Designer: Michael Mihealsick (Flotilla, Onimaru)

Artists: MJ Leong (Alienation, Onimaru), Yoma (Gearworks, Onimaru, Rurik: Dawn of Kiev)

Publisher: Penguin & Panda Productions (Onimaru)

Genre/Mechanisms: area control, worker placement

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Manchukuo is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total almost 2.5x the initial funding goal with 3 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: high

What It’s About:  A worker placement game set in China circa 1932, where players can level up their Disciples and must protect their students from the watching garrison.

How It Works: Gameplay takes place over 5 rounds, with each round consisting of a Day Phase and Night Phase. During the Day Phase, players take turns Assigning Students to the location marking their School from among the various location boards. Bribing the Garrison will allow them to ignore certain placement restrictions; assigning to a location adjacent to The Patrol causes the player to gain 2 Suspicion, but players can pay up to 2 Wisdom to remove 1 Suspicion for each Wisdom paid. Players can also take a Bonus Action– either a Disciple Bonus, gaining them resources, or they may Enhance an Action by spending Wisdom, which functions as additional Students placed in the location. Finally, players determine their Labor Value for the given location by adding the number of assigned Students and Wisdom spent. They can then spend up to their Labor Value by Laboring to Gather Resources (in the Factory, Fields, and Bank); Laboring to Assist the Community (Commons and Workers Quarter), receiving bonuses from completed Family and Repair Cards; Labor to Trade (Market only), exchanging some goods for others at the printed exchange rate; and Visiting Temple (Temple only), gaining Prominence and the Wise (Red) Student if they are the first player to take that Action during the round. After placing their last Student, the player takes one of the remaining items from the Town Square: either a Student or the first player marker for the next round.

During the Night Phase, players performing the following actions simultaneously, and in order: Recruit Students, Assemble and Feed Students, Gain Wisdom or Suspicion, Train with Disciples, and Refresh the Game Board. During Recruiting Students, most players will simply retrieve their Students from various locations and return them to their School’s Meditation Chamber. However, the player who placed the most Students will exchange those Students with the ones at the associated location, and instead return the Students from the associated location to their School’s Mediation Chamber. When Assembling and Feeding Students, players migrate their Students from their School’s Meditation Chamber to the available spaces on their School Board, paying 1 Food for each, or if they don’t have enough Food, taking 1 Suspicion for each. Students in excess of 12 are returned to the bag. During Gain Wisdom or Suspicion, players with 7 or more Students in their school will take on additional Suspicion, as thematically their school is attracting too much attention; this may also cause them to draw card(s) from the Restriction deck, imposing more restrictions on the player. Schools with 4 or fewer students recruit additional Students from the bag, Students that do not need to be fed during the current Night Phase. During Train with Disciples, if a player has more students of a Disciple’s type than the Disciple’s current Skill Level, the Disciple will Level Up one Skill Level. A Disciple of Level 4 will Level Up into a Master, which can later earn a Disciple Bonus when assigning Students. When a Disciple levels into a Master, the player can also choose any number of Students, returning them to the bag to thematically “help the Disciple open his new school” and gaining 2 Prominence per Student returned. Refreshing the Game Board includes resetting the Repair Card market, advancing the Round Marker, returning the First Player Marker to the Town Square, Repopulating the Town Square with Students, and Moving the Patrol.

After the end of the 5th Round, End Game Scoring commences. Players gain 1 Prominence for every 3 Tools, 2 Coins, 2 Wisdom, and 1 Offering in their supply; the indicated Prominence on their Repair Cards; and Prominence equal to their combined Disciples’ Skill Levels. The player who most recently took the First Player Marker gains 1 Prominence. And players lose Prominence in the amounts of 0/1/3/6/10 for having 1/2/3/4/5+ Restrictions. The player with the most remaining Prominence wins the game.

Comparisons:  Richard Ham (Rahdo) noted how this is the rare game where players aren’t competing to hurt each other, or even to amass wealth, but to help others. Prominence is a metric of how much the player has trained students, helped the community, and worked to resist the occupational forces. Some other popular medium-light and mid-weight worker placement games include The Godfather: Corleone’s Empire, Champions of Midgard, Raiders of the North Sea, Neta-Tanka, and Everdell.

What Should I Pledge?:
$49 Manchukuo: includes the base game, the Promo Repair Cards, and all associated stretch goals.
$79 Manchukuo Deluxe: includes the Manchukuo pledge level items, plus Deluxe Wooden Resource Tokens, 24 Custom Metal Coins, and your choice of box: Monkey, Mantis, Tiger, and Crane, with a separate pledge level for each of the 4 different boxes.
$105 All-In Master Pledge: includes the Manchukuo Deluxe pledge level items, plus the Leaders of Xinjing Expansion, Rise of the Resistance Expansion, and your choice from among the 4 different Deluxe boxes, to be chosen after the campaign concludes in the pledge manager.

Add-Ons:
$12 The Leaders of Xinjing Expansion, including shipping costs
$19 The Rise of the Resistance Expansion, including shipping costs
$12 Deluxe Wooden Resource Tokens
$19 24 Custom Metal Coins
$39 Large Format Poster with High Gloss (choose from among 5 different prints)
$19 Small Format Poster with High Gloss

KS Exclusives:
The Deluxe Edition and All-In Master Pledges are KS Exclusives, including the Custom Score Markers. Likely that means retail copies will not contain the upgrades contained in those editions, and expansions will be sold separately at retail.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. you’re looking at $105 for the All-In Master Pledge and an estimated $15 in shipping, for a total of $120.

Manchukuo completes its Kickstarter on Friday, October 11th and tentatively ships in September 2020.