Players: 4-12
Time: 30-60 minutes
Difficulty: 4 (of 10)

The Components

Oriente comes in a small card box with:

• 55 cards
• 12 action disks
• 6 laborers
• 1 destiny token
rules

Cards: The cards are all sturdy, linen-textured cardstock, printed full color on the front.

41 feature the Lords of the Oriente, which is to say the playing deck. Each has a value (0-7), a name, a very attractive picture, and some icons which usually do an OK job of telling you what the card does (though some players still had problems).

The 12 treasure cards each show some coins and a value of 2, 3, or 4.

The workshop card shows a hut and a town square, and is used for the placement of workers.

The summary cards lists all the card types, with numbers and values of each and icons, which is helpful in play.

Wood Bits: The wood bits in this game are all attractive and a good add to the game. These include 12 red action disks, 1 black "destiny token" pawn, and 6 yellow laborer pawns.

Rules: As is often the case with daVinci games, these rules were daunting. They're printed out on a large rulesheet, and are hard to understand; this was one of about three games total that I learned in the last year only by reading the rules several times. Part of this is due to the game, which isn't exactly complex, but is unusual.

Overall, the pieces are good quality and the cards are very nice, but there are usability issues both with the rules and (much less so) with the card icons. As such the games earns a "4" out of "5" for Style: above average.

The Gameplay

The object of Oriente is to achieve the most points by capturing other lords and treasures in your prize pile. The rules (and probably this synopsis) sound a bit complex, but the game is actually easy to play.

Setup: The game starts with each player being given a random treasure card, worth 2-4 points, which forms the start of his prize pile. He also receives an initial lord (placed face down), and an action disk. The first player is randomly selected.

Order of Play: At the start of "season" (a round, one of many awkward terms in the game) the top card of the lord deck is placed face down next to it as a "prize" for the round of player.

Destinies. Starting with the first player, each player may now try and take an action as long as he still has an action disk. If he desires to do so he says that he is "fulfilling his destiny" (taking a turn). He flips up his lord (if it's face-down) and declares an action (more on that in a second). But then any player may claim privilege (interrupt him) if they have a lord with a higher rank number (with the best being the 7: shogun and the worst being the 0: ninja) and if they weren't the target of the original lord's action. This keeps going around and around until a player declares an action without being interrupted.

Actions. When a player finally gets an uninterrupted action he turns in his action disk. A player may then take one of two sorts of actions (which he has already declared).

First he may attack another lord. The defending lord is turned face up if it isn't already. Each side may call for allies, but this costs the allies their action disks, so generally a player will have to offer bribes (from his prize stack) in order to get someone on his side. Most fights don't seem to have any allies in any case. When everyone is committed the player with the highest total (adding up the value of his lord and any allies) wins, taking the other player's lord and adding it to his prize stack. That player then replaces their own lord with a new face-down card from the lord pile.

Second, a player may have his lord use their special ability, if they have an "action" special ability (as opposed to one that just affects combat). Here's all the abilities, in short-hand summary:

• 0. Ninja. (Action). Add any lord to their prize stack.
• 1. Nofu. (Action). Recruit or start a revolution (more on that momentarily).
• 2. Akindo. (Action). Trade prize cards with another player or take all of a player's Nofu prizes.
• 3. Samurai. (Combat). Add a random card draw to strength in combat.
• 4. Daimyo. (Action.) Take the top card from the lord deck as a prize or become the Shogun.
• 5. Maho-Tsukai. (Action.) Become one other player's lord and randomly distribute the rest of the players' lords back to the other players.
• 6. Soryo. (Action.) Take the prize card laid out at the start of the turn as a prize.
• 7. Shogun. (Combat.) Always win fights if on defense.

The first player to take an action in a round gets to take the prize card flipped up at the start of the round, if his action is successful or not.

Revolutions. Revolutions are a fairly complex subsystem revolving around the Nofu (peasants). On a turn a player can add a worker to the town square, or else start a revolution. If he does the latter he asks other Nofu for help, though they have to turn in their action disk to do so. Afterward the player adds up the value of all Nofu (1 ea.) and all workers in the town square (1 ea.) All players whose lord is that value or less is overthrown. They lose half of their prize deck, and then the Nofu take those, add in all their own prizes, and distribute the cards out evenly among the Nofu comrades.

Ending the Game: The game ends when a Geishya is drawn, which had been laid somewhere near the bottom of the deck; whomever has the highest value of lords + treasures in their prize deck + their current lord wins (the last element screwing whomever happened to draw the Geishya).

Alternatively a player wins the instant they collect all three Ninja cards (and the game is set up so that all Ninjas are always above the Geishya).

Playing the Game: I found that the gameplay of this game was pretty obtuse from just reading the rules, and it wasn't until I played a full game that I really understood it. It's largely a game of trying to use combat or your other action to get yourself points and hurt the other players. All of the bit with "destiny" and "privileges" means that usually the highest-ranked lords go first and the lower later; it also results in a lot of passing and waiting as players decide whether to take their turn or not, and then whether they get interrupted or not. There's a lot of chaos in the game as revolutions and Akindos result in cards flying back and forth.

I'll also comment that I did round some corners in explaining this game, rather than trying to go into all the sharp-edged intricacies.

Relationships to Other Games

I have a very hard time explaining what Oriente "is" and I think that's a pretty good sign that there's not a lot else like it out there. I suppose you could draw some connections to Cosmic Encounter, another game centering around combat, alliances, and special character power, but this one is much simpler (once you get past the rules) and faster. I also don't think it does the alliance aspect nearly as well as CE; here there is rarely reason to ally, while in CE there usually is.

The Game Design

Oriente is a very puzzling game. I didn't understand it after reading the rules (many times) nor did I feel like I had much sense of the game after the first play. After a second play I felt like I was starting to understand the feel of the game, but all of the new players in that game were at least mystified as I was my first time around. There's just something uncomfortable & unusual about this game, and I don't mean that in a "wow, it's got a great, innovative mechanic" sort of way.

Nonetheless, I think that innovation must be counted as one of the games strengths. It's like pretty much nothing else in my collection. Likewise, it's a nice filler with fairly deep gameplay for the length. There's some neat bluffing and risk-taking, because some lords are hidden at any time (as people cycle through new roles) and you have to take chances at what other players might have. Overall, I think it's a pretty interesting party game, especially because you can play it with a gazillion players. (I actually haven't played it with more than 6, but it looks to me like it'll work well with those numbers.)

On the downside, it's overly complex as evidenced by the fact that I've read the rules many, many times, and still when I explain it players don't get it. This is a real deficit for a party game for lots of players. Secondly, it's just weird, which likewise makes it hard to understand & play. The fact that players are constantly passing either when they're not ready to take their action or else they don't want to call privilege puts a huge damper on gameplay because so much of it becomes repetitive and meaningless. Finally, it's very chaotic; I'm not convinced there is any real strategy in the game, because things can change so quickly (though that doesn't mean that it's not fun).

Overall, I found myself unable to review the game after a first play, and after a second play I give it an entirely average "3" out of "5" for Substance. I think there's some fun gameplay here, and that it's quite worthwhile as a filler, but I think the complex and weird rules and the somewhat obtuse gameplay will keep many of the players away from the game.

Conclusion

Oriente is a somewhat interesting and entirely original filler--if you can manage to get through the complex rules and the very unusual gameplay. Since it runs up to an amazing 12 players, I'd usually think this is a great party game, but on the other hand I think that's about the worst environment possible to teach this weird of a game. If you can get into this game, it could be rewarding for your group.

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