Step inside the vibrant bustling hub of culture and gastronomy in Taiwan Night Market. Take on the role of an ambitious vendor looking to establish themselves in the rich night culture of Taiwan.
Overview:
In this appetizing game of 5 rounds, players bid for prime locations to open their stalls be it doughnuts, meat on a stick, bubbletea or the classic noodles. Once the stalls are in place customers swarm in from 3 locations on the map finding the closest stall offering what they’re looking for. The player at the end of all 5 rounds with the most money wins.
Components:
Our review copy is a pre Kickstarter prototype so bearing this in mind the components are of good quality. Firstly, there is the gameboard, this shows the number of lots available for bidding throughout the rounds, as well as the entry points for different customers and the path they take around the board. Then there are the lot location cards which determine the lots available for bidding in each given round, alongside these are the bidding tiles, where players compete to bid for lots. Then we have the most important cards, our stall cards. This is where we choose what sundries our stalls will be offering, donuts, meat on a stick, bubbletea or noodles. We then have our money which comes in coins of 1, 3 and 10, these are complemented by loan cards which give you 5 coins which need to be paid off at the end of the game with an interest of 2 coins. We also have colour specific cubes used in both the bidding phase as well as to determine who owns which stall and of course finally, no business would be complete without customers, there come in cute little animal tiles bearing the food/drink item they’re looking for and a letter from A-H on them which determines where on the gameboard they start their journey.
Gameplay:
Play begins by deciding player order, each player gains resources based on their turn order, if player a 3 player game player 1 gets 12 coins, and in a 4 player game player 1 gets 13 coins, each player receives 1 coin less than the player before. For example in a 4 player game it would be 13/12/11/10. Players also receive 4 secret customers each which they will place on the game board later on in the game. Then reveal the top 6 location cards (for a 3 player game) or top 5 (in a 4 player game), place these on their corresponding location on the game board with the card faced down. These will be out of action throughout the game.
Now the game is set up the game itself takes place over 6 rounds in a 3 player game and 5 in a four player game. Each round consists of 4 phases, the Preparation phase, Bidding phase, Open for Business phase and finally the clean up phase.
Preparation phase: This phase begins with revealing new locations, in a 3 player game reveal 4 location cards, in a 4 player game reveal 5 location cards. Once revealed, place the bidding tile on the corresponding stall on the game board, if a location is yellow with a star this is a prime location and the yellow side of the bidding tile should be used. Players then reveal 4 general customers from the supply, placing them on the corresponding entry point to their letter. Players then choose from their hidden customers, in a 3 player game players chooses one hidden customer in rounds 1-3 but from round 4 players choose 2 hidden customers which increases by 1 in each successive round. In a four player game, players choose 1 hidden customer from round 1-3 but then in round 4 they choose 2 and round 5 they choose 4. These customers stay hidden until later in the round.
Bidding phase: Next is the bidding phase, this is where players compete against each other to occupy the best stalls available on the market. Here players go in place tokens in turn order on how much they would like to pay for the location until everyone has taken two turns. There is no limit to the amount you can bid and numbers on the bidding tile can be added together to signify bigger bids, if no one has bidded on a location players can bid at any price, players can also pass a bid if they have at least one of the highest bids so far in this phase. If any player ends the bidding phase without gaining a stall they receive a compensation bid where they have another opportunity to outbid another player.
Players then pay for their locations, if they don’t have the available funds they may take out a loan giving them 5 additional coins which need to be repaid at the end of the game with an interest of 2 extra coins, players can only take out 3 loans throughout the game. Once locations have been paid for players build their stalls choosing between, doughnuts, mean on a stick, bubbletea or noodles. Players may choose stalls that they believe will receive the most general customers on the board as well as the hidden customers yet to be revealed.
Open for Business phase: The penultimate phase is the most exciting, players reveal their hidden customers and place them in the corresponding entry point on the game board. Players then move the customers to either the first stall of the customers preference bearing in mind you can only accommodate 1 customer unless you have a connected stall of the same type or they move to the next available entry point. If 2 players have the same type of stall opposite each other, customers go to the stall on the left of the path, players with connected stalls of the same type can also receive more than one customer. Once all customers have moved players receive money, each customer pays $3 for a standard stall; however if you have 2 of the same type connected they pay $4 and 3 or more of the same type they pay $5.
Clean up phase: Finally, refill customer tokens, each player fills their hand back up to 4 customers. Player order also adjusts so that the player with the most stalls goes first, if this is tied the player with the most money out of the tied players goes first.
Repeat these phases for the number of rounds specific by the number of players, on the final round players receive the ability to accommodate an additional customer to each newly built stall from that round, these are signified by the seat tokens.
At the end of the game, the player with the most money after repaying all their loans wins.
We really enjoyed the gameplay, you feel really immersed in the Taiwan Night Markets competing against each other to gain the best stalls and gain the most customers. The change in hidden customers each round took a bit of concentration but definitely made for a better gaming experience, the added element of chairs in the final round also gave players a final impetus to try and win.
Replayability:
Having played this game a few times there is enough replayability to make it enjoyable. There are many different tactics you can choose from and the element of luck from the different locations being revealed as well as the general and hidden customers mean no game plan is ever set in stone and carefully constructed stalls could have reduced footfall by one player building just a stone’s throw away and taking the customers.
Pros:
This game really immerses you into the world of running your own market stall, and gets you excited about the prospect of upcoming customers, vying with other players to clean up with the prime stalls. We really enjoyed the opportunity to build stalls connected to each other, like some kind of doughnut superstore allowing you to allow for more customers and gain more money.
Cons:
We feel this game would really benefit from a 2 player variant, we tried one that we had heard about but felt it didn’t work well, especially in capturing the competitiveness and conflict mechanics that are added to the game when playing the standard 3 player game.
Final verdict:
Before we wrap this up, we want to remind our readers that this was a pre-kickstarter prototype, the gaming experience itself was really fun and we would totally play this game again and look to add it to our collection. I would love to see the kickstarter version and how the components add up, I hear the pre-kickstarter components were pretty decent in comparison. We feel the game could also be improved by extra entry points as well the 4 phases detailed on the game board itself so you’re not having to flick through the rule book each round.
