Empires of The North: Japanese Islands

This is a really fun addition. Challenging but not too hard. Definitely adds new dimension to game. I love this game. My 20 yr old son asked me to play and it is so much fun!

I have been waiting SO LONG...okay, maybe just since it came out....for this expansion to go on sale! I saw it and bought it all within 5 minutes.GAMEPLAY:I tried out the game tonight, pitting the two Japanese clans in a two-player game against my 12-year-old cousin. he chose the easier tribe...which I'm not sure was the easier deck, the Umineko clan which is difficulty level 8. Currently, his favorite clan is the Glenn clan which is level 1. The Umineko and Saikoro clan have their own little caveats, but the Umineko clan is it's own thing, because it has phases that I think are currently only in the Umineko clans: Storage and Docking phases. I immediately was irritated because more phases means more complexity and more time added to the game play - so the game time should definitely be increased especially if these are extra phases done each round - unless you're like my cousin and just completely ignore it, then yes, no time is added. Even if you're a pro at this game, time is still added with the Umineko clan. Hopefully there will be other expansions that would have some similar phase, because otherwise, people are just sitting there waiting for that person. They can't even do their storage/docking if they finish a round early, because the order of the phases requires Lookout phase first, so you would have to wait for all players to finish, so everyone can do the Lookout phase.Reading the rules for the Storage phase and docking phase was also annoying. Sometimes cards are referenced, i.e. "Trade Route *233" but there's no image of it in the rules like the other cards. I would recommend going through the rules and pulling out the example cards and practicing before starting with this clan. We just jumped in, and by the time I had reread the rules for a second time, my cousin had chosen to discard his "assign" cards but built his silos and docks. As far as I can tell, there are only 4 "assign" cards in the deck, and without them, the docks and silos are useless. Once you have them and get the engine running, it's smooth trading with yourself. Also, because the cards are unique to the clan, the opponent has limited choices in which cards to take advantage of.The Saikoro clan was fine. At first I had cards that would benefit the opponent, and it was okay. But then I finally got cards that let me reuse my own cards and I just started banking away points little by little and I stopped relying on my opponent and was self-sufficient. Some unique actions include un-exhausting opponent clan action pawns or cards in exchange for some benefit.APPEARANCES:I love the colors - PINK and PURPLE - the gaming industry is definitely losing money by not broadening their appeal, but Portal Games is darn clever. I looked through the cards and I loved the continuity - you can see the other tribes and it's kind of cool to see that the deck is part of this created universe.I also appreciate that there is more diversity in the game - the base game has Inuit, Scottish, and Viking clans. There are also Roman and Barbarian expansions (but those themes are overdone). There is only room for one more expansion (if you sleeve your cards and want to keep everything in the base game box), and I saved it for this particular one.In the illustrations, you can see the Inuit clans coming over for trade, there's some "gamer" humor, different groups at the Sushi bar - probably one from the Roman banners, and even the Japanese visiting in Europe. There is a geisha house card, so I don't know if you want to be the one to have to explain what a geisha is to a 10-year-old - but you "unexhaust" your neighbor's cards and get rewarded for it.OVERALL:I think this is a good expansion to have. The Umineko clan is definitely it's own thing. The Saikoro has the opposite of take-that, because interactive actions can reward both players, which I think is a better mechanism than a "take-that" mechanism.

I cannot believe this happened. I ordered this and the box was empty except for a magic the gathering deck. I’m unbelievably mad. This is unacceptable