Game mechanics

Type of game

History-inspired strategy game.

Mechanics

Secret goals, placement of double-sided disks involving two players, triangular determination of majority.

Main originality of the game

Concept of warlord, a role that the players can get by bidding. When a battle or a plot is triggered, the warlord decides which province it is going to take place on, and can bend the outcome to his advantage.

Number of players

2, 3 or 4

Duration of a game

60 to 90 mn

Principles of the game

Nanking centers on a dramatic period of Chinese history, at the heart of the conflicts that tore China apart from 1850 to 1865, and pitted rebel factions against an alliance formed by imperial clans and Western nations.

Each province that rises up might allow a faction to advance its flag by 1 to 3 spaces. To earn victory points, players may deploy troops, take control of buildings, or corrupt powerful characters who can support them during plots and battles. At the end of the game, each player adds up the victory points of all his factions. The player with the most victory points wins the game. As some factions are secretly manipulated, numerous twists of fate may spice the game up.

The ‘London Market’ expansion allows players to take in account the financial stakes that prevailed as part of the influence of the Western nations on China in the mid-nineteenth century.