The Legend of the Five Rings is a world deep with board game, video game and novel lore. Today we are going to explore the newest addition to that world as we seek to explore the Emerald Empire and play through the clan wars that they bring. Let’s explore the River of Gold.
River of Gold is designed by Keith Piggott with multiple illustrators credited. It is published by Office Dog and Asmodee Games. It plays 2-4 players in 60-90 mins.
In River of Gold, players compete to earn the most points through building their empire, sailing the river and growing influence. Every turn you will build, move or deliver to try and gain the most victory points. At the end the player with the most points wins!
Overview:
The game board, tiles, cards and supply of resources are set up on the table. Starting buildings are placed and the starting tiles are placed along the river. Once the game pieces are set up each player chooses a clan board and gains their components. One ship is placed on the starting river space and a place marker on each influence track in the regions on the board. One of each trade food, 2 customer cards, coins and sun marker placement is also all set up to begin.
On a player’s turn, there are four steps they must follow in order. Let’s look at each one and what you will do on your turn. These steps are:
1. Spend Divine Favor
2. Take an action
3. Claim masteries
4. Roll die and end of turn
In Spend Divine Favor players will choose to spend it to change the face of their die by one. This is spent with your sun marker on your board.
Next players can Take an Action by either choosing to build a building, sail a ship or deliver to a customer. To build a building players choose an empty space, discard the cost and choose on of the tiles from the row to build. Place one of your clan markers on the building and gain the influence in that region. There are different building types you can choose to build from in each area.
Sailing a ship allows you to move downriver with your die number and collect the rewards from the shore spaces adjacent to the spot you land in. Owners of those building gain the owner bonus as well. If you reach the end of the river, gain the additional bonus and restart on the river.
The last action you can pick is to deliver to a customer. This will allow you to choose a customer card and discard those goods listed to fulfill the order. Gain the ongoing ability if there is one and draw a new customer card to replace it .
The third step is to Claim Masteries which are competitive goals fort the clans that give points when you achieve them. The first to reach them scores more points then those that claim them later.
Finally you Roll the Die which ends your turn and gives you information for your next turn as to the value of the die.
At the end of the first Era, the Emperor torus the River of Gold and gives the owner rewards built. Then Era 2 begins. The game ends when the last tile from the Era 2 stack is moved to the building row. Final scoring occurs with regional influence of each area, total number of customers and any customer bonuses. The player with the most points is the winning Clan!
Impressions:
I love games that give me so many choices and so many avenues to move down when it comes to actions and scoring. In River of Gold there are a lot of different paths you can traverse and each one feels like exactly the right choice and rewards you with various ways to score points.
We played this with our gaming group that enjoys medium to heavy-weight games and this one was right in the sweet spot for the group. It is easy to understand, the teach was very straight-forward and not complicated for anyone. We have four steps each turns and it is smooth to follow them and get through your turn quickly. The game sits pretty much right in that 1.5-2 hour window for a first time play and learn to get through.
I also appreciate that this is the type of game you need to pay attention to your off-turns to see what others are doing. What actions and building people choose, their progress of the region tracks and if your building are visited is all important info you can’t ignore. I was able to take advantage of buildings that my opponents wanted to visit and then take the owner rewards to also help myself.
The art style for this follows the other games in the Legend of the Five Rings series, so if you enjoy the Asian-influences in the art and style this will be perfect for you. The board, cards and components all look great and while I would love some wooden tokens for some of the goods tokens and coins I understand that it keeps a game like this in a solid price-point for most people.
Overall if you enjoy action selection games that give you lots of different pathways for how to build, spend and move your way to victory this is the game for you. It is a tight and smooth experience on the table where you can trade and sail trying to build your Clan to be the best in the land. So go grab a copy of River of Gold and see how it works for your game group!
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