Trading in ilha Formosa
Dadaocheng is a 1-4 player resource management and tableau-building game by Taiwanese publisher Soso Studio. The company will have the second edition of the game on display at Essen, and they also sell it internationally through their website.
In Dadaocheng, you are a mid 19th century foreign merchant doing business in Taiwan. You goal is to collect the most prestige points. In gameplay terms, this involves solving an abstract puzzle, and obtaining resources. In the middle of the board, you arrange a grid of illustrated circular tokens. Then, on your turn, you try to swap or flip these tokens, to get three or four of the same colour in a row. If you do, you gain the equivalent resource to store in your warehouse.
You may then invest your resources into shipping, buying buildings, or praying at the temple. If you look for easy money through the opium den, it is going to cost you in prestige points at the end. In the solo mode, you have to complete 6 rounds, and then tally up your points to see how well you did (e.g. 110 points = Grand Merchant). Unfortunately, the historical event cards that affect the multiplayer game are not used in the solo game.
