Huang Review - Tigris Is Gone, Yellow Has Left & Huang Remains

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The period of the Warring States (475-221 BCE) describes a time of endless wars between seven rival states: Qin, Chu, Qi, Yan, Han, Wei, and Zhao. These states were finally unified in 221 BCE under the Qin dynasty to lay the origin of today's China, with its two main rivers: the Yellow and the Yangtze.
HUANG, first released as Yellow & Yangtze, the sister game to the highly acclaimed board game Tigris & Euphrates, invites you to replay this eventful period and to lead your dynasty to victory.
In HUANG, players build civilizations through tile placement. Players are given five different leaders: Governor, Soldier, Farmer, Trader, and Artisan. The leaders are used to collect victory points in these same categories. However, your score at the end of the game is the number of points in your weakest category. Conflicts arise when civilizations connect on the board. To succeed, players' civilizations must survive these conflicts, calm peasant revolts, and grow secure enough to build prestigious pagodas.

TimeStamps:
0:00:00 - Overview
0:08:51 - Ease of Play
0:09:52 - What I Like
0:12:01 - What I Don't Like
0:13:09 - What I Can See Others Not Liking
0:15:05 - Final Thoughts
0:17:14 - Recommendations

5.0 - My absolutely favorite games. You can pry them out of my cold dead hands.
4.5 - Love this game! At the same time missing something that would make it a 5. Could be hard to table, lacking variability, a little light, etc.
4.0 - Really great game, almost always keeping, although has meaningful complaints as to what takes away from the experience.
3.5 - Really enjoyed, don't love it, may lose out to better games but the idea of never playing again is a bit sad.
3.0 - A good game, would play and suggest with the right people, if I never played it again wouldn't lose any sleep.
2.5 - A game I'd play again , but will never suggest it myself
2.0 - A game I don't want to play again
1.5 - A game I can't find any reason to recommend
1.0 - A game that is just bad.

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[bigtimetimmyt]

This was the game I was most excited about from yesterday's should you back. Great timing on the review!

[Gathanokos]

I actually love the aspect that you probably will lose right after winning a war. It resembles the real world accurately to some degree that when you participate in a war, your country suffers from internal conflict regardless of the result, which acts as a factor to very carefully planning a war before starting it :D

[Luke_L]

I think you might have skipped the “should you back it / value” portion on yesterday’s video for this game. Any thoughts! Thanks!

[DaleKeefer]

Thanks for the review. My interest has been steadily growing in this one. I'll probably end up backing it.

[JaKamps]

I'd think Leader miniatures having different shades of gray might help differentiating between the figures besides their various poses..

[TheMonkeyGrape]

Having watched this and read the comments, it's still not clear what the differences are between this and Y&Y. Is it just a reskin? An update? Would it be good if you'd mentioned what the differences are.

[TAFMSV]

Presuming the rules have not had a major change from the original Y&Y (and T&E), all players get to refresh their depleted hands at the end of the active player’s turn. Another active player could start two wars on their turn, but if you’ve spent tiles during that turn, you’ll get to draw back up to six at the end of their turn. I’ve gotta say, I really don’t like the minis cluttering up the board in this version.

[antonconrad]

Thanks so much for this excellent review. I was pretty much determined to back it, but eventually decided not to as the cons you outlined spoke to my heart. Thanks again!

[pedrofanti]

Y&Y is SO much easier to read than this version. I don't get it. That river is gorgeous though.

[JJ_TheGreat]

5:29 Huh? I am totally confused. Why doesn’t this situation cause a conflict?

[aeryellae]

I pledged for this one, even though I think I might like Tigris more based on what I've read about them. But since they're both out of print...better something than nothing =D

[jecabreradc]

Confirming by what I see. If I have the miniatures pack the wooden leader upgrade would be redundant, right?

thanks

[aos-archive]

This question is open to all. Do you feel Huang can feel like a grind to progress? To me, a game like Oros feels like a long grind. It feels like it takes extremely long to gain any points, so the rate of progression feels really sluggish. Does the fact that your tiles/leaders can be removed make the game feel sluggish in pacing in that your undone work is now costing you a future turn to put that leader back out (or rebuilding the pagoda)?

[jeffharned]

Would you say it's best at two players

[Shadrackc]

Enjoyed the video. Suggestion for future, slow down a bit in talking.

[BGD-Ballantines]

Pity it's not shipped to all EU countries... bah

[WhatsDaveUpTo]

those cons that he spoke about are serious flaws of the game. I have Y&Y and the fact that you are not your color will take a while for you yourself to come to grips with it but will make it challenging to teach it to new players. Secondly, it can be tough to come up with any kind of strategy because like he said, its virtually impossible to know who is winning so who you go after is pretty much a guess. Even the digital version of this game i found confusing and not easy to understand what was happening. All that combined made me sell Y&Y. Which is a shame because on paper it seems like exactly the kind of game I would enjoy. So far the best game I have played that is nail bitingly tense is Hansa Teutonica. Man what game! Knizia is falling a little out of favor with me as a designer. I loved his Battle Line game, but after about 40 or so plays, it felt very samey and random. In Hansa Teutonica there is no randomness. There is no luck. If my house was burning down and i could only grab 5 games, Hansa Teutonica would definitely be one of the first ones i grabbed.

[epgui]

I wish this game had better components. I find the premium miniature figurines so off-putting... They should have gone more modern/abstract with it, like with Yellow & Yangtze.

[patriziopastore]

What I'm questioning here is more about the company PHALANX... they have already 3 game late pledge... why don't deliver them before start a new campaign? I really don't like this way of start XX crowdfunding is remanding me sandy petersen games...

[jamesolney]

Sorry but you speak so fast it’s impossible to process any of it. Breathe between sentences at least. Please!