Geisha's Road

Welcome back to Hanamikoji! In Hanamikoji: Geisha's Road, a 30-minute two-player, competitive strategy game full of implicit intentions, veiled messages, and hidden actions, players represent rival but friendly patrons supporting Yoko, Tomoyo, and others along their journey from apprentice (maiko) to full geisha (artist) and perhaps even the owner (okaasan) of their own establishment.

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 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.

Game End

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!