Yak Review

I feel like I’ve said this before, but one thing I love about the Internet is how it can bring board games that I would possibly never have heard of to my attention. That’s how I came across Yak. I was scrolling through Facebook one day and saw a picture of the game that someone had posted in a game group. The components really drew me in, and after I checked out the gameplay, I was sold. I grabbed a copy as soon as I was able, and voila! Maybe this review will inspire you to grab a copy too!

Yak is an economic game of matching/set collection in which 2-4 players are competing to build the best Stone Tower to aid the local merchants and their Yak carts in traversing the villages through the ever-rising fog of the Himalayas. Use your resources wisely, because the highest-scoring Stone Tower once the game-end is triggered will be the winner!

To setup for a game, place the game board in the center of the table within reach of all players. Each player takes a player board and Action Cards in their chosen color, as well as 1 of each of the 3 starting Food tokens (Meat, Milk, and Bread) to place on the Yurt section of the player board. Place the Yak carts onto the main board, according to player count, and fill them with Food tokens, following the different type restrictions of each cart. Place 2 Food tokens of each type onto the main board to create a Market. Fill the Quarry bag with Stones, and randomly draw and place 3 Stones into each Yak cart. Add the Fog tokens to the Quarry bag, and place the Fog marker on the rightmost space of the Mountain Track of the board. Place the Stupa marker onto the board and give the Baby Yak to whomever will be the starting player for the first round. The game is now ready to begin! Pictured below is the setup for a 3-player game.

The game is played over a series of rounds, and each round is broken down into 3 phases: Sunrise, Noon, and Sunset. During the Sunrise phase, all players will simultaneously and secretly select one of their 3 Action Cards and place it face-down in front of them. This will determine which Actions you can perform this round. Once everyone has chosen their card, the round moves to the Noon phase. During this phase, the Action cards are revealed and resolved in player order. The player who currently has the Baby Yak will go first, revealing their card and performing the Actions. The 3 possible Actions are: Build, Restock, or Market. To perform the Build Action, you will trade Food tokens from your Yurt to the Yak cart that is currently in front of you on the main board, in exchange for Stones from that cart. Trades are not exactly 1-to-1 trades, and not every Yak cart takes every type of Food token, so you must strategize wisely with this Action! Pay the requisite amount of Food and take the corresponding number of Stones from the cart. These are immediately placed onto your Stone Tower on your player board, following the placement restrictions outlined in the rules. If, after taking this Action, there are no Stones remaining in the Yak cart in front of you, immediately refill it with 3 Stones from the Quarry Bag.

Instead of Building, your Action card may be to Restock. To perform this Action, you will take all Food tokens of 1 type from the Yak cart in front of you, and place them on your Yurt. Then, you will draw 1 Stone from the Quarry bag and place it into the Yak cart (NOT your Stone Tower!!) in front of you. If the cart is already full with 4 Stones, skip this part of the Restock Action. The final Action choice is Market, and to use this Action you will select any 2 Food tokens from the Market on the board to be placed into your Yurt. If the Market is empty, you take nothing. Then, draw 3 Stones from the Quarry bag and select 1 to be placed into any Yak cart on the board. The other 2 Stones are returned to the bag. If all carts are full of Stones, ignore this part of the Market Action. After all players have performed their Actions in turn order, the round moves to the Sunset phase. Everyone takes their played Action card back into their hand, the Baby Yak is passed to the next player in clockwise order, and the Yak carts will rotate 1 player in the direction that the Yaks are facing on the road/board. A new round will begin, with a new starting player.

The game continues in this fashion until the game-end is triggered when at least 1 player has completed the 4th level of their Stone Tower, and the Tower has at least 14 Stones. That player gains the Stupa marker, and one more complete round is played before proceeding to Final Scoring. Towers are scored in 3 categories: Group Size, Number of Groups, and Extra Points. Groups are considered to be Stones of the same color that are adjacent to each other. The more Stones in the Group, the more points you earn. Number of Groups refers to groups of different colored Stones. The more Groups you have, the more points you earn. And finally, Extra Points are added for the Stupa marker, leftover Food tokens, and Single Stones not part of a Group. Tally up the scores and the player with the most points is the winner!

That may seem like a lot, but it’s pretty intuitive once you get going. On your turn, you’re really either collecting Stones for your Tower, or getting more Food with which to trade for Stones on later turns. The strategy is where this game really shines. You have to be thinking turns in advance while you play, trying to set yourself up for future success. Since the Yak carts move down the road after every round, you can see what Stones are coming your way and maximize your turns to profit from not only the cart currently in front of you, but the one that you will see next. It’s tricky too, because you don’t know what everyone else’s strategy is, and they may end up taking a Stone or Food that you were hoping to snag next round! One really neat element of the gameplay is the inclusion of the Fog tokens. If, when drawing Stones from the Quarry bag, a player draws a Fog token, all Yak carts do a 180 and will now travel in the opposite direction. So the cart you were just eyeing to get to next round is now moving away from you! Just a neat little twist to keep players on their toes.

Of course, I have to touch on the components. This is a very well-produced game. The paper and cardboard components are nice, thick, and sturdy enough to hold up to countless plays. The wooden components (Stones and Food tokens) are chunky, colorful, and fun to play with. The real shining stars, though, are the Yaks and their attached carts. The wheels actually move, they’re sturdy plastic, and just add such a cool element to the gameplay. Definitely my favorite part of playing. All in all, excellent production quality here!

All in all, we are big fans of this game. There are lots of different options in terms of strategy, but it also feels like a pretty light game overall. It will definitely keep you thinking and engaged throughout the entire game, but it won’t completely fry your mind. The gameplay is easy to learn and fast to teach, and the end-game goal is clear and comprehensible. Build the biggest Tower with groups of like-colored Stones to maximize your score. Boom. The components help elevate the theme and atmosphere, and just make it a fun game to play. I can see this one staying in my collection for a long, long time. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a robust 10 / 12. If you’re into set collection-type games, I would highly recommend checking out Yak!