Ravensburger in The Year of The Dragon: 10th Anniversary Edition Strategy Board Game

Best $20 I ever spent on a game. Feels a little like Puerto Rico but half the rules. It can also be a little lacking with two players in the sense that two aggressive players could use a single block to potentially cost one the game and you just have to suffer the remaining turns. It can also be a little repetitive; 12 months = 12 turns of the same types of choices but for the simplicity it also offers some depth and allows players to pick it up quickly. Set up can be a bit of a pain. That's my criticism. Its surprisingly a great game thats theme matches the design. Make the most with what youve got. Good resource management a little bit of engine building and several potential strategies without being point salad. This one fills a nice spot in my collection its fun and intriguing to see what gold you can find as you strategize and draft your way through its river of pain.

Summary: Year of the Dragon is a game for 2-5 players, ages 12+, by Ravensburger games. The box says that you can expect to play for "75-100 minutes," but all of our games by an experienced group ran around three hours.This is the ten year anniversary edition, and it comes with some expansions included. Other reviewers said that there were quality issues with the components. The components seemed sturdy enough to me.Every round you purchase the services of experts, gather supplies, build capabilities, etc. The purpose is to stave off the inevitable crises from war and drought to disease and starvation that will cripple your land.In the end, the player who fared the least poorly wins.On to the Dr Games’ Criteria …GO/NO GO Criterion• Complexity: (NO GO) This is a very complex game. The individual choices each round are not overwhelming, but trying to understand the complex, combinatorial possibilities of past actions on current and future ones makes this game a challenge to play. There are just so many ways to spend resources, and there is no sure way to hedge against the known, coming disasters.• Balanced: (NO GO ) Some players are going to do better immediately at this game, and in several times playing that advantage was persistent. If you can visualize combinations of cards several turns in advance and remember with perfect clarity what has already been played then you will destroy the other players.• Chance (GO) There is a lot of chance, but you know there is so it is OK. It is not an unpleasant surprise. It is a core mechanic.• Clarity: (GO) The rules are light compared to the complexity of the game, but there are many on-line video resources to help.• Reasonable Time: (NO GO) Three hours is too long for this kind of game for my gaming groups.Bonus Criteria• Social: There is nothing innately social or anti-social in this game.• Unique/Interesting Mechanics: The idea of hedging against future disaster through societal preparion is interesting.• Informed: It has a Chinese theme, but you do not really learn anything about Chinese history.• Rewards Throughout: Yes, though your best laid plans can be wiped out in a single bad turn.

Have the first edition of this game and bought the expansions when they first came out. However, saw this anniversary edition with everything in it and had to buy it. I have loved this game since it was first released. My copy was getting a bit worn out, so I decided to get a new copy. Love it!

Ravensburger doesn't have the big budget super releases with solid shiny bits everywhere and minis and so on, but they're Ravensburger, one of the oldest game companies in the world, and it's Stefan Feld, one of the best game designers working those euros right now. I look forward to owning all his games some day. This is a fairly heavy one compared to his other stuff, probably not the best euro to start with if you were considering it. This game typifies the "point salad" games that Feld is sometimes (lovingly) referred to as designing. I love em'. So many choices to make in the game, all of them *seem* good.....

If you like Feld, you HAVE to get this game. Even if it turns out you don't care for this one, you cant lose right now for 20$.Proceed with caution. This is not a game for the faint of heart. This is a brutally tight game of "disaster mitigation." You start with 2 rounds without events. you will use those to prepare for the onslaught of events in the next 10 rounds of the game. There are 5 types of events (2 copies of each) and almost every one of them will wreak HAVOC on your little engine. You will watch in agony as the palace you had barely started to lay foundation on in the first two rounds is slowly brought to its knees by round after round of tribulations. You should, however, take solace in the fact that your enemies around the table are suffering at the hands of plague, and famine, and taxation, just as you do. Not only that, but take the opportunity to occasionally throw your better judgment out the window and let the palace crumble for a turn while you move ahead in the VERY PRECIOUS turn order. Once you have surpassed your rivals on the turn order track, you can use the vantage to deprive them of whatever little hope they were clinging to.I've literally seen someone end this game with NOTHING left in front of them on the table. They had lost every single person and structure in their palace, and came in a VERY close second. Remember, the goal isn't to help your people survive. The goal is to win. ; )Ahhhhhh.... I love this game.

Lots of challenging decisions however early point pickups can easily swing the game.