As an investor, it’s important to properly manage your fund so you can strategically allocate to the 4 Asian Tigers. In order to achieve success, you’ll send out workers, build infrastructures, and sell goods. Still, only one of you can earn the most prosperity points and come out the winner. Do you have what it takes?

What Is It?

Worker Placement – Each turn, players must place a worker on the game board following placement rules about the worker color

Area Majority – Players will calculate their investment points in each Tiger which will earn them influence points and ultimately prosperity points for having the most influence

End Game Bonuses – When players sell goods to the global market, they’ll earn flags which they’ll place next to their player boards to activate certain end game scoring, and the stars on the flags will be used as a multiplier

Who Is It For?

  • 1 to 4 Players – You can play solo against an automa, which is fine id you enjoy a chunky solo with some upkeep, it’s too heavy for solo play for me personally. Otherwise, seems to scale well for any count
  • Ages 16 & Up; Avid Gamers – A lot of front-loading, lots of strategic decision making. Definitely not an introductory game
  • Fans of economic games, worker placement, and are majority

PROS

  • Rules, while a lot, are clear and detailed and offer good examples throughout
  • Components are nice quality, lots of wooden bits
  • Turns are very smooth and streamlined
  • The approach to worker placement (random worker draw order) feels unique
    • The placement rules help your options feel a little less overwhelming, while also not being overly limiting most of the time
  • Good level of player interaction without being mean
  • I like the mechanic of “take pieces off your board to earn bonuses” as it can change the game with each play, depending on how you remove those pieces

CONS

  • No Reference Cards – Would be useful for symbology and turn/era flow
  • Puzzle Board – Doesn’t sit perfectly flush
    • Board is also very gray/muted, and some icons are very small and hard to see
  • Red/Pink player pieces were a little too close in color in my opinion
  • Long set-up/clean-up
  • Though I did find some positives with the random worker order, it could be frustrating at times if you really want to do a certain action and can’t because of which worker you have to place next

Final Thoughts

I’ve been on the fence about whether I liked the random worker order or not. At times it was cool because you could see what your opponents would have access to on a coming turn, and you could plan ahead a little for your own turns, knowing you could only go to certain spots. But, other times you really wanted to go to a certain spot, but had to wait until the right worker was in your line. Overall, I thought it balanced out nicely and gave a nice strategic feel to the game.

The game could definitely feel a bit dry and spreadsheet-y at times too, but if you’re someone who likes a meatier strategy game, you’ll probably be able to overlook that. If you like an economic euro – check this out!

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 6/10

Designers – Nuno Bizarro Sentieiro, Paulo Soledade
Artists – Andrea Alemanno, James Churchill
Publishers – PYTHAGORAS, Mayfair Games
MSRP – $80.00
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*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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