Loyang has become the new capital of the Han dynasty in ancient China, and it’s time to make your mark at the gates of Loyang. As a farmer, you must supply the growing city with your harvested crops. Buy and sell seeds, expand your land, hire traders and experts, and sell your harvested products to all kinds of customers. Compete against other farmers on the Road to Prosperity and become the most successful farmer in this economic strategy board game!

At the Gates of Loyang is a board game from Uwe Rosenberg, the creator of Agricola, one of the most popular strategy board games of all time. Loyang is Rosenberg’s third board game with an economic theme, following Agricola and Le Havre, both of which have become hugely popular with legions of fans. Loyang continues this tradition, but this time with a different scenario: Chinese farmers are looking to make as much gold as possible. Additionally, the game is less complicated than Rosenberg’s other games, with fewer mechanics and victory paths to worry about.

The game takes place in ancient China and you are one of the many farmers who supply the new capital city of Loyang. With a rapidly growing market, this is your chance to make it big and put yourself on the path to prosperity, earning loads of money and securing a life of luxury for you and your family. But what is a business without a little healthy competition? In Loyang, the winner is the player who finishes the game the furthest along the Prosperity Path and thus becomes the most prosperous and successful farmer.

Each player gets a “board”, which is basically a T-shaped panel that contains the Path of Prosperity track, as well as an individual market shop where they can buy and sell their crops. You also get a local field card and a stack of 9 semi-random field cards that can be used to plant different types and amounts of vegetables. There are 6 types of vegetables, ranging from the cheaper wheat and squash to the more expensive and rare beans and leek. The game lasts a total of 9 rounds, and at the start of each round, each player reaps a crop from each of their fields that are not empty or fallow. They then reveal a new field from their personal pile, ready to plant new vegetables.

The next part of the round involves drawing cards from a deck. There are additional field cards that allow you to plant more crops. There are market stall cards that allow you to exchange one or more of your vegetables for another specific type of vegetable. There are various support cards that produce a wide variety of effects that generally involve making your crops more efficient or interfering with your opponents’ plans. And then there are 2 types of customer cards. Regular customers accept up to 4 sets of 2 vegetables, paying you each time you sell them a set of vegetables. However, they will get angry if you don’t sell to them every round. The first time you don’t sell them crops, they just get mad. Afterwards, you are charged a penalty fee of 2 gold for not being able to supply them. The second type of customer is the occasional customer. They are patient but require a set of 3 vegetables and disappear once you fulfill their request.

The act of getting the cards is interesting. Each player draws 4 cards and starts a drawing session. The first player discards an unwanted card on the table. After that, players take turns discarding an unwanted card or taking one of the discarded cards from the table. Once you take a card from the table, you are out of the draft and must immediately play the card on your board. At the same time, you must also choose one of the cards remaining in your hand and play that card as well. The rest of your hand is discarded and available for other players to choose from. Therefore, each player ends up playing 2 cards each round during this phase.

The next phase is the action phase, and the order of play depends on which player played their cards first in the previous card selection phase. In a single turn, each player performs ALL of their actions before the next player’s turn comes. This isn’t too bad, as there aren’t many cards that interact or interfere with other players. Available actions include planting crops; buying, selling and trading crops in the market or stalls; using prompt cards; sell vegetables to your customers; and paying gold to draw more cards from the deck.

The money you earn here is crucial. It is used to buy more crops to grow, but more importantly, it is also used to progress along the Path of Prosperity. The Path of Prosperity is a fun mechanic, being more difficult to advance in the late game compared to the early game. The Path goes from 1 to 20, which represents the cost of moving to that position. So going from step 1 to step 2 costs 2 gold, while going from step 15 to step 16 costs 16 gold. However, your first move each round only costs 1 gold. This opens up a few different strategies on how to go for the win. After the game is over, the player furthest along the Path of Prosperity wins the game.

Loyang is a very simplified game. Unlike other similar games, there are not many different paths to victory here. Money is your main focus, as it is used both as currency to expand your empire and to earn victory points through the Path of Prosperity. The game isn’t too interactive either, being similar to games like Dominion or Race For the Galaxy. You focus primarily on maximizing the efficiency of your farms with little interference from other players. However, a big plus for Loyang is its high production quality. The boards and cards look great, and each vegetable and trail marker has its own well-designed wooden tokens.

Loyang is a fun game that doesn’t take long to learn and acts as a good introduction to more complex economic strategy games. It is also appropriate for players of all experience levels. You will enjoy At the Gates of Loyang if you like similar farming or economic games like Puerto Rico and Agricola.

Complexity: 3.0/5.0
Playback time: ~1.5 to 2.0 hours
Number of players: 1 to 4 players