As there is, at the time of writing, no other review for this game, I decided to take this opportunity to write my first boardgame review ever (so please be gentle in the comments ). Also before we get started note that I've played this game only 3 times so far: 2x with 4 players, once with 2 players.
Formosa Tea
You've probably already guessed it by looking at the BGG page of this game: Formosa tea is a mid-weight Eurogame. This is probably one of the most oversaturated categories in board gaming and probably why this game has been overlooked so far. But not all hope is lost I'm here to tell you why it stands out from the crowd, and in what ways.
The looks:
Before I get into the gameplay I'd like to take a moment to appreciate the graphic design of this game. From the box art, to the boards to the cards: it's all very consistent and of high quality. This is not just for eye-candy but surprisingly functional to the mechanics of the game. What I like about it aside from the wow-factor that comes with well-executed artwork, is that the art never distracts from what the game is about. The iconography makes sense except for one spot that could be interpreted in different ways. The manual is very clear and straightforward so there isn't any space for confusion really. The manual is clear, concise and well-written, except for the event cards and asymmetric player powers where we get wonderful stories of the history and the key figures of the Formosa tea industry. So there's notable difference #1 to other mid-weight Euro's: The theme comes through extraordinarily well.
Gameplay:
From a game-design perspective I see strong parallels with one of my favourite games of all time: . Both games offer an intricate combination of different mechanics/minigames that together make one bigger game. I think it's safe to say that if you like GWT, you'll like this game. There are two big differences here:
1) Where explaining Great Western Trail in a logical way is incredibly hard as every aspect is relevant for the other parts of the game, in Formosa Tea you can utilize the theme for everything in the rules explanation. It's like teaching . Things just make sense. When it rains a lot tea grows better, but the tea is wetter and therefore it takes more effort to dry the leaves. 336
The meeples with the pointy hats can go into the fields and harvest tea, the meeple with the square hats can process that tea. The best quality tea is most lucrative to export and poor quality tea you just dump on the domestic market, or add some flavours to mask how bad it is. See, it makes sense!
2) The high ease of teaching and playing this game comes from how effectively it borrows from already existing games. At its core it’s "just" a worker placement game. If you've played Azul in any variation, you'll know how the harvesting works. If you've played Century or Splendor, you know how deliveries work. The magic of this game is how it integrates these tried-and-tested gaming mechanics into a bigger whole.
There are various one-off special powers you can acquire during the game. They are very straightforward but also very flexible. It is perfectly possible to build some great combo's if you plan for it. I'm happy this game didn't bother with technology-trees, action cards or permanent bonuses as it would distract from the rest of the game. So there's difference #2: easy to learn, hard to master is not a term we often use to describe mid-weight eurogames, but this game pulls it off.
Flow:
I haven't seen flow being commonly discussed as a separate topic in game reviews but I think in this case it's an interesting topic to talk about. I've only played this game with new players and I don't think we've finished a game within 2 hours. This is not a problem as turns go quite quick and you'll be focusing on different things throughout the game.
The backbone of the game is making, then processing, and then selling your tea. This is a rather straightforward process and, yes, would be rather dull for a 2 hour game. The real game is in the interaction with your opponents, both positively and negatively. As a worker placement there's a bit of room to block your opponents: There are 3 different types of tea, and you can deny your opponent the best crops by harvesting them yourself, or fulfilling that contract they are aiming for. Compared to other more vicious worker placement games there's just a little of that, as most spots can be visited by one worker of any colour. A positive interaction is the way tea processing works. 629