Qin Review

    Qin is a tile laying game for two to four players.

   There is a two sided board. They recommend starting on the "bird board" (there are birds in the corners)

   There are seventy two tiles in the game. Some have two of the same colored provinces and some have two different provinces.

   There are four different colors of pagodas. Each player will choose a color. These are your pieces for the game.

   To set up, lay the board in the middle of the table. Each player chooses a color of pagodas. Count out the number of pagodas you will need according to the number of players. Mix the tiles and deal three face down to each player. Place the rest in face down piles. You are now ready to begin.

   In the middle of the board there is one of each different color of province. This is where you start the game.

   You must place a tile that is touching a province. You do not need to match the colors. If the tile you place creates a province that is at least two spaces, place a pagoda on the province.

   If a player places a card that is adjacent to a village, that player may place a pagoda on the village. The villages can be taken away if another player has more pagodas around the village. Villages do not count as a province, therefor you must build to the villages to claim them.

   If at any time, you province becomes at least five spaces, place a second pagoda on top of the first one. This province can no longer be taken.

   When playing, make sure that you watch what is going on around you. For example, in this picture pink has three blue spaces and white has two blue spaces.

   If pink plays a tile that connects both blue provinces together, pink will absorb white's blue spaces because pink has more tiles when it is combined. This causes pink to have a blue province that is now seven spaces and can no longer be taken away. Play continues until someone runs out of pagodas. Whoever is out first is the winner!

   If you enjoy tile laying games with a lot of strategy, this is a fun and easy game. It doesn't take a lot of time to explain and the rules are simple. Game play is about half an hour so it's a great game if you don't have a lot of time. The art is bright and colorful. The pagodas are made out of plastic and stack nicely. The "dragon side" of the board has water spaces on it. You can not build on the water so it adds another level of strategy. Overall, this is a fun game that works great for either game nights or family time.