Himalaya

Dirks caravan is lined up with mine in Village 7. Ugh, I’m ahead of Dirk. If I order my caravan leader to act, the village only gives me cheap barley. Then he takes the copper afterward. Better let my caravan take a break and let Dirk grab the barley first. That way I’ll get the valuable copper and can head straight to the ice trail to Village 10 to trade again: with the copper and some salt, I’ll complete the monastery order and build a valuable stupa, then send three delegations to the surrounding regions. So I’ll program my caravan like this: Pause, trade, ice trail, trade, stone path, and finally another ice trail. Then I’ll end up in Village 12 for the next round and maybe even snag some gold. This game’s been sitting on my shelf forever and has been on the table so many times it’s all worn out. But I still love it. Programming the next 6 steps for my caravan is so exciting! Six steps is a long time, and the other players have plenty of chances to mess with my plans. But maybe I’ll guess right where they’re headed and use that to my advantage. The final scoring is exciting too! The player with the least religious influence is out first, no matter how well they’re doing otherwise. The remaining players compare political power next: whoever controls the fewest territories gets eliminated. The last two players measure economic success: the one with the most yak herds wins.