Jiangnan Life of Gentry Review

Jiangnan Life of Gentry is an intriguing board game featuring a worker placement, area control and bag building type gameplay. At first glance, this game may seem very complicated and intimating, but it really is quite accessible to any level of gamer. I really enjoy the uniqueness of this worker placement style game and the variations the developers took to keep each turn interesting and engaging. This game has lots of replay value as well because each time you play you’ll discover new deeper strategies to take. All of this, makes this game one of my favourite worker placement style games to play!

OVERALL THEME

The overall theme of Jiangnan Life of Gentry takes place during the Ming Dynasty in the 1500s – the pinnacle of Ancient China. You play as one of four literi scholars or artisans that will travel throughout Ancient China searching for inspiration to compose the greatest works of the age. You’ll compete to present your work at the capital city of Jinling. I absolutely love this theme! It’s a beautiful period of time and allows you to immerse yourself in the world and culture of Ancient China.

ARTWORK

The artwork in Jiangnan Life of Gentry is outstanding. From the beautifully designed boards to all the various tiles, the artists for this game really paid attention to details to transport you to Ancient China. Every piece is designed with thoughtfulness within the period. The iconography is superb and fits with the theme throughout, and even each muse tile has a beautifully hand-drawn unique character design…no duplicates here!

OVERVIEW OF GAMEPLAY

As one of the legendary Four Great Talents of Jiangnan, players will represent the best in art, poetry, opera and calligraphy. Players will perform various actions at different districts depending on the action tiles they choose on their turns. They will need to collect new ideas and money to publish your portfolios (a big way to gain victory points and other bonuses and round end). Throughout the game, players can also travel around to gain inspiration or discover muses. There are 6 rounds to the game and at the end of each round, the player with the most servants on the boat farthest down the river will determine a new city trend and category for scoring – this has a HUGE influence for victory points and strategy of the game. This may be one of the harder concepts to understand on your first playthrough…but once you learn this strategy, the real magic of this game fully unlocks!

The game itself is divided into two phases for each round – an action phase and an upkeep phase. Before the action phase starts, players will draw tiles from their bags and place them on their player board. From there, the action phase stars and players pick what district they want to visit based on the action tiles that were drawn. Drawing and choosing tiles is really what sets this game apart from other worker placements and adds a fun strategic element to the gameplay.

Visiting the different districts on your turn can be a lot of fun as well! You get to socialize at the tea house or tavern, take a trip and travel to other cities, or soak in performances of talented muses at the parlour. Each place you visit has special actions and benefits. Again, there is a lot of interesting strategy in choosing where to go and in what order, so you can make the most of your turn.

The upkeep phase of Jiangnan Life of Gentry is where the game might seem a little daunting for a beginner player, but take it step by step and you’ll find even more magic in this game. The best part of the upkeep phase is resolving boats. As you visit districts during your action phase, scholars will be placed on the river board below the district you visited. During the resolve the boats action, you will place servants based on where your scholar tokens have visited. All the boats will then travel down the river to the right and the player with the most servants on the boat furthest to the right will get to pick the scoring trend for that round. These scoring trends will stack as the round progress, so this is a HUGE way to influence the game and gain a lot of points!