Hokkaido (NL) - Card game

Hokkaido

In Hokkaido, the nobles from Honshu travel north to the rugged island of the same name. Over 12 rounds you draft landscape cards and overlap them to build your own province, weaving lakes, towns, forests, deserts and factories together under a single mountain range that splits your map in two. Careful card placement, smart use of resources and well-timed terraforming are key to squeezing out the highest score. With 2–5 players, a playtime of about 30–40 minutes and an age recommendation of 8+, Hokkaido is a compact but thinky map-building card game in the Nippon series.

Key Features:

• Second game in the Honshu/Nippon series: Hokkaido builds on Honshu’s ideas but is fully standalone, adding mountains, resources and terraforming to the familiar map-building gameplay.

• Draft-and-build structure: Each round you simultaneously pick a card, pass the rest, then add your chosen card to your personal map – a quick rhythm with constant, meaningful decisions.

• Overlapping personal map with a mountain spine: Cards must be placed so that you maintain a single continuous mountain range, which later divides your province into two scoring regions.

• Resource production and terraforming: Production icons generate cubes, which you can spend in pairs to transform harsh desert squares into lakes, towns, forests or extra mountains for better scoring.

• Multiple scoring paths: Large lakes, well-connected towns, forests, factories and optional goal cards all provide points, encouraging different strategies from game to game.

• Variants and advanced setup: Double-sided starting provinces and goal cards offer extra replay value and let you tailor the challenge to your group.

• Big puzzle in a small box: Around 80 cards, a pool of 56 resource cubes and a score pad deliver a satisfying, spatial euro-style puzzle that’s easy to transport and quick to set up.

Why Choose Hokkaido?

Hokkaido is an excellent choice if you enjoy clever, spatial card games that play quickly but reward long-term planning. The drafting keeps everyone engaged at the same time, while the overlapping placement and strict mountain rules make every card feel important. Turning deserts into productive terrain with well-timed terraforming adds another layer of satisfying decisions, without making the rules feel heavy. Because it scales well from 2 to 5 players and sits comfortably in the “family-plus” weight class, Hokkaido can be both a weeknight brainteaser and a reliable filler between heavier games.