HANAMIKOJI (2013)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	PUBLISHER
2	15 mins	Kota Nakayama	EmperorS4

In this 2-player only influence and majority card game, players compete to earn the favour of 7 Geisha’s.

This is done by playing cards that represent each Geisha’s preferred item and having the majority for each at the end of the round.

The clever thing about HANAMIKOJI is that you don’t just lay cards down. Instead, each player takes 1 action from a choice of 4. And each action can only be chosen once per round.

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These are Secret, Discard, Gift, and Competition. The first two let you either save a card in secret until the end of the round, or remove a card from the game.

The other two actions are much more delicious with an ‘I cut, you choose’ mechanic. You present a number of cards face up to your opponent and then keep the ones they don’t take.

This gets really playful as you try to present the cards so that your opponent doesn’t have an easy decision. Perhaps you know they want two specific cards. Then separate them so they can only have one or the other.

The beauty of this game comes from the hidden information and trying to figure out which Geisha’s you should give up on and which to double down on. Not knowing which cards are removed or hidden makes each decision incredibly difficult.

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The win condition is to control 4 of the 7 Geishas, or have at least 11 charm points (the Geishas are numbered between 2 and 5). This means that at the end of the round, if neither result has been met, you go again.

But the control of Geishas remains, meaning that going forward you’ll be able to afford ties on some Geishas and not lose control. This allows you to go after others from a stronger position.

If everything refreshed between rounds, the game wouldn’t work. It’s this building upon previous contests that escalates the game beautifully.

While a little card luck can make or break your strategy, HANAMIKOJI remains a great small box versus game with clever use of minimal components and mechanics.