YRO

• Designer: Masato Uesugi
• Publisher: Play to Z
• Players: 1-5
• Age: 10+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link:  https://amzn.to/3NDpy4e 
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

The Sunrise Islands, home of small but fierceful animal folk;
The Wooden Conclave, that reunites all the magical creatures of the Forest;
The Wandering Market, that travels and trades without rest;
The Mining Company, where the inventors create new technologies;
The Floating City, where Magic and Technology find their balance;
The Dragon Knight, sworn protectors of the land of Yro.

From these factions you will recruit members for your guild, to create a powerful party and complete the most rewarding quests!  In Yro you have to recruit adventurers in your guild and place them in a 3×3 grid you build during the game. They all have a Combat Value, that will grant points each turn if higher than the opponents’ one; they can grant you Magic and Technology resource points, that will unlock more powerful abilities Gold that will be useful to recruit more Adventurers and Victory points that will lead you to the final victory.

The combat value of your party will be determined by the combat values of your front row of adventurers, and when you recruit 3 adventurers in a row that share a Faction and/or Profession, they will unlock a powerful bonus effect, so wise positioning will also be essential!

The shared board is placed in the middle of the table, and each player takes their colored player board and marker.  Power and VP is tracked on the shared board, Magic and Technology are tracked on the player board.  Each player starts with 5 money and is dealt a hand of 5 Adventurer cards.

The game will be played in rounds (until someone has 9 cards or if someone scores 40VPs).  In each round, the same phases are played, with players playing simultaneously.

1] Draw Phase – players may discard any number of cards from their hand and then draw back up to 5.

2] Recruit Adventurers – players can choose to recruit 2 Adventurers (pay the total cost), recruit 1 Adventurer (at a 1 money discount) or 0 Adventurers (and collect 2 money). The recruited cards are then placed into your play area, orthogonally adjacent to a previously played card and staying within a 3×3 grid. Some cards have a recruit effect; if so resolve it now (this is the only time in the game that this effect resolves).  Check for a Link Bonus – if you completed a row/column with 3 cards of the same Faction or Profession, get the bonus listed on the bottom of one of those cards. You can use the little colored dots on the sides of the cards for a quick visual reference to see if you have linked cards.

3] Combat Phase – Sum up the power ratings of the cards at the top of your three columns, mark this on the Shared board. Based on the player count, players with more Power will score VPs.  Ties both score the higher value.

4] Production Phase – If your cards have a Production symbol, they all resolve now. This generally will give you Magic and Technology. Mark this on your player board.  As your technology increases, you will gain Levels as well.

5] Income Phase – All players gain 3 money. Additionally, any cards with an Income Phase action resolve now.

6] Victory Point Phase – Any cards with VP Phase benefits score now.

The game ends if a player has 9 cards in their array or a player has 40+ VPs.  At this point, players get 1VP per 3 money left over and the player with the most points wins,  Otherwise, play another round.

My thoughts on the game

So, one of my themes of 2024 is “let’s make a 3×3 grid of cards”.  A number of my favorite games of the year have fit into this category:  Pixies, Castle Combo.   Those two other games are on the simpler side – choose a card, add it into your grid and repeat.  YRO (which I learned is pronounced EE-ro) is a bit more complex.

Here, you are dealing with a lot more than just buying and placing a card… (though that’s a somewhat complicated decision by itself…)  In YRO you are also trying to balance your combat strength, your Magic and Technology levels, and of course trying to get enough money to be able to buy all the cards you want.

In short, you won’t be able to excel at all of these things. You don’t have enough turns and each card only helps you in one or two of those areas.  You can occasionally get a nice boost if you’re able to line up three cards in a row of matching type to get their bonus.  But, of course, as you’re doing this, you might have to make sacrifices in the card that you choose in order to get one that gives you that bonus.  It’s never easy in YRO.

There are a lot of different cards in the game, and part of the fun for me is the ability to go fishing for a particular card.  At the start of each round, you can discard any number of cards in your hand to look for something else.  Usually I find the most suitable of my current hand, toss the rest, hope to find something great – and if not, just buy the card I kept.    It’s a fascinating puzzle to figure out how to make the cards work together well.  

There is also plenty of room for long term plans.  Cards that increase your magic or technology may not pay off immediately, but cards that later use your high levels in those attributes can be devastating at the end of the game.  

Most of our games go between 5 and 7 rounds.  It’s hard to buy two cards a turn (every turn) as they can be expensive, but it is certainly possible to go cheap and try to rush the end of the game.  It’s always worth it to watch how fast your opponents are filling their grid.  If things are getting close to the end, you might have to go looking for a particular card to complete a scoring combo that you’re working on.  

Our games are still taking just a bit over 30 minutes, but we’re usually playing with the full 5p player count, and there is almost always someone new to the game.  Once we get back to our usual 4p core group and everyone knows the rules, I’d expect this to clock in around 20-25 minutes.   Though YRO shares some of the feeling of the other 3×3 games from 2024, it is the most involved game, and if you are looking for the card array game with a little bit more to think about, this is the one I’d recommend for you.

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3NDpy4e 

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it! Dale Y
• I like it. John P
• Neutral.
• Not for me…