It’s 1570, corruption was at an all time high…in what form you ask? Well the tradition of gift exchanging was being exploited. If you wanted an official to get something done you exchanged gifts…yours just had to be worth more.
And that, is the key mechanic of Gùgōng, a game by Andreas Steding. Playing a card of higher value in a form of worker placement to activate not only that spaces ability, but also the ability on your gift (usually the lower cards have better abilities too).
The game takes place over 4 rounds, after which final scoring takes place.
There is really 2 main things to keep track of in this game – your hand of cards – think workers – and your pool of servants (which are really your only resource).
A real point salad game the board is divided into 7 areas, most of which can be used to score points, or to get you back valuable servants to send back out on more errands.
• So what are these 7 spaces?
Well let’s take a look, 5 out of the 7 spaces have the option of a basic or advanced action, the basic option being free and while the advanced action costs servants but gives a great effect.
Up the top we have the Travel section, up here you’ll move around collecting travel tokens that will give you instant bonuses, as well as being saved on your board to be traded in for either servants, VP, or Jade
Moving down the board, on the right we have the Jade space, this lets you exchange servants for jade, earlier jade costing less servants than later in the game. And jade is really one of those crazy combo vp end game scoring things, 1 or 2 jade isn’t worth a great deal, but get 5 and your looking at a massive 15vp!
On the left we have The Great Wall this is an interesting space, players will send servants here and they will wait until the minimum number of servants reach the wall (in a solo game this is 4), at which point whoever has the majority will score 3vp, get a free step on the central Palace space, as well as letting people on the wall spend some of their intrigue!
What is this Palace space? Well the first player to reach the Palace will score more points than anyone else, but more importantly, if you don’t reach the top of the Palace by the end of the game you instantly lose.
To the left of the Palace we have the Intrigue space. This is predominately used for tie-breakers, as well as calling dibs on the first player marker for next round. It also has the added effect of being a resource that can be spent when the great wall gets triggered being able to spend intrigue to manipulate the destiny dice (we’ll get to those in a bit don’t worry!) Or buy more servants or that ever valuable jade.
Off the right hand side we get to the Decrees, each game there will be 6 different decrees in play, these will score you some points but more importantly provide game bonuses. These range from effects that will get you a bonus each round, to effects that will enhance your actions and also some nice end game scoring bonuses!
And finally down the bottom we have the Canal space this space requires you to fill a boat with 3 servants to then come off the board and trigger a bonus, this will either be an additional card (remember, cards are the “workers” in this game so this will be an extra action), 4vp, or my personal favorite, the double servant, this guy can be spent as 2 servants, and reclaimed as one, which really ends up being quite valuable!
Having this wealth of options might sound potentially overwhelming, but your choices each turn will mostly also be hemmed by which cards you have available (due to needing a higher card than what is already on that space).
As a result, turns are quite snappy and move at a decent pace. The other thing that will influence your decision are those Destiny Dice we talked about earlier, each round these will be rolled and will give you 3 numbers that you’ll really want to prioritize collecting this round. Each number you have in your discard pile at the end of the round will grant you an additional servant and also if you get the most destiny you also get 3vp and a free step on the Palace!
Components
While the components aren’t premium, they are certainly up to a good standard for a uh standard game. Cards hold up well, tiles are thick and wooden bits are nice and chunky. The art is simply gorgeous too with plenty of iconography to remind you of the rules.
Replayability
While there are no faction powers or the like, the way set up works; with variable cards ending up on each action space will cause you to change your initial actions each turn, which as a result tends to drive you on separate directions sometimes.
Aside from that, there is also a variety of different decrees which will help shape your strategy from game to game.
The game is also just the right length that it doesn’t overstay its welcome or cut you off too soon. All these factors combined lead me to personally find this game quite replayable.
Solo
So what’s the solo like in this one?
Well you play against the AI known as Meng. Now Meng gets a random speciality each game (which also adds to replayability). And their turns basically consist of flipping an AI card that will tell you which space Meng is using this turn, then they take a random card from their hand and place it there, taking the actions as usual.
Now, to make up for being an AI and not a sentient player, they do get a few allowances. One of these is that they don’t need to worry about the number of their card. However they still must always spend servants just like a human player. The other main extra boost they get is they add an additional phase to the game, after you and Meng have had all your turns they quickly take an extra turn with each card they used. These effects still require servants to be spent so it’s still an extremely quick and satisfying chain of actions, however it definitely makes Meng a formidable opponent!
There is, unfortunately, no solo reference card, so you will find yourself referencing the rulebook a bit for your first few games against Meng, which is a bit of a shame given how little rulebook checking is needed for the human players with all the icon reminders on the board.
But even so, Meng remains a formidable opponent that is quick to play against and does plenty to alter the board state and keep you on your toes.
Meng also comes with 3 levels of difficulty – even easy will give you a good run for your money though!
Fun Factor
This game is just fun, something about the unique take on workers being cards, the way it limits your spaces. There’s never been a game of Gùgōng where I feel bored.
Conclusion
Gùgōng is definitely an underrated gem in my collection. Sure, the theme is barely there. But the artwork definitely has you realizing the game is set in China. And the gameplay is simply delicious. I wholeheartedly recommend this game if you’re a fan of worker placement Euro’s, and if you’re a solo gamer, this one is a no-brainer.
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