Flip Island to Sepia Side

3. Take Merchant Token

4. Draw 2 cubes from bag.

5. Check if all Islands are flipped , if all player tiles are flipped the flip over the other tiles and leave the current tile on Sepia

Smuggler Guild - Take one of the 2 following actions

A. Spend 1 cube to take a random cube from the bag. Take 2 Smuggler tokens.

B. Exchange as many cubes (not yellow)

from behind your screen to take Smuggler and/or Merchant tokens

Merchant Guild - Take one of the 2 following actions

A. Spend 2 Yellow Cubes to take a Governor (Wild) token

B. spend 1 Merchant and 1 Smuggler to take a yellow cube.

Bazaar - Take one of the 2 following actions

A. Spend 3 Merchant tokens to take a Governor (Wild) token

B. Spend 3 Smuggler tokens to draw 2 random cubes from the bag.

Governors Island - Take one of the 2 following actions

A. Spend 1 Merchant token to flip a Player or Non-Player Island

B. Spend 1 Smuggler token to see other players cubes, they discard if > 4.

Active Player can take 1 of the discarded cubes

Build a piece of your Dragon

1. Must build in Alphabetical order A-E,

2. Governor Tokens act as “Wild” resource

White Cube

1. Complete the action first

2. Then hold a “Blind” bid, highest bidder builds the next Dragon Section for Free

3. Ties and losing players exchange their Resources for Smuggler/Merchant tokens.

4. All resources placed back in bag (inc the White Cube)

Game End

First Player to build Dragon wins immediately.

It's worth noting that: -

1. Max Tokens a player can have is 5 of each type

2. Free Action, if you have no cubes you make take one Gold from the Bag before your turn

3. If you have the White Cube you must use it to Bid (counts as a normal resource)

4. When you Flip the 5th (or last Player/Non-Player) Tile the other 4 flipped tiles are restored to their “Explore” side

Components

4x Merchant Tiles

5x Player Tiles

5x Non-Player Tiles

5x Dragons

5x Player Screens

1x Cube Bag

1x White Cube

Lots of Resource Cubes

Lots of Tokens

Theme

The theme is a blend of sci-fi, and fantasy with a Japanese aesthetic. The artwork is the best part of this game

Replay Value

If I'm honest I haven't played this as much as I probably should. If you like lightweight cube drafting games then you'll get a fair bit of play out of this. I play this maybe once a year, it isn't as engaging as I would like. There isn't much scope to develop strategies given the weight of the game. The only strategies are either play it by the book or the Token Draft Strategy (where you move between the Merchant and Smugglers guild to build your pool of cubes)

Favourite Part

The Dreeples

Least Favourite Part

It's not engaging enough

Expansions

None

The Bottom Line

The combination of the Artwork and the Dreeples are the only reason this game is still in my collection. The game feels like there is something missing, like something was left out of the box when it came off the production line.

You Hadouken try it for yourself and see what you think

7/10 Dragon Scales

Game Designers: Kim Sato

Game Artists: Bertrand Benoit, Romain Gaschet, Ian Parovel

Publishers: Moonster Games