Games Set in China
March 6, 2010
Added:
Way of the Dragon (2010)
·
Taste Taiwan (2010)
·
Pekin Express (2009)
·
The Message (2009)
·
Yangtzee (2006)
·
Tian Di Hui
·
Chung Kuo Chung Tzu (Chinese Gentleman)
·
Ni Hao Kai-Lan Dragon Boat Race Game
Games that are more about the Silk Road and/or Central Asia are in this separate list.
See also War Games Set in China.
| 2006 | |
|---|---|
| China – Das Duell |
Michael Schacht; Spiele aus Timbuktu; 2 Expansion kit for the below China which makes it playable by just two players. Downloadable for printing from Michael Schacht. B L |
| China – Grenzstreitigkeiten |
Michael Schacht; Spiele aus Timbuktu; 3-5
Expansion kit for the below China that adds border and port towns and which is downloadable for printing from Michael Schacht. B L |
| Fragile |
Czarné (Frank Czarnetzki); LudoArt; 1-4 In Shanghai, players attempt to bring crates off the dock and into their warehouses as quickly as possible. This rather abstract game is played on a 10x10 Checkers style board. Player-owned crates are distributed around the board. On a turn action points are used to move dock workers who move and also operate on crates (push, stack, flip). A flipped over crate reads "FRAGILE" and is worth more than others. The game ends when a player has pushed all of his crates into his storehouse space. Also provided are puzzles for a solitaire player. Wooden materials are of quite nice quality. B L |
| Great Wall of China |
Reiner Knizia; Kosmos; 2-5 Card game in which players are building the Great Wall. Each has a hand of seven wall cards, three gate cards and one watchtower card plus nine special cards. Cards are shuffled and five drawn. Some card rows are created. On a turn players can either draw another card or add an identical card to a card row. When a player begins a turn with a majority he may place a prestige tile which weakens him, but when claimed by another player both score. The special cards add one-off advantages/restrictions. B L |
| YangTzee |
Brendan Herlihy; Blue Panther; 2-4 Each tile has two symbols and one blossom. Matching blossoms scores. Forty-five tiles are included. B L |
| 2005 | |
| Age of Steam Expansion – China/South America |
Pierre Paquet and Martin Sasseville; Steam Brothers; 3-6
Expansion kit for the Age of Steam railroad game series. B L |
| China |
Michael Schacht; Abacus/Überplay; 3-5
Essentially a tile placement game where placement is based on cards in hand. Cards are replenished via a limited drafting mechanism. There are three strategies to pursue: long connected strings, counsellors in connected capitals and dominance of various countries. Originally called Kardinal & König / Web of Power. Review B L |
| China Erweiterung |
Michael Schacht; Abacus; 3-5
Expansion kit for the above China which is downloadable for printing from Michael Schacht. B L |
| Opiumkrieg 1839-42 |
Gottfried Bartjes; Mario Truant Verlag; 2-4
In "Opium War" players are traders carrying wares through the South China Sea. The choice is between trading in legitimate products or trying to make a quick fortune selling opium. Historical events also play a role. [This game was previewed at Essen, but to date has never actually been published.] B L |
| 2004 | |
| Chinagold |
Günter Cornett;
Bambus; 2 Two-player limited release featuring an unusual randomization method. Instead of rolling a die, a player tosses three rectangles of wood, each side of which features a different quantity. This is reminiscent of one method of calculating the ancient I Ching. It's also better than a die because it alters the usual probabilities as well as making it much simpler to reduce the range of results for the end game. Play itself transpires on a hexagonal grid board where every point is loaded with a face down gold piece. On a turn a player either reveals an uninterrupted straight line of pieces or turns one face down. Each space is simultaneously part of a blue line (the river) and also a brown land (the hills). When either type of group is cleared, the player controlling that terrain type cashes in. At first it seems the main skill is simply one of discernment – discovering the best place to flip tokens to help oneself. But continued play reveals also an intuitive counterpart to this practical activity, one of imagining the opponent's next move and planning to take advantage of it. A somewhat contradictory philosophy recognizes that each move requires a different-sized roll and each move can be designed to allow a player something good to do with as many rolls as possible. In short, despite the importance of the randomness, there are multiple strategic approaches and many options each turn. Physically, the board is a leatherette roll-up map, the pieces 81 wooden discs with stickers applied. The sturdy box is the green, standard one used in several Bambus games. Unfortunately this title appeared in a small print run and mysteriously has not yet been picked up for any larger publisher's two-player series. It's their loss as this is one of those rare games with few rules which can be appreciated by initiate and sophisticate alike. Review B L |
| Formula Dé: Circuits 34 & 34 – Bahrain & Shanghai |
Laurent Lavaur and Eric Randall; Eurogames/Descartes; This expansion kit for basic version of this auto racing game depicts a track in Shanghai, China. B L |
| Somewhere in China |
Jim Deacove; Family Pastimes 2-5 Players operate fishing boats attempting to satisfy particular consumer demands, but the good fishing grounds are hard to find and sometimes dangerously far out. Choose your gear, bait and amount of fuel carefully and watch out for hull leaks, sharks and storms. B L |
| 2003 | |
| China Moon |
Bruno Faidutti; Eurogames; 2-5
A tactical racing game based on a fairy tale about a mandarin duck and several frogs set in China. Originally published as Flower of the Lotus and also known as Lotusblume. Review B L |
| I Ching du Tchouan |
Pascal Rolly and Jean-Marc Tribet; Territoires d'Outre Mondes; 2 Players try to cross the board in their direction by creating a path with their pawns. B L |
| 2002 | |
| Dschunke |
Michael Schacht; Queen; 3-5 "Junks" is essentially an auction game with a few extra wrinkles. Best and most innovative of them is the mechanism of layering three part strips representing crates. These are placed in groups of three with each succeeding layer being laid crosswise. Each player's influence on the containing junk depends on the number of crates he has showing. So interesting is this unique mechanism that one comes to regret that it does not play a larger role. Instead, playing the starring role is the dreaded "blind auction with possibility of no return". In other words, bids are sealed, simultaneously revealed and all must pay, even if coming in second place and receiving nothing. What will it take to make this mechanism disappear from games forever? It really does nothing but defeat skillful play. Can it be consigned to games for children, please? Another unwelcome element is that of memory as players must dive into one of five decks of special cards à la The Settlers of Catan Card Game. The game slowdown that occurs while this happens is not as bad here, but there is enough card text that it may cause problems for non-German readers. The other main activity is choosing to execute special functions with the three different merchants on the five different junks, an interesting process which requires considerable lookahead and defense against the activities of others, especially the player to the left. Thematically, the economic model is a very strange one, suggesting that products such as spice, rice and fish are more fungible than money as the market presents a fixed price and the player who bids the most product is the only one who gets paid. Actually, money is never spent, only being employed as a scoring mechanism. A good idea makes holdings public at two strategic points of the game. The design does not feel "tight" – in fact, the phases in a round could probably be re-sequenced in any order without substantially affecting play – whether this is a failing or sheer brilliance I can't quite make out. The overall result is something of a mishmash of good and not so good features. The designer has succeeded better with previous outings Web of Power and Kontor than in this, his first large game published by Queen. It will probably be less to the taste of sophisticated players, but may be appreciated by those less demanding, if the language issues can be surmounted. Review B L |
| Gang of Four |
Days of Wonder; 3-4 Card game that seems to be quite closely related to the Chinese game Zheng Fen. Review B L |
| Great Walls |
Microcosm Games; 2-4 Players compete to build the largest wall in Ancient China. Choosing from a hand of possible structures, players take turns adding sections to their walls, forming barriers to surround territory and gain military might. B L |
| Shendao |
Valéry Fourcade; La Mèche Rebelle Editions; 2 Tile-laying abstract with the theme of Shendao, the way of the spirit, based on a Chinese god and goddess. B L |
| Snap |
Gamewright; 1-4; 5+
Tile-laying game is not without interest for adults. Depicted on the tiles are Chinese-style dragons, long and curly, in varying colors. Players must match up like colors and snap dragons together like puzzle pieces. The goal is to complete as long a dragon as possible to maximize points. Of course it won't hurt to prevent opponents from doing same. Each player has a hand size of three so there is a decent amount of planning. Further interest is added by the fact that while dragon heads are common, tails are relatively rare, concentrating interest on how these tiles are positioned. On top of this, there are three tiger tiles which confer even more points. (In Chinese lore the dragon and the tiger are the mythic creatures of east and west respectively.) One particular play of interest revolves around the tiles which have the same color emerging twice, which come in pairs. When combined they emerge a good number of points, so a player who holds one might like to watch carefully for the other to appear. Opponents who notice it appearing might like to void this possibility by defensively playing some other tile on it first. Tiles are nicely illustrated and made from fairly nice cardboard. While one might like the interesting longer dragons to arise more often, can make for a colorful and absorbing twenty minutes. Review B L |
| 2001 | |
| Siedler von Catan, Die: Historische Szenarien |
Klaus Teuber; Kosmos;
3-6 One of scenarios in this game is named "Die Große Mauer" which translated is "The Great Wall". "The Great Wall" casts each player as a guardian of a segment of the wall, trying to prevent the raids of steppe nomads. Because nomads inevitably seem to cross the wall somewhere, placing the other settlements far away from it seems a good idea. Interesting dilemma about whether to deliberately let them in just so that they deprive opponents of production. There is a lot of ore available on the fixed map, making the development card strategy look attractive, but this can be a trap because the value of the largest army award has been cut down to just one victory point and three victory point cards have been removed. One problem is that without the robber -- the pirate only affects players with ports – it becomes a little too difficult to haul back a leader. [Rules] (this site) Review B L |
| 2000 | |
| Formula Dé: Grand Prix China / Malaysia |
Eurogames/Descartes; This expansion kit for basic version of this auto racing game depicts a track in Zhuhai, China. B L |
| Kathai |
Michael Andersch;
Adlung Spiele; 3-5 Multi-player card game is about trading commodities in old Cathay, collecting and trading cards and deciding the best time to turn them in for points. Offers at least two possible strategies, one of achieving a large, valuable collection, the other of turning in several smaller collections, but rather quickly. Of course which one to use greatly depends on what the other players are doing. Definitely worthwhile for just about all players. Review B L |
| Qin |
Reiner Knizia; Queen; planned for 2000, but never
released; 2-4 About building walls in ancient times. Graphic design by Franz Vohwinkel. B L |
| 1999 | |
| Chinatown |
Karsten Hartwig;
Alea/
Rio Grande Games; 1999 Negotiation game about acquiring property and building up businesses in New York's old Chinatown owes something to Metropolis. Gorgeously illustrated and easy to play. Players must be very careful to watch players lucky enough to build a profitable enterprise on the first two turns however as they usually manage to win. It is nice if everyone agrees to embargo such players, but usually someone gives in because failing to trade with them hurts their own fortunes too seriously. It has been observed on rec.games.board that the Chinese writing on the business tiles uses simplified characters devised in mainland China only in the 1950s and that the historic center of New York's Chinatown is the corner of Mott and Pell streets, neither of which are shown. Review B L |
| Drei Chinesen mit dem Kontrabass |
Ravensburger; 1999 (Three Chinese on the Double Bass), a word game based on a children's song in which all the vowels are being replaced with different sounds. B L |
| Hong Kong |
Piatnik & Söhne, 1999 Two-player abstract game of perfect information by Reiner Knizia is about the building of skyscrapers in Hong Kong, thinly. Actually it's more a matter of who can build up faster and higher and thus cap his opponent's buildings. Or try the strategy of trying to cover territory. This strategic dilemma makes things interesting while the double move pieces afford difficult tactical decisions. Thus should appeal even to those who are not normally fans of abstracts. Review B L |
| Lao Pengh |
Patrick Inauen;
Adlung Spiele,
1999 Card game of placing Cranes and Dragons in 3 piles. Graphics by Jürgen Martens. B L |
| Ming |
Jürgen Reiche; Siebenstein Spiele; 1999; 2 Chess-like abstract featuring emperor, mandarin, generals and monks on a 7x7 board. B L |
| Ta Yü |
Niek Neuwahl;
Kosmos/
Rio Grande;
1999; 2-4
Abstract tile-layer and connectivity game of river construction. Ta Yü is the legendary Chinese hero who saved the Realm of the Middle Kingdom from a flood by creating a multitude of rivers to divert the torrent to a distant sea. A pricey package, but the very high quality components are suitable for museum display, or your coffee table when guests come over. Quite enjoyable for those who find fun in something like Streetcar and makes a very nice outing for competing couples. The rules are few and not difficult, so it can even work well for your non-gameplaying friends. Seems to work best with the "save one tile" variant and in four-player mode where half the fun is figuring out what your partner is doing. Review B L |
| 1998 | |
| Lotus |
Dominique Tellier;
Ravensburger; 1998 Simple racing abstract for up to four features stacked checkers which travel a number of spaces equal to the height at which they are stacked. The Lotus space adds the twist of being a space where no checker may stop, but must instead trampoline forward a number of spaces equal to those already moved. Although sometimes it seems a good game to for a computer to play to perfection, features a very accessible system and plenty of scope for tactical and strategic planning. The two-player game appears quite balanced while with more than that it is perhaps better to be the last player than the first. Each space features a different Chinese character which translated from end to start mean "Army", "Middle", "Light", "No", "Go", "Agile", "Lotus", "Car", "Go", "Big Tool", "House". From here, if one regards the board with "House" toward the bottom, the spaces on the left are "Truth", "Sky" and "Straight" while those on the right are "First", "Move" and "Black". In Ravensburger's Chinese edition, the title means something like "Chain Reaction Flying Dragon". [Review] (Luding: Keirat) Review B L |
| Tichu |
Urs Hostettler; Fata Morgana Spiele; 1998; 3-6 Trick-taking card game that seems to be quite closely related to the Chinese game Zheng Fen. The special pack for this game contains 56 cards, and is essentially like a standard pack with four jokers. The normal suits are replaced by suits of jade, sword, pagoda and star, and the four jokers, each of which has a special property, are the sparrow, the phoenix, the dragon and the dog. [translation] [Illustrations] (Association of Tichu Players) Review B L |
| 1997 | |
| Shanghai |
Sid Sackson;
Ravensburger; 3-6 Players are bidding to place a marker which they hope will score. B L |
| 1996 | |
| Chinatopf |
Stefanie Rohner and Christian Wolf; HABA-Habermaaß; 2-4; 4+ "China Pot" is a dexterity game for children who must place wooden facsimile food pieces into a wok without tipping it over. B L |
| Flower of the Lotus |
Bruno Faidutti; The Game Cabinet; 1996 Downloadable Game (Game Cabinet) Later published in physical form as China Moon. B L |
| 1995 | |
| Mandarin |
Jean du Poël; Historien Spielegalerie; B L |
| 1994 | |
| Chinesische Mauer, Die |
Sid Sackson; Piatnik & Söhne; 1994; 2-4 A tile-laying game about "The Wall of China". Large cardboard tiles exhibit criss-crossing paths in different colors. Players take turns choosing and placing any available tile with the twin goals of extending the length of one's own path and having the paths reach all four sides of the eventual total structure. What's especially tricky is that the exact locations of the corners aren't generally known until play is nearly over. [Review] (Deutsch) B L |
| 1992 | |
| Verbotene Stadt, Die |
Alex Randolph and Johann Rüttinger; Ravensburger; 2-4 Title means "The Forbidden City". Bluffing game of trying to retrieve the emperor's stolen wedding garments. [Rules] (Game Cabinet) B L |
| Wu Hsing |
Sid Sackson; Franjos; 1992; 2-4 Title refers to the 5 Elements: air, water, earth, fire, metal. Players are placing tiles to create patterns; somewhat similar to Dominoes. B L |
| 1991 | |
| Mandarin |
Tom Kremer; Mattel; 3-5 Game for children that has the side effect of permitting you to discover in which of the twelve Chinese astrological years you were born. There is a tile dispenser which players take turns pushing to receive a tile. The first player to fill up his card with tiles of the right types wins. B L |
| 1989 | |
| China Dragon |
Rainer B. Balandies; Piatnik & Söhne; 1-6
This is a tile placement game in which players add parts to two intertwined dragons and continue to own each tile they place, the goal being to form the longest continuous owned chain. L |
| 1987 | |
| Dampfross |
David G. Watts; Rostherne Games; 2-6 There is a map of China for this popular railroading game. B L |
| I Ching |
Fu Hsi; Hexagames/TST-Enterprises; One looks up one's fortune in the famous I Ching oracle. B L |
| Peking Akte, Die |
Milton Bradley; 1987, 1988 Parker-Spiele, 2002 A logical deduction game. Literally, "The Peking File", also published in English as The Mysteries of Peking. B L |
| 1986 | |
| Chinese Word Building Game |
Sun Ya Publications (HK) Ltd.; 2-6 Tiles contain Chinese words, radicals (parts of words) and strokes (even smaller parts of words). Players place these to build ever growing words. The English equivalent might be "automobile -> mobilehome -> homeowner", etc. |
| 1986 | |
| Mhing |
Robert Sun; Spear; 3-6 A simplified card version of Mah Jongg. Review B L |
| Shanghai Trader |
Steve Barnes, Peter Wyche, Steve Utick and Dave O'Connor; Panther;
3-6 The corruption in Shanghai's International Bund during the early part of the 20th century. Players represent a national side, one of Americans, British, French, Germans, Russians or Japanese. Players attempt to dominate different areas of the city which gives special moneyraising powers, including the ability to extort money from other players. Often players are required to practically ruin other players with amazingly high cash demands. It is not surprising that the game often turns into a bitter shouting match. In addition, not only do players need to make the most money, they must get out to the airport and hope they can roll well enough to escape alive, an endeavor that needs a fair amount of luck. Each side has special powers, but if playing with more than three, these should be omitted since they are not balanced. Review B L |
| 1984 | |
| Passage to Cathay |
Eric Olson; Ragnarok Enterprises; 2-6 Trade in the Indian Ocean, 1680-1830. 2-5 hours Later re-released as Passage to Cathay Deluxe. B L |
| 1982 | |
| Macao |
Ravensburger; 2-5 Bidding game using dice and memory. B L |
| 1981 | |
| James Clavell's Noble House |
L. Ross Babcock III; FASA; 2-5 From the novel Noble House, set in Hong Kong's 1960's business world. [Review] (this site) Review B L |
| James Clavell's Tai-Pan |
Albie Fiore and Ian Bailey; FASA; 3-4 From the novel Tai-Pan. From the novel of the same name, 1840's trading in Canton, Hong Kong, India and Europe. Players sail clipper ships from England to India where they buy up opium, from India to China where they sell the opium and pick up silk, tea and spices and then race back to England. Each clipper sailing is a race in which greater profits are realized for coming first, and realized in ways that are very sensible for the theme. Arriving in England first means one gets to sell at the highest price and then lower the prices of whatever was sold for the next clipper. But clipper speed is dependent on card play, cards which also affect prices, the faster the card, the more it lowers prices. A very nice tradeoff. Another tradeoff is deciding to skip buying opium and sailing to China directly in order to be the first to buy there. In China, it is not simply a mechanical matter, but instead one actually directs three small lorcha boats to the various Chinese ports to discover what commodities are available and at what prices. There is also a wares auction at Canton (later Hong Kong). A large number of flavorful event cards also make things interesting, although some may complain that there is too much luck in the "take that" cards. Definitely the best entry in the James Clavell series. Review B L |
| 1973 | |
| Pagode |
Valentin Siena; FX-Schmid; 2 Create patterns on a 9x9 grid to score and force your opponent into negative scoring patterns. B L |
| 1903 | |
| Voyage à Pékin |
2-8; 4+ Each player leaves Europe from a different city, racing to reach Peking first. Each city has various directions from which to depart, which is determined by roll of a special die. L |
| c. 1845 | |
| Mah Jongg | A Rummy-like game, perhaps the progenitor of it in fact, of melding and discarding, often played for monetary stakes. However, is a challenging exercise without this additional drama. The traditional tiles provide nice tactile and even aural pleasures as they click, click, click along. Comes in Chinese, Japanese and American rules versions, with many additional variations besides. Those which do not use the flowers and seasons reduce the luck and are the most interesting for serious players. Probably invented around AD 1850 in the city of Ningpo, China, by two brothers from the earlier ma tiae. It was imported to the United States c. 1922 and in just two years became so popular that Congress had to enact a law regularizing the name under which it was published. Read more at http://www.daniel.gottesman.com/maj/majHistory.html or at http://members.aol.com/pungchw3/brief.htm. Mah Jong Handbook: How to Play, Score, and Win the Modern Game [analysis] [scoring chart] Review B L |
| 1600 | |
| Sheng Guan Tu |
Ni Yuan-Lu; public domain; 2-5 "Promotion Official Chart" invented by a calligrapher living in the Ming Dynasty period is similar to Snakes and Ladders. In it players roll a top similar to a dreidel and attempt to rise to the top of the bureaucracy. This game was banned during the Cultural Revolution and has gone out of print. |
| 1120 | |
| Chinese Dominoes |
Public domain game
Unlike the Western set, a set consists of 32 tiles: The pips for one and four are red and six is half red-half white. Game Cabinet Intro Game Cabinet rules Wikipedia |
| 204 BC | |
| Xiang Qi | Also known as "Chinese Chess", the game probably has a common ancestor with Chess and similar mechanics. Some of the differences are that pieces travel on the line intersections rather than on the squares and the cannon pieces which are required to leap over others. Overall appears to have less depth than Chess. Review B L |
| 2000 BC | |
| Wei Qi | Better known in the United States as Go. Review B L |
| Uncertain | |
| Chung Kuo Chung Tzu (Chinese Gentleman) |
unknown; unknown; 2-4
Made in China, seems to be similar to Cootie, but instead of building a bug one constructs a man composed of blocks representing hat, head, torso, arms, legs and feet. Dice control what can be built. B [check availability] |
| 5,000 Years of Chinese History |
(published in Taiwan, Republic of China)
Basically a variant of Monopoly in which players attempt to collect various properties and not go bankrupt from paying rents. Review |
| Ni Hao Kai-Lan Dragon Boat Race Game |
unknown; Nickelodeon; 2-4; 3+
Players spin to move their boat; first to cross the line wins. Includes a dragon mask and encourages holding a Dragon Boat Festival parade after the third race. B [check availability] |
| Romance of the Three Kingdoms |
(published in Taiwan, Republic of China)
Roll-and-move game with almost no decisionmaking. Published in Taiwan, Republic of China. [Rules] (this site) |
| Der Schatz des Marco Polo |
ASS (Altenburger und Stralsunder Spielkarten-Fabriken); 2-4; 8+ Players are in Hang Chow looking for the treasure that Polo stashed there. He also left clues in various places around town and players go around picking up these. Having enough, players can recover a treasure. But other players can track him down and try to take it away. [check availability] |
| Tian Di Hui |
CW Karstens; unknown; 2-5
Card game of Triad gangs of the early 20th century. By purchasing black market item cards they build Poker hands to see who wins the round. B L |
| Zheng Fen |
Card game from China is in the family of climbing games which
includes
Corporate Shuffle,
The Great Dalmuti,
Tichu,
Zoff im Zoo,
and others. This realization has some quirky rules. Since in
communist society everyone is supposed to be equal, cards
are not dealt as this would make the dealer subservient. Instead
they are drawn from the top of the deck by each player. An
illustration of the inefficiencies of communism! The game play
is a bit strange as well as easy-to-achieve hands like the full
house seem to have more values than those which are harder to form.
Probably the least interesting form of this game one could play.
Review [Rules] (Pagat) |
Do you know of any more that should be added?
spotlightongames.com