Okiya (game)

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Okiya
Game data
author Bruno Cathala
graphic Cyril bouquet
publishing company Blue Orange Games,
Pegasus Spiele
u. a.
Publishing year 2012
Art Card game
Teammates 2
Duration 10 mins
Age from 7 years

Awards

Okiya is a card game for two by the French game designer Bruno Cathala . The game was published in 2012 by Blue Orange Games and was published in German by Pegasus Spiele in 2017 . It is based on the abstract placement game Kamon by Cathala, which was published in 2007 by Blue Orange.

Theme and equipment

In the game, two is a power struggle geisha houses ( Okiyas ) in Japan, competing for the favor of the emperor. The other players try to position their geishas optimally in a card display or to prevent the opposing house from moving. The victory conditions partly correspond to those of Four in a Row and similar games, although the game mechanics are different.

In addition to the game instructions, the game material consists of:

  • 16 geisha cards from two houses (8 each in red and black),
  • 16 garden cards with two symbols each,
  • 3 flower stones as victory point indicators.

The cards were designed by the French illustrator Cyril Bouquet .

Style of play

To prepare for the game, the geishas are separated from the garden cards and each of the two players receives the geishas of a house. The garden cards are shuffled and laid out in the middle of the table in a square of four by four cards.

Phases per round
  • Take the garden card
  • Place geisha

The game is played over one or more rounds. A starting player begins by choosing any card from the edge of the field and removing it from the game. In this place he places one of his geishas. The second player takes any garden card, which must show one of the two symbols of the previously taken and discarded card, and puts it on the shelf. Then he also replaces the vacant position with one of his geishas. From now on the players take turns playing by picking up a garden card with a matching symbol on the previously discarded card and exchanging it for one of his geishas.

The game ends when a player succeeds

  • to lay out four own geishas in a row (horizontally, vertically or diagonally),
  • to lay out four of your own geishas in a square or
  • to block the opponent in such a way that he cannot choose a suitable garden card and thus cannot make a move.

If the game is played over several rounds, the winner receives a flower stone. The first to win two stones wins the game.

Development and reception

The game Okiya was developed by the French game designer Bruno Cathala on the basis of his strategic board game Kamon , which was published in 2007, and was published in 2012 by Blue Orange Games in a multilingual edition. In 2014 a second purely English edition was published under the name Niya . In 2015 the game was published in Russian by Lifestyle Boardgames Ltd and in French by Oxybul. In 2017 Pegasus Spiele launched a German version and Blue Orange published another multilingual version, followed in 2018 in Chinese by Swan Panasia and Ukrainian by Feelindigo.

The game was named after the geisha houses known as okiya .

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e game instructions Okiya , Pegasus games 2017
  2. ↑ Versions of Okiya in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English); accessed on February 28, 2019.

Web links