Lanterns dance softly overhead as Iroha peers gracefully over her fluttering fan, her eyes briefly connecting with two shadowy figures in the small audience. As everyone else is transfixed by the new maiko’s elegant artistry, her two rival patrons plot away. The tension thickens. The next move will be discrete, yet decisive.
On Hanamikoji, Kyoto’s most renowned geisha street, there is no lack of talented maiko, but only the favored can stay long enough to become artists of the highest order. How far will Iroha’s star climb? Whose name will she favor as her benefactor?
Enter the subtle, intriguing world of Hanamikoji and experience its emerging drama as a patron manipulating the road geisha travel to ascend to fame and mastery.
Hanamikoji: Geisha’s Road is the sequel to the quick yet profound 2-player card game Hanamikoji (BGG#214). It is with great joy that we now invite you to learn, see, and experience this labor of love. We are also publishing a new version of Hanamikoji and the newly released Hanamikoji: Action tiles expansion (1~7).
We’ve made a quick video to introduce ourselves to the community and can’t wait to meet you all during the campaign.
Welcome back to Hanamikoji!
Geisha’s Road is a 25-minute two-player, competitive strategy game full of implicit intentions, veiled messages, and hidden actions. You and your opponent are rival but friendly patrons supporting Yoko, Tomoyo, Iroha, Anju, and Ruri along their journey from apprentice (maiko) to full geisha (artist) and perhaps even the owner (okaasan) of their establishment.
To do so, players help their favored geisha advance and build prestige through performing their art at different teahouses. Maiko become full geisha and score prestige points after accruing enough patronage to return to their original teahouse (ochaya) for the graduation ceremony (erikae). Some geisha may continue their path further and eventually inherit the teahouse (upon a second return) to become the new okaasan, recognized with more prestige points.
At the end of the game, each geisha’s final level of prestige will be associated with the patron who supported her the most. The player who accumulates the most total prestige at the end of the game wins.
In this game, geisha score points when they return to their original teahouse, which is driven by the cards you and your opponent play. Influence the path geisha take to control the amount of prestige each geisha score. But the road won’t be easy – be wary of your opponent misleading you into investing your resources in geisha that will ultimately benefit them instead. Through secret actions and calculated risks, hide your true intentions and wisely associate yourself with the geisha who will ascend to the greatest heights.
After shuffling and dealing 6 Item Cards to both players, each player will take turns drawing 1 additional Item Card from the deck and then taking 1 of the 4 actions depicted on their Action Markers.
Action 1: Reveal
Play 1 Item Card face-up immediately into your tableau and move the geisha accordingly.
Action 2: Intrigue
1. Play 1 Item Card face-down in the vicinity of your tableau under this Action Marker and discard another card face-down.
2. The face-down Item Card under this Action Marker will be revealed and executed at the end of the round.
Action 3: Gift
1. Pick 3 Item Cards from your hand to place face-up.
2. Your opponent picks 1 Item Card to play into their tableau and moves that geisha accordingly.
3. You play the remaining 2 Item Cards into your tableau (in your desired order) and move those geisha accordingly.
Action 4: Competition
1. Pick 2 sets of 2 Item Cards from your hand to place face-up.
2. Your opponent picks 1 set to play into their tableau (in their desired order) and moves those geisha accordingly.
3. Afterwards, you play the remaining set into your tableau and move those geisha.
Claiming Lantern Cards
When a geisha ends her movement exactly on its original teahouse, place a Lantern Card (prestige points) next to that teahouse.
Claiming Guest Tokens
When you move the Geisha 1 or 2 spaces, you can also collect 2 or 1 Guest Token(s), respectively, on the teahouse where the moving Geisha has landed on. These Guest Tokens will be scored based on their quantity and colors at the end of the round.
The round ends after 4 turns when both players have played all 4 actions. At that point, each player will reveal and execute the face-down card they kept in their tableau (Action 2).
Then score the round and whoever has the higher influence (the numbers on the cards) for each color wins the favor of that geisha and all her Lantern Cards.
Finally, add in the prestige points from the Guest Tokens. The player with the most prestige points wins the round.
Whoever has won 2 out of 3 rounds wins the game!
