Yellow and Yangtze — Learning to Strategize

In Yellow & Yangtze, you match tiles and leaders of the same color, start Revolts, and wage War. But with only two actions per turn, you must make sure that each of them is moving you towards your ultimate goal of victory. Here are some tips and tricks to help you get the most out of each and every action.

Scoring

Diversification is king in Yellow & Yangtze. Since your final score is only as good as your weakest scoring category, you will need to know when to stop playing tiles in your strongest type and focus on your weaker ones. Past a certain point, playing tiles in your strongest categories is throwing away actions. Correctly identifying that moment will help you master scoring.

For example, once you have built a Pagoda of a particular color, it is often better to move on to another category than to go for a second Pagoda of the same type. Not only are you investing too much into one category, you are increasing the risk of all your progress being taken away in a single Revolt.

When it comes to deciding when to focus your efforts on a particular category, there are a few things you should consider. The more Artisan points you have scored, the more room you have to widen the gap between your lowest and highest scores. Also note that four player games are lower scoring than two and three player games since each player will get fewer total actions before the game ends.

Opening Moves

A good first move is to evaluate your opening hand and place a leader that matches one of your most common tile types. Next, you want to start playing tiles in that type to that leaders State to create a Pagoda. When playing tiles, you should usually be working towards building a Pagoda.

Advanced Tip – When building a Pagoda, try to place it in a position where your leader separates that Pagoda from the other tiles in that state. This will disincentivize enemies from starting Revolts against you since removing your leader will disconnect the attacking leader from the Pagoda.

In this example you are the Lion and your enemy (the Pot) just played a leader to challenge you in a Revolt. If they win, your leader will be removed and they will not be connected to the Trader Pagoda.

Revolts

Be careful not to start Revolts you are unlikely to win. Doing so will score a point for your opponent, waste an action, and make it harder to win your next Revolt (since you lose all the Governor tiles you commit).

A good rule of thumb is to start a Revolt when your opponent would need at least three Governor tiles in hand to stop you. To make this calculation, count the number of Governor tiles adjacent to the spot you plan to place Governor leader and add the Governor tiles and leaders you will be contributing from hand. Then, see if that number is at least three greater than the number of Governor tiles adjacent to the leader you started the Revolt against, plus your opponent’s Governor leader if it is in their hand.

If your enemy has just been involved in a Revolt you may be able to get away with a smaller lead in Governor tiles. They likely have expended most of the Governors in their hand and be vulnerable to an attack.

Don’t despair if you lose a Revolt. You may be able to win on a second try if you Revolt again with your second action. There are a few signs to check for to see if this is a good move. The first is that you have a Governor leader in your hand and your opponent doesn’t. The second is that the number of Governors adjacent to the spot you are going to place your leader is higher than that of the enemy leader.

Wars

Since Wars happen less often than Revolts, it is easy to underestimate their importance to the game. A well planned War can drastically swing the game in your favor. If you have leaders in a State with many Soldier tiles, keep an eye out for opportunities to start a War against a weaker State with leaders that match yours.

Remember that Wars occur between States not players, which means there are times when you will have leaders on both sides of a War. To decide which of your leaders to support, you should consider if any of them are scoring Pagoda, and how important their scoring category is to you.

Even if you don’t have a conflicting leader, you may still care who wins a War. If you have a Soldier leader with a Soldier Pagoda on one of the sides, playing Soldiers to that side will help protect that Pagoda from getting destroyed during casualties.

Advanced Tip – There are times when you will want to commit to a War you have no stakes in just to get rid of Soldier tiles in your hand that you don’t need.

Protecting Against Revolts and Wars

To protect against Revolts, place your leaders next to two or more Governor tiles. You can also protect your leaders on the map by adding new Governor tiles adjacent to them. Look for opportunities to play Governor tiles adjacent to two or more of your leaders or in the same state as your Governor leader so you may also score points from the action.

A word of caution about the advice above. Playing many leaders to the same State can be risky if that State doesn’t have an overwhelming amount of Soldiers. Putting all your leaders in the same State leaves you vulnerable to a huge setback if that state loses a war.

Advanced Tip – Another way to protect your leaders from enemy Revolts is to cover up spaces that would be good spots for enemy leaders to challenge you. In the most extreme case, you may be able to block all of the spaces adjacent to Governors in your leaders State. This makes it so an enemy can’t start a Revolt without playing a Governor tile to the State first.

Farmers

Make sure to place your Farmer Leaders adjacent to Governor tiles near river spaces. Not all States are equal places to farm rivers since there are only four river areas on the map that can support Farmer Pagoda.

If you have three Farmer tiles in your opening hand, you have access to what is arguably the best opening move in the game. Place your Farmer leader next to the spot pictured above, followed by your three Farmer tiles. This is the only way to build a Pagoda on your first turn.

Since multiple Farmer tiles can be played as one action, you should wait to play Farmer tiles until you have at least two in your hand.

Artisans

Artisan points aren’t technically necessary to win the game but they are incredibly powerful due to their flexibility. Aggressively Revolt against enemy leaders with an Artisan Pagoda. If you are lucky enough to take hold of the single Artisan Pagoda you need to be ready to protect its leader with Governor tiles. Many games are decided by one player running away with control of this Pagoda.

Advanced Tip – Since Artisan tiles are the rarest tile type you may find situations where using the Trader power to rebuild a stolen pagoda is your best option to keep scoring Artisan points.

Peasants’ Riots

Look for opportunities to send enemy leaders back to their owner’s hand by removing the last Governor tile adjacent to them. If you Peasants’ Riot with your first action you may be able to take a newly unclaimed Pagoda with your second.

Peasant’s Riots are especially powerful in two player games since the player you target is always your most threatening enemy. Removing a single enemy leader in a 3+ person game sets both you and the targeted player back an action, often benefiting the other players.

Don’t set yourself up to be a victim. Placing multiple leaders next to a single Governor tile will leave you open to getting blown off the map by an enemy Riot.

Advanced Tip – A well placed Peasants’ Riot can be used to split up an enemy leader from the Pagoda it is scoring. This can open up an opportunity for you to play a leader to take that Pagoda without the need to Revolt.

Redraws

Be cautious about using the redraw ability especially in the early game. Since you start the game with an even score in each category you should be making the most of what you have – there’s always a way to score points! If you need a specific tile, remember that the Trader tile can be used to help you find what you need in the market instead of using redraw.

The redraw can be used later in the game to help dig for Soldiers or Governors when you have a particularly important Revolt or War you need to win. You can also gain back some of the tempo lost in a redraw when digging for Farmer tiles since you can play any number of them as one action.

Disruption

Because of the limit on Pagodas, there are times when building one while allow you to destroy a Pagoda of the same type. Pay attention to enemies that have controlled a Pagoda for some time to get a sense of the colors that are less valuable to them. If you have a choice between taking a Pagoda from a player that has had it for a while and a player that just built it, take it from the player that just built it to cause more harm.

Another tactic for disrupting your enemies is to play tiles in spaces that will block them from creating a Pagoda in the first place. This is typically only worth it if you are scoring a point for yourself at the same time.

Practice Makes Perfect

Whether you are a new or experienced player we hope you learned a few new tricks today. However, nothing can compete with good old fashion practice. Play Yellow & Yangtze now on Steam early access!