Pingyao: First Chinese Banks

I approached Pingyao: First Chinese Banks with one eyebrow raised. I backed it for the theme, then heard enough dismissal to start mourning the money, but there is a real game here. The rulebook gets a B- in passing: English was plainly not its first language, and a few passages ask for another look, yet it does get you to the table.

At heart, this is a lean dice-placement game. Die values matter, and spaces on the board shift, so spotting a strong action is not sufficient; you need to claim it at the right moment, before someone else does or before it slides somewhere less useful.

Those moving spaces feed the economic engine each player is assembling, while the early Qing-dynasty banks give the contest a welcome frame. You will squeeze each other’s plans, pursue different scoring routes, and eventually see how the pieces connect into something properly demanding. That is when it starts to bite.

My one reservation is replayability: I am not convinced the base game has endless new faces to reveal after plenty of plays. The Kickstarter package includes an expansion, but I have not explored it and will not make promises on its behalf. On first encounter, though, Pingyao was a pleasing correction to the rumours and a fiercely competitive game well worth putting on the table.